The Finnish national broadcaster YLE has become the first nation to confirm participation at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest following the final of UMK 2017 last night. YLE has opened the first of two submission periods for the 2018 edition of UMK with the winning song going forward to represent Finland in Eurovision 2018.
Those willing to participate have until February 28th 2017 to send their registrations in digital format to YLE, a second submission period will open in the autumn of 2017.
Submissions can be put forward in three forms:
- Performers who have a song
- Songwriters who have a song but require a performer
- Performers who require a song
The rules remain largely unchanged from UMK 2017, with the song not being performed publicly before September 1st 2017 and the performer being at least 16 years of age by May 2018. Each participant can only submit one song into the process and at least one of the singers must be a Finnish citizen or have permanent residency in Finland.
Finland will be represented at Eurovision 2017 in Kyiv by Norma John with the song “Blackbird” after winning the 2017 edition of UMK last night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqoG3IT9klo&t=80s
