Finland’s state broadcaster YLE revealed today, in a special live webcast, the 7 artists and song titles that will compete in the national final Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2023 (UMK23) on 25 February 2023. The finalists and their songs are:
1. Keira – “No Business On The Dancefloor” – song release Thursday 12/1
Little Keira Lundström impressed in this year’s 11th season of “The Voice of Finland”, where she reached the final. She comes to UMK with a dance track that will be revealed to us tonight at midnight. She is the youngest contestant this year and “No business on the dancefloor” is also her first single to be released.
2.Benjamin – “Hoida mut” (“Take care of me”) – song release Friday 13/1
25-year-old Niclas Benjamin Peltonen, also known simply as Benjamin, first rose to fame via Instagram. As an influencer he has more than 280,000 followers. Since 2014 he has been signed to Warner Music Finland – and generally thrills people in his home country wherever he performs. He claims that he was ‘born for Eurovision’.
3. Robin Packalen – “Girls Like You“ – song release Monday 16/1
24-year-old Robin Packalen is a superstar in Finland. He started singing professionally as a teenager and continues to captivate Finnish audiences, as he is one of the best-selling and award-winning artists in his country. With his participation in UMK he is fulfilling the dream of many Finns who were eager to see him attempt to go to Eurovision.
4. Lxandra – “Something To Lose”– song release Tuesday 17/1
Alexandra Lehti, better known by her stage name Lxandra, is a pop singer and songwriter. She is a Swedish-speaking Finn, the daughter of a Swedish journalist and a Finnish musician, and currently resides in Berlin.
5. Käärijä – “Cha cha cha” –song release Wednesday 18/1
29-year-old Jere Pöyhönen, known as Käärijä, is a former hockey player and current rapper. Since 2014, he has been composing, recording and financing his own songs, the central theme of which is … gambling.
6. KUUMAA – “Ylivoimainen” (“Superior”) – song release Thursday 19/1
KUUMAA were formed in 2016 and since then they have been selling like crazy in Finland, with many gold and platinum albums. The impressive thing is that they managed to sign with Universal Music with their very first demo.
7. Portion Boys – “Samaa taivasta katsotaan” (“Looking at the same sky”) –song release Friday 20/1
The Portion Boys are a group from Tampere who make classic Scandinavian bangers, usually with exaggerated lyrics. They started by uploading videos to YouTube in 2010 – and from there they managed to become known.
The Finns have made huge efforts to keep the surprise up until today. All this time they have been using coded names for the 7 finalists so that no names were leaked. E.g. Robin Packalen was Petteri Nurmi. However, late last night a list was leaked that correctly hit all 7 names.
The selection process this year, as in 2020, 2021 and 2022, was completely open to any artist and creator who wanted to participate. The total number of songs submitted was 363. The 7 finalist songs will be revealed gradually in 7 separate broadcasts on YLE’s YouTube channel from January 12th to 20th.
The songs will be performed live at the UMK23 final on the 25th of February 2023 at the Logomo Conference Centre in Turku. The winner will be chosen by a combination of votes from the public and international juries. The final will be broadcast on YLE TV1 & YLE Arena.
[Source: yle.fi / eurovision.tv]
Stay tuned to the OGAE Greece website for the presentation of the 7 candidate songs, starting tomorrow, Thursday January 12th!
— by Reena Konstantopoulou —
