The Finnish national broadcaster has announced that the national selection show “Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu” (UMK), which has been used to select Finland’s Eurovision representatives since 2012, will once again be held next year.

YLE, the Finnish national broadcaster, has confirmed that Finland’s entry for Eurovision 2026 will be chosen through the local pre-selection show “Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu,” or UMK for short, for the 15th consecutive year. The selection show will take place on February 28, 2026, at Nokia Arena in the city of Tampere. This will be the third consecutive year that Nokia Arena hosts UMK. Additional details will be provided at a later date.

Finland is the second country to confirm its participation in Eurovision 2026; the Netherlands, in fact, already announced their participation back in April.

UMK’s Growing Popularity and Finland’s Recent Eurovision Success

In recent years, the Finnish national selection has enjoyed great popularity and has brought Finland significant success in the contest. Finland has qualified for the Eurovision Grand Final for five consecutive years, an achievement not seen since the late 2000s. Finland has also enjoyed impressive results in the Grand Final, finishing second in 2023 and sixth in 2021-some of the best results in the country’s history.

Even songs that competed in UMK but did not win have found great success in Finland, such as “Ram Pam Pam” by the singer Bess from 2022, which topped the Finnish charts for many weeks, or “Cicciolina” by the singer Erika Vikman, who is participating in Eurovision 2025 and has already qualified for the final.

Finland at Eurovision 2025

“Ich Komme” is the title of the song that will be performed by singer Erika Vikman, who will represent Finland in the second semi-final of Eurovision 2025, taking place on May 15th in Basel, Switzerland. The song was written by Christel Roosberg and Jori Roosberg. This is the first song by these writers to compete in Eurovision. The song is performed in Finnish, with the title in German.

Erika Vikman – Who Are You?

Erika Vikman, born on February 20th, 1993, is a Finnish singer-songwriter. Erika is one of Finland’s biggest pop stars and is known to Eurovision fans for her participation in the 2020 national selection, where she finished second with the song “Cicciolina“, which became a sensation in Finland and subsequently led to her rise to fame and status. Erika is known for her provocative performances and catchy yet clever pop songs. She described her song “Ich Komme” as a “crazy” creation, an unusual pop song with a lot of thought behind it, which also achieved great success in Finland.

Eurovision 2025: This will be Finland’s 58th participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. Finland joined the competition in 1961 and achieved its best result in Eurovision 2006, winning the contest with Lordi and their song “Hard Rock Hallelujah”.