The second song of this year’s Uuden musiikin kilpailu (UMK) has been released. You can listen to the song ”Mania” by Sexmane here:
Max Sene, better known by his artist name Sexmane, is a Finnish artist and songwriter and one of most successful Finnish artists of the last couple of years. He was born in 2000 in Siilinjärvi, Finland for a Finnish mother and Senegalese father, and he grew up in a religious Laestadian community. Sene has one sister and four brothers, and three of his brothers are also musicians.
Sexmane started to write music in 2016, and he published his debut album ”Sextape” in 2019. ”Sextape” was a big success, it stayed on the Official Finnish Album Chart for over 80 weeks and streamed gold. The opening track ”Mama” has been listened over 8 million times on Spotify. In October 2021 Sexmane released his second album ”Väärinymmärretty” (”Misunderstood”), which was also a big success, and Sexmane got four Emma nominations (Finnish Grammys) in 2022.
In January 2023 Sexmane released his third album ”Sextape II”. After the releasing of ”Sextape II”, 18 of its 20 songs made the Finnish Top 50 chart. Second year in a row Sexmane was nominated for four Emmas and he won the public vote and was awarded as ”Artist of the Year” in Emma Gala 2023.
According to YLE, Sexmane’s UMK song ”Mania” was formed slowly from different pieces. The artist wrote the song in different moments and different moods, and that can be seen also in the lyrics of the song:
”The words in the chorus crystallize my thoughts: it’s quite all right to be a bit ’crazy’. I know that a lot of young people are struggling with mental health challenges. I want to give them strength and courage to hang in there”, says Sexmane.
Until now, Sexmane has followed UMK from the audience, since his older brother Isaac Sene was one of the finalists of UMK22 with his song ”Kuuma jäbä”, which became a hit song in Finland. Now Sexmane is following the footsteps of his brother and participating is UMK, hoping to get a ticket to Eurovision and getting a chance for reaching the one thing Finland didn’t achieve last year: Eurovision victory.
This is what UMK24 jury said about ”Mania” by Sexmane:
”Sexmane (a.k.a. Max Sene) is one of Finland’s most listened-to artists, the winner of the audience poll at the 2023 Emma Gaala (Finnish Grammys) and a wonderful addition to the UMK music lineup. Renowned as a new wave rapper, Sexmane creates music in which a wide variety of influences can be heard. This time round, Mania, with its strong opening hook, goes for a big rock sound, culminating in an epic guitar solo. The strengths of Max Sene’s music have always been authenticity and honesty. This is also very much the case in this intense song, which is virtually tailor made for big arenas”.
What do YOU think of ”Mania” by Sexmane? Do you think it has what it takes to win UMK and represent Finland in Eurovision 2024? Let us know in comments or our social media channels!
