With Eurovision 2023 just a few days behind us, more and more countries continue to reveal that they will be joining the party in Sweden. The next country to confirm is Finland who will mark their 57th participation in the competition next year.
UMK to select Finland’s representative
Finland is opting to continue with its approach ‘don’t fix what’s not broken’, as they will once again be opting for using UMK to select its Eurovision 2024 representative.
As revealed by YLE, applications for UMK24 will be open between August 21-24 2023, with the rules and regulations for next year’s competition to be revealed by YLE by the end of May, which is much earlier than usual, following Käärija’s success in Liverpool.
Finland’s Eurovision Journey
Finland debuted in the 1961 Eurovision Song Contest, finishing 10th with Laila Kunnunen’s “Valoa ikkunassa.” Since then they have competed 56 times, and appeared in the final 48 times. Finland has finished in the top 10 an impressive 14 times. They have won the contest once in 2006, with Lordi’s performance of “Hard Rock Hallelujah” getting 292 points.
Finland’s most recent entry was “Cha Cha Cha” by Käärijä. He won the first semi-final in Liverpool, thus qualifying for the final. At the close of voting, he gained a total of 526 points, earning them 2nd place – Finland’s second best result of all time. Käärijä received 376 points from the televote, and an extra 150 points from the juries.
Are you happy to see that the Finland will participate in Sweden? Who do you hope will submit an application to participate next year? As always, let us know what you think by commenting below. Also, be sure to follow “That Eurovision Site” on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tiktok as we look ahead to Eurovision 2024!
News Source: YLE
Photo Credit: Corinne Cumming / EBU
