Finnish national broadcaster, Yle has revealed Vesala and Mmiisas as hosts of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2022.
Vesala is the stage name of Paula Vesala who started off her career as a member of a band PMMP. In 2015 she started to perform as a soloist and she released an album named Vesala which went platinum and reached number 1 on the Finnish Albums Chart in 2016. She will also be performing as the interval act in the final with the choreography by Natasha Lomm.
At UMK, I kind of went all in, because I don’t feel like a presenter. But I look forward to great performances at UMK and most of all the moment when we get to ask the international juries for points.
Mmiisas is a Youtuber originally named Miisa Rotola Pukkila. She made her Youtube channel back in 2013, and now her fanbase numbers 380k subscribers and 440k Instagram followers, and she is one of the biggest social media influencers in Finland.
When I heard about the possibility of hosting UMK, I burst into tears and the ground went from under my feet. This is an incredibly great opportunity for me and as a Eurovision fan it is great to get to experience UMK on the ground. I am fascinated by the magical atmosphere of live broadcast.
View this post on Instagram
I’ve been watching Eurovision since I was a child. I also attended shows like Popstars, as music shows have always fascinated me. Sometimes I still watch Katri Helena’s perfomance of “Katson sineen taivaan” from 1979. It’s a perfect performance! I also remember 1985 fondly, as I recorded it on a VHS tape.
Vesala about Eurovision
For me, Eurovision is the highlight of spring and a sign of the beginning of summer. I got excited about Eurovision properly at the age of 11 after Lordi won. At home, we always watch together and give scores to all of the participants. The most impressive was “Molitva” by Marija Šerifović.
Mmiisas about Eurovision
Vesala and Mmiisas promised a spectacular show from UMK 2022, Vesala states: “I have been following Finland’s Eurovision qualifiers for decades with slightly different feelings. Eurovision was once considered a death kiss for a career, but now it is of interest to everyone. I am proud of UMK’s production team, who has made the show high-quality and interesting. It’s amazing how this has become such a great event!” Mmiisas added the following: “I’ve been enjoying the competing songs every day since they were released. I am sure this will be the most amazing edition of UMK ever!”
Another special thing about this years edition of UMK is the huge range of radio commentators – in six languages except of it having TV broadcast on radio it will be commented in following languages: Finnish, Swedish, English, Russian as well as Simplified Finnish and for the first time in Northern and Inari Sámi. Northern Sámi is the most spoken of Sámi languages with around 20.000 speakers around Finland, Norway and Sweden. While Inari Sámi is the only Sámi language spoken exclusively in Finland with 400 speakers.
The list of commenatators is as follows:
- Mikko Silvennoinen (Finnish)
- Johan Lindroos and Eva Frantz (Swedish)
- Katri Norrlin and Jani Kareinen (English)
- Margit Alasalmi and Pertti Seppä (Simplified Finnish)
- Levosti Tvaltvadze (Russian)
- Linda Tammela (Northern Sámi)
- Heli Huovinen (Inari Sámi)
The 11th edition of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu will be taking place on 26th of February, with seven competitors in the running to represent Finland at Eurovision 2022. Voting will be done by the Finnish audience – 75% and international jury 25%
The artists in the running are as follows:
Don’t forget to vote for your favourite below
[democracy id=”90″]
Which act is your favourite to represent Finland at Eurovision 2022? Let us know in the comments below and at our social media links!
