The Finnish broadcaster Yle has published the names of the 7 finalists of Uuden musiikin kilpailu (UMK) 2021. Here are the finalists of this year´s Finnish national selection:
Oskr
Oskari Ruohonen, better known as his artist name Oskr, is a singer-songwriter whose sultry vocals have formed an intricate part of such popular acts as Yournalist and Traffic Island. Oskr comes from a musical family and he is a talented multi-instrumentalist. He has written, produced and performed by himself and with his brother, both in Finnish and English.
Oskr’s song Lie is the first UMK 2021 song to be released, since we get to hear it already tomorrow, January 14th!
Teflon Brothers X Pandora
Teflon Brothers is a Finnish band that performs rap-, pop- and dance music. The band consists of three members: Pyhimys, Heikki Kuula and Voli. The band is famous for their unique music videos, which the band members are mostly written and produced themselves. Teflon Brothers has published 5 studio albums and numerous hit singles.
Pandora is a Swedish eurodance singer, who made her big breakthrough 1990’s, when she published numerous international hit singles. Pandora participated Sweden’s Melodifestivalen in 2003 and 2004. Nowadays Pandora lives partly in Sweden with her son and partly in Finland with her fiancé, former ice hockey player Mikko Peltonen.
The competing song of Teflon Brothers X Pandora is calledI Love You and it will be released on Friday, January 15th.
Danny
The most experienced participant of UMK 2021 is a Finnish music legend Danny, who started his career in the middle of the 1960’s. In the late 1960’s he also started to organize spectacular show tours, which were a new thing in Finland those days. Because of those tours it has been said that Danny started the show culture in Finland. During his long career Danny has recorded numerous hit songs and won many awards.
Danny has participated in Finnish national selections for Eurovision 7 times before: in 1966, 1967, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1986 and 2004. HIs best placement has been second place, which he has achieved two times: in 1967 and 1975. We will see if 8th time’s a charm for Danny! Here you can watch Danny’s performance in Finnish national selection for Eurovision in 1975:
Danny’s song Sinä päivänä kun kaikki rakastaa mua will be released on Monday, January 18th.
Laura
Laura Põldvere is an artist who doesn’t need an introduction among the Eurovision fans. She’s an Estonian jazz-, blues-, pop- and soul singer. She has participated in Estonia’s national selection Eesti Laul many times, and represented Estonia in Eurovision two times: 2005 as a member of the band Suntribe and in 2017 together with Koit Toome. Now this popular Estonian singer wants to carry the Finnish flag in Rotterdam!
Laura’s song Play will be released on Tuesday, January 19th.
Aksel
One of the biggest surprises of UMK 2021 is definitely the participation of last year’s winner Aksel Kankaanranta, since he told earlier that he didn’t sent a song to the contest. Aksel is 22-year-old singer from Turku, Finland. He first came into the public knowledge when he finished second in The Voice of Finland in 2017. In 2018 Aksel sang a chorus in the song Jättiläinen (Giant) by rap-artist Pyhimys, who is also a member of another UMK 2021 contestant Teflon Brothers. Jättiläinen was a big hit song in Finland and it was the most popular song of the Finnish Spotify in 2018.
After Aksel won UMK 2020, he made a recording contract with Etenee Records. In December 2020 Aksel published a single called Muista kuka oot (Remember Who You Are), which you can listen here:
Aksel’s song Hurt will be released on Wednesday, January 20th.
Blind Channel
Blind Channel is a rock band from Oulu, Finland. The band was founded in 2013, and according to band’s own description, their music style is ”violent pop”. Blind Channel has made international career and published three studio albums.
Blind Channel’s song Dark Side will be released on Thursday, January 21st.
Ilta
Ilta is a Finnish-German singer-songwriter. She first came into the public knowledge in 2015 when she was a guest artist in a song called Sillat (Bridges) by Cheek, a popular Finnish rap artist. Ilta’s first solo single Koukkuun (Into hook) was published in July 2017 and her debut album Näitä hetkiä varten (For the moments like these) came out in September 2020. Ilta has graduated to musician from Helsinki Pop & Jazz Conservatory in 2018.
Ilta’s song Kelle mä soitan will be released on Friday, January 22nd.
The final of UMK 2021 takes place in Tampere, Finland on February 20th. Because of the current situation the show will be organized without a life audience. Mikko Silvennoinen will continue as a Finnish commentator of the show, and the Swedish commentators are Johan Lindroos and Eva Frantz. The host of UMK 2021 will be revealed in February. The winner will be decided based on the votes of the Finnish public (75 %) and international jury (25 %).
