Lake Ismo Puljujärvi
None of this year’s UMK songs is enough to win the song contest by itself. The real battle takes place between shows, writes Ismo Puljujärvi, Iltalehti’s news manager.
One of them will represent Finland in Eurovision this spring. Nelli Kentä & Miska Voinoff
All the songs of this year’s New Music Competition have been published. The level of the songs could be described as “quite nice”, but you don’t get a wow feeling from any of the songs on first listen.
When Käärijän Cha Cha Cha appeared, the song immediately captivated. From that sitting, you could already judge that this is the future representative of Finland. Even Erika Vikma, who became a pre-favorite, couldn’t create this same feeling this year with her song Ich komme.
On the other hand, this was already known. Anticipation for Vikman grew bigger day by day, when the other released songs offered a small and radio-friendly feel.
Based on social media discussions, Vikman is considered successful by some. Others think he was the biggest disappointment in UMK’s history. My opinion is somewhere in between the two. Vikman’s song is bold and Eurovisa-like. On the other hand, the composition lacks a hook that was immediately found From Cicciolinawith which Vikman represented five years ago. There is an oversupply of strong female artists in this year’s UMK final, so small differences can become quite significant.
So Vikman’s victory has not yet been announced in the church.
All eyes are firmly on Nokia Arena, where UMK’s final will be held in February. This year, a song alone is not enough to win, but now a really good performance is needed. Many people might think that a “good show” equals an awful lot of crazy props and background dancers on stage.
Vice versa. A good competition performance can just as well be stripped down or subdued. The most important thing is that the song rises to a completely new level with the performance.
One example of this is the one who represented Ireland last year Bambie Thugwhose paragraph Doomsday Blues finished sixth in the Eurovision final. Before the competition, it was believed that the song would qualify already in the semi-finals. However, Malmö’s vietnam stage saw such an original and personal vietnam performance, which even caused an international uproar.
If any of the UMK artists are hesitant about their chances of winning, fear not. The competition is still completely open.