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40 demos now on-line
Finland: Contest for New Music UMK kicks off
The finalists will be revealed on YLE TV2 on 27 January. There will be five shows all in all to follow the process of the selected finalists from demo to a finished product that will be presented in the live final in the Helsinki Ice Hall on 25 February. The songs selected for the final will be finished with the help of leading music producers in Finland. Tickets for the final can be booked here for 30 and 40 euros each Apart from the finalists some other top artists will perform on the night.
Also the hosts for UMK have been revealed. They are virtually unknown to the wider audience. Anne Lainto works on YLE youth radio station YleX. The 24-year-old Anne is said to be looking forward to this new challenge. Joona Kortesmäki is a multi-talented entertainer, who is at home as well with writing music, hosting and writing scripts.
The list of the 40 artists selected for the first round has very few household names. Easily the biggest name is Freeman and Uusi Fantasia. Freeman had three top ten hits in the late 70's, while Uusi Fantasia is an electro band from Helsinki. Also included on the list is Martina Aitolehti, a former model and regularly in the public eye for various reasons. Eveliina Määttä is a former child star and also took part in the Finnish national finals last year. Pauliina Salonen also took part in the web selection in Finland last year. A few names will also be familiar from different TV talent shows in the past few years. Some of the singers have been previously in bands, like Petra in TikTak.
Generally the field seems very varied and fresh, which also has been the production team's aim. There are a few well established songwriters on the list, with many of them with previous experience from the Finnish national finals. The 40 songs are available to listen on the YLE UMK website here
1Love - International love song
Aili - Mun taivas
Alchemy Road - Burning
Anna Inginmaa - Meikin alta
Apila - Joenvarren tyttö
ARTo - Roudassa
Aura Pineda - Kunpa vois
Boys Hate Silence - Miracle
Captor - Hooked on Wii
DCX - Erase you
Eveliina Määttä - Perfect
Fatima Koroma - Different coloured socks
Freeman & Uusi Fantasia - Noitanainen
Hans on the bass - Only 7 days
Iconcrash - We are the night
Jari & Taika - Aamuyön salaisuus
Jessica Wolff - Better
Judy - Kisscollector
Kaisa Vala - Habits of human beings
KaksKaks & Alisa - Anna aikaa
Kirahvi nimeltä Tuike - Sinisulkien viimeinen
Lasmatic - Yksin yhdessä
Lassi, Tuukka & Jyrki - Huominen ei ole koskaan nyt
Leola - Rytmit rikkoutuu
Malin Kojola - Home
Martina - Checkmate
Mica Ikonen - Antaa mennä
MOOBS - Johnny
Noora - Every day in the sunshine
Pauliina Salonen - Want my life back
Pernilla Karlsson - När jag blundar
Petra - Janis Joplin
Raita Ilomäki - Usko rakkauteen
Rita Lovely & the Soultwisters - November touch
Seamus - Like soldiers go
Selja Sini - Pack up
Stig - Laululeija
The Spyro -Teleport my heart
Tom Morgan - Melt
Ville Eetvartti - Lasikaupunki
Related polls
- Estonia: Vote for your favourite act in the second semifinal of Eesti Laul
- Ireland: Vote for your favourite act in Eurosong 2012
- Austria: Vote for your favourite act in Österreich rockt dem Song Contest
- Sweden: Vote for your favourite act in the third semifinal of Melodifestivalen
- Georgia: Vote for your favourite act in the Georgian national final
- Ukraine: Vote for your favourite act in the Ukrainian national final
- Estonia: Vote for your favourite act in the first semifinal of Eesti Laul
- Germany: Vote for your favourite act in the final of Unser Star für Baku
- Bulgaria: Vote for your favourite act in the Bulgarian national final 2012
- Latvia: Vote for your favourite act in the final of Eirodziesma 2012
Go directly to the reactions
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Jari & Taika - Aamuyön ikuisuus : It goes nowhere and gets really boring... Key change as well !!! YAK ! 3 /10.
KaksKaks & Alisa - Anna aikaa : Finnish hip hop sounds interesting at least to my ears.Very sweet chorus as well ! 6/10.
Jessica Wolff - Better : English lyrics are average at least but nevertheless a well produced electropop track : 6+ /10 .
ARTo - Roudassa - Bad at the beginning but gets a little bit better at chorus. 5.5 /10.
Raita Ilomäki - Usko rakkauteen - A nice piano ballad.Pitty that it doesn't build up as astrongly as it starts. 6.5 /10.
Now I have found my real favourite!
Judy - Kisscollector
http://www.youtube.c(...)eature=youtube_gdata
@george
We share the same favourites those years! Villieläin... 
That one still hurts, lol
I've only managed to llisten (twice) to the current top 15 and here's what I think :
Martina - Checkmate : Deffinetely NO . Annoying teen girl pop rock.How on earth is this 1st? It seems we are going to have another Jimi Constantine's "Party to party" revival lol. 3/10.
Stig - Laululeija : Weird and amusing in a funny way ( the style reminds me of "Valss" from Orelipoiss from the 2011 Estonian Final ). 6 /10.
Malin Kojola - Home : A more than decent acoustic tune ( ala Amy Mc Donald ). 7 /10 .
DCX - Erase you : The usual annual europop/rock stuff that will make the eurofans wet.Decent enough and very professionally produced to be honest. 6 / 10.
Iconcrash - We are the night : The best from all I've heard.Very Pet Shop Boyish ! 8 / 10.
The Spyro - Teleport my heart : Average pop rock.Don't remember it after 2 listenings . 5/10.
Pernilla Karlsson - När jag blundar : Another good one of the acoustic folk genre.Is it in Swedish ? 7/ 10.
Lasmatic - Yksin yhdessä : Deffinetely charming and in Finnish. 6.5 / 10.
Freeman & Uusi Fantasia - Noitanainen : Dont like the 80's intro nor the voice.Melody flows nicely though. 5.5/10.
MOOBS - Johnny : Weird ( in a till now bad way ) , messy and shouty.But it deffinetely doesn't go unnoticed...Sounds like a grower... 5.5 / 10.
1Love - International love song : Reggae from Finland ? Doesnt sound compatible to me nor do I like the title.Besides , it gets way too repetitive... 2 /10.
Ville Eetvartti - Lasikaupunki : Heard before done before.The chorus is a "Use somebody" from Kings of Leon ripp off. 4.5/10.
Fatima Koroma - Different coloured socks : Jazzy , alternative and best lyrics-title so far ! 7+/10.
Boys Hate Silence - Miracle : Bland pop rock again.Made no difference to me. 5 /10.
Leola - Rytmit rikkoutuu : Very interesting synth-pop and it captured me from the very first moment.Finnish language worked its magic on this ! 8 / 10.
L
Yes you're right! Martina sounds like Hannah Montana or Selena Gomez, the absolut horror 
!!!Finland produces great music, but when it comes to ESC i can't trust their taste at all
2009 Waldos instead of Passionworks
2010 Kuunkuiskajat (or something like this) instead of Anastasia or Villielaen
2011 Da da dam instead of Rapture in time or Pamela
Finland had great songs from 2006 to 2008. Now they seem to have lost their way . Anyway, i hope they won't make another wrong choice.
@george
Moobs weren't in top 10 when I wrote my comment. They're one of the fastest growers along with the new #1 - "checkmate" Terrible songs...
Well i've heard the 10 most populal song according to Finish people and my 5 favorites of them are
1 Iconcrash - We are the night (electro-rock sound, i like it 
2 Pernilla Karlsson - När jag blundar (very touchable ballad, btw is she Swedish? Her name and her tittle song seems Swedish)
3 Stig - Laululeija (A little bit weird, but also nice)
4 DCX - Erase you (A very good song to dance it in the club, but from Finland i want something more oriiginal)
5 The Spyro -Teleport my heart (I liked the electric guitar, not something great, just better from the rest of top10)
And the creepiest one from this top10 was MOOBS - Johnny
How is this song in top10 ?
Wow... this new format sounded so promising and they said they wanted genre variety and bla bla bla. So where the hell is Korpiklaani???? ALL their songs are better than these songs... I am very disappointed with that since, even though there are several nice songs, there are NO 10/10's. I usually don't end up voting for songs that are less than 10/10 and that makes for a boring Eurovision IMO. I guess they were just afraid that Korpiklaani would win. 
"Apart from the finalists some other top artists will perform on the night."
Yeah, so they want other artists to perform. I thought this was a ESC national final... so the focus should be on THEIR PARTICIPANTS. Instead of only having 6 songs for the final they could have had 10 and ONE interval act.
I also don't like that we can see how many "likes" every song's got. That is NOT exciting. Thankfully these "likes" by the fans won't have too much impact on their final decisions. I hope they won't end up choosing typical Eurovision sounds like DCX or "checkmate". That would be really unwise.
My top 12 that should make it;
Malin Kojola - home - 9/10
Stig - laululeija - 8/10
Pernilla Karlsson - när jag blundar - 8/10
Leola - rytmit rikkoutuu - 8/10
1Love - international love song - 8/10
Captor - hooked on Wii - 8/10
Boys hate silence - miracle - 8/10
Aili - mun taivas - 8/10
Iconcrash - we are the night - 8/10
Lasmatic - yksin yhdessä - 7/10
Seamus - like soldiers go - 6/10
Alchemy road - burning - 6/10
Average score on all songs: 4.9 (which is pretty average)
Considering the weak/plain/lame/boring/unpromsing names from Norway so far, Jedward and the fact that even the best songs from Latvia and Switzerland are also not 10/10's... it is not looking very good for 2012 so far. Too much radiofriendly and anonymous blandness.
Korpiklaani was the ONLY really exciting thing so far and they ruined that!
My opinion on the current top twelve:
Stig - Laululeija - 5/10
DCX - Erase You - 4/10
Malin Kojola - Home - 5/10
Martina - Checkmate - 4/10
Iconcrash - We Are The Night - 8/10
The Spyro - Teleport My Heart - 7/10
Pernilla Karlsson - Nar jag blundar - 4/10
Lasmatic - Yksin yhdessa - 6/10
Freeman & Uusi Fantasia - Noitanainen - 4/10
Ville Eetvartti - Lasikaupunki - 4/10
Leola - Rythmit rikkoutuu - 6/10
Overall a pretty strong collection of songs not in the typical "Eurovision mould".
Finland should send this band instead!
http://www.youtube.c(...)/watch?v=9lH1svSdwIg
Listened to them all, and my twelve qualifiers are:
ARTo - Roudassa
Captor - Hooked on Wii
Fatima Karoma - Different Coloured Socks
Icocrash - We Are the Night
Kirahvi nimeltä Tuike - Sinisullcien viimeinen
Lasmatic - Yksin yhdessä
Leola - Rytmit rikkautuu
Mica Ikonen - Antaa mennä
MOOBS - Johnny
Pernilla Karlsson - När jag blundar
Raita Ilomäki - Usko rakkauteen
Seamus - Like Soldiers Go
I like DCX - Erase you
and
Jessica Wolff - Better
Hope one of these wins
Worth listening to:
The Spyro
Leola
Ville Eetvartti
Interesting and quite different:
Kirahvi nimeltä Tuike
Lasmatic
ARTo
Personally I like the song "Janis Joplin" by Petra which gives me a nice retro feeling and the ballad "När jag blundar".
Clicked on the link, but after seeing the huge pink design on the website, i refrained from listening to any of these songs. Sad because i like the Finnish NF, but this has hust become an amateur fest (as announced)
only had time to listen to the first 10 and found them to be average but erase you seems the best so far
WHERE is Korpiklaani!!!!?????
I listened to the songs from current TOP 5 and "Erase you" is probably the best.
Tried a few songs with promising looking song titles. I really like "Yksin yhdessä" by Lasmatic a lot - it's so melancholy and Finnish sounds so nice!
And the first disappointement of ESC season just came. Where are Korpiklaani 
? Anyway i hope that there will be something good and original in these 40 songs. I didn't listen many of them, but i liked "we are the night"
Where is Korpiklaani ?!
I was also quite disappointed that Korpiklaani didn't make it to the final selection Not very convinced by the pre-selection jury's taste... Luckily it won't be them who'll select the representant
no korpiklaani?
DCX : ”Erase You”, that was only one which I LIKED but that is not enough to me. I was waiting something which strikes to my head! But no... Im disappointed...maybe 2013 then...
DCX - Erase you is my favourite by far.
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