For the 2020 contest in Rotterdam Finland has decided to choose her representative and song through their national final called “UMK”. This year’s winner of the national final was Aksel Kankaanranta with his song “Looking back”. Yet due to the fact the contest was cancelled following the spread of Covid-19, Finland like all other competing countries has to now go through a new selection process for 2021.

In difference from other countries where the winner of the national selection cannot compete the following year, Aksel can compete in the 2021’s selection if he wants. The selection of the Finnish entry will have two parts: At first the competing entries will be selected by the professional jury. Then the song which will be sent to represent the country in the Eurovision Song Contest will be chosen by the viewers using the televote system.

The application of songs will open in September and the rules of the contest arw to be published in June in both Finnish and English. This year YLE calls all artists willing to compete to send an application. This step isn’t a usual one on behalf of YLE as in other years the broadcaster would invite famous artists to compete instead of sending the invitation to all artists around the country.