The Finnish broadcaster YLE has announced new information of next year’s Finnish national selection. The final of Uuden musiikin kilpailu (UMK) 2024 will take place on February 10th 2024 at Nokia Arena, Tampere. The tickets for UMK24 will go on sale on Thursday October 5th 2024 8.00 CET here:

https://www.lippu.fi/artist/umk/

During the last couple of years UMK has been held at Turku’s Logomo, but since during this time the show has grown to be Finland’s biggest music contest, the need of a bigger arena became relevant especially after last year’s massive success of not only UMK winner Käärijä but also the other finalists.

Ville Vilén, the director of Yle’s creative contents and media, thanks Turku for hosting great UMK shows during the recent years, but says that now it’s time for a big show:

Uuden musiikin kilpailu has grown to be a music institution, which definitely deserves bigger venue than earlier.

According to Anssi Autio, who has been the main producer of UMK during the last 13 years, UMK is now more successful than ever:

In the eyes of both domestic and international audience UMK has become a hit factory like no other and entertainment entirety, of which removal to bigger arena serves also the hugely grown popularity of Eurovision.

According to YLE, the UMK24 event in Nokia Arena takes viewers to Eurovision ecstasy where you can see and hear live not only the performances of UMK24 finalists, but also the opening and interval acts by Käärijä and other popular artists. Before and after the show you can experience more UMK and Eurovision atmosphere in for example Eurovision disco.

According to YLE, 419 songs were sent to UMK24, and the quality was higher than ever. Because of the high quality, the members of the UMK24 jury found it really hard to choose the finalists, but in the end, they were able to pick the seven finalists. The finalists will be revealed on January 10th 2024 and the songs on January 11th—19th 2024, one song in a day.

– This year we had probably the most high standard applicant group ever, from which a very high-class final seven was chosen, tells Tapio Hakanen, the head of the UMK24 jury.

Hakanen also gives some clues of UMK24 artists:

There is a 90’s style dancesong of an artist who makes their debut single, a power song of an artist with a great voice, maybe the greatest song of popular indie artist’s career, a surprising duo act of two well-known artists with a great chorus, explosive rock anthem from a world touring band, a very intensive song from one of this day’s most listened artist and a well-known artist’s lifting club-banger. The most energetic UMK ever is coming up, and in a big arena no less!

As we can well remember, this year UMK was won by the one and only Käärijä and his party banger ”Cha Cha Cha”. You can rewatch his UMK winning performance here: