Since the announcement about the cancellation of Eurovision 2020, Eurovision fans ask themselves whether the Eurovision 2020 artist will be chosen again for Eurovision 2021 or not.
Finland should have been represented by Aksel Kankaanranta with the song “Looking Back”.
Earlier today, the Finnish broadcaster YLE revealed that Finland will choose an act for Eurovision 2021 via its traditional national selection “UMK“.
The submission of songs will be available on the 1st of September 2020.
“UMK 2021” will have an identical format to “UMK 2020” which means it will include multiple participants.
Anssi Autio, the “UMK” producer explains the reasons for using “UMK” for Eurovision 2021:
#1. Eurovision is based on new music. Waiting a whole year (regarding Aksel’s song) is too much.
#2. “UMK 2020” was pretty successful. The finale attracted the largest “UMK” audience and in particular young people.
#3. The Finnish public show an interest in the voting itself, comparing 2018 and 2019 editions where only one artist participated in the “UMK“. The 2021 edition will actually be the 10th edition of the”UMK“.
#4. The interest and positive reactions towards this year’s competition encourage the broadcaster to use the same format for Eurovision 2021
And what about Aksel Kankaanranta?
The broadcaster YLE invites him to submit a new song for “UMK 2021”. However, his participation in the final itself isn’t promised. A professional jury panel will examine the submitted songs and will choose several of them to participate in the “UMK 2021” itself.
In 2020, YLE received more than 400 songs for the “UMK 2020”. Some of them were written and composed by the top names in the Finnish music industry.
