The finals of the New Music Competition have been accompanied by various commotions and surprises over the years.
The Rasmus surprised the Finns by making a comeback in the UMK competition. The group was able to represent Finland at last year’s Eurovision with their song Jezebel. Pete Anikari
The New Music Competition, better known as UMK, is being organized today, February 25, for the eleventh time. At Logomo in Turku, one of the seven finalists will be chosen to represent Finland at Eurovision in May.
The evening’s finale has already caused a general discussion. For example, Käärijä has already managed to excite the Finnish audience with both his song and his performance.
The commotion surrounding the UMK competition is not new, as in previous years the finals have been accompanied by emotional moments.
Blind Channel took sixth place in the Eurovision Song Contest. Thanks to the band, Finland made it to the top ten after years. Pete Anikari
Brutal opening performance
Lordi, who won Eurovision in 2006, opened the 2016 show spectacularly.
In progress Hard Rock Hallelujah! -song’s frontman Tomi Putaansuu showed that he would cut singer Krista Siegfrids in half with a circular saw. The show made the viewers gasp and it also shocked with its graphicness.
The opening performance of Lord’s final was enhanced with a spectacular fire show. Matti Matikainen
A competition against oneself
The 2018 New Music Competition is even more special in terms of its arrangements, as the competition was run by one artist.
Vocalist Saara Aalto was directly chosen to represent Finland at Eurovision. In the competition, Aalto performed three of his songs: Queens, Dominoes and Monstersthe last of which was voted as the representative piece.
Saara Aalto competed “against herself”. MATTI MATIKAINEN
The arrangement caused a lot of discussion. Among other things, according to Suomen muzikuntekiyet ry, UMK’s competition was not fair, because Aalto was chosen as a representative without competition. So the singer did not have to qualify or compete for her position.
A similar arrangement was made in 2019. Finland was represented by an actor-singer Sebastian Rejman and was responsible for the music part Sandstorm– hit Darude. It was selected as their representative piece Look Away.
Scoring noise
In 2016, after the final, there was an uproar about the scoring.
According to public votes, singer Saara Aalto would have placed first, i.e. gone to represent Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest. A singer would have come second Mikael Saari.
Vocalist Sandhya pulled past Aalto and Saare with their final points, which caused astonishment after the final. The organizers of the competition had to justify Sandhja’s points in public.
Sandhja represented Finland with her song Sing it Away. MATTI MATIKAINEN
The weight of the public votes was 50 percent, and the weight of the points given by the jury members was another 50 percent.
– There has been no behind the scenes game. The points have been checked and no mistakes have been made, producer Anssi Autio commented at the time.
The song is already out
The young artist Isaac Sene found himself in the middle of the commotion, because his song had already been performed once before the competition. YLE
Last year, Isaac Sene, competing for the place of Eurovision representative, got into the middle of an uproar because of his song. A rumor spread on social media that Sene’s song Hot dude would have been heard in public before the UMK competition.
According to the rules of the competition, the songs in the competition may not be published or performed until Yle has selected the song for the continuation.
After the rumors, it turned out that the song had indeed been performed in advance. According to the competition organizer, there was no rule violation in the situation.
– There are no recordings of the performance. In addition, the song’s (current) lyrics and production have been changed compared to the version presented in it, the competition’s press manager Juhani Lassila commented to Iltalehti.