#FINLAND – LIVE BLOG of #UMK2022 from 20:00 CET

By jjs1990 on February 26, 2022 • ( Leave a comment )

Hyvää iltaa Euroopassa ja hyvää huomenta Australiassa! Tonight’s the night Finland decide their entrant for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Turin, Italy – it’s time for Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2022!

Sit back and relax, and let Eurovision Ireland’s own James Scanlan entertain and inform you. As always, feel free to tell me what you think and give your opinions about tonight’s Final and who your favourites are! I might even shout out to you in the blog!

Tonight’s show is coming to us live from Logomo music venue in Turku, western Finland and will be hosted by Paula Vesala and Miisa Rotola Pukkila. There are a total of 7 songs trying to win that ticket to Turin and they are:

The Rasmus –Jezebel
Isaac Sene – Kuuma Jäbä
Olivera – Thank God I’m An Atheist
BESS – Ram Pam Pam
Younghearted – Sun Numero
Cyan Kicks – Hurricane
Tommi Läntinen – Elämä Kantaa Mua

Tonight’s result will be decided by a mixture of international jury and a televote. The juries will account for 25% of the result, while the Finnish public’s points will make up the remaining 75% – whoever wins will be the next Finnish representative at the Eurovision Song Contest!

If you want to watch along with all the fun yourself, you can watch HERE IN FINNISH or HERE IN ENGLISH or HERE IN SWEDISH from 20:00 CET / 19:00 GMT. The show is scheduled to finish at 22:00 CET/ 21:00 GMT, but as we know, live TV sometimes doesn’t go quite according to plan!

You know the drill: Just refresh this page to get the comments, points of view and all that Eurovision Ireland goodness you know and love!

LIVE BLOG STARTS HERE!!

Olet liian aikainen! You’re too early! Come back at 20:00 CET to join in the fun from Turku!

Good evening Europe! We’ll soon be live from Finland for the final of UMK 2022 – get comfortable and join all the Finn (fun!) here with Eurovision Ireland! 😀

10 minutes to go till show time! Reckon that’s enough time for me to rattle through Duolingo’s Finnish course?

Here we go!

Last year’s UMK winners Blind Channel open the show with their anthemic entry Dark Side – this gave Finland one of their best-ever results at Eurovision! And I must admit, I like the addition of the ballet dancers… strangely haunting, but it works!

The arena looks amazing!

Our hosts for tonight, Paula Vesala and Miisa Rotola Pukkila. Just heard that for the first time ever, UMK commentary is available in Sami! That’s amazing!!

Those all-important numbers that you need to vote for tonight’s winner – you’ll also probably need to be living in Finland, or at least voting from a Finnish number!

This is what I love about shows from Scandinavia – minimum of hanging around, we’re already off with song number 1 – The Rasmus and Jezebel!

“Uplifting and melancholic”? Songs like a great song to me!

The Rasmus –Jezebel

I was really excited when I heard The Rasmus were taking part in UMK as I remember them from my teen years and their song “In The Shadows”. The band are epic and I have no doubt they’d rock the arena in Turin with their dramatic rock belter. Yellow and black are always a striking combination and I like the addition of the graphics like the cartoon guitarist and birds. My tiny reservation is that Finland sent a rock song last year, so it might be a case of too similar too soon if Finland chose to send this. But I mean what a way to open the show! They’re a popular band both at home and abroad, so I suspect they could do well if they went to Italy!

Isaac Sene – Kuuma Jäbä

Isaac is confident and selling sensuality down the camera, which he connects with well. The song has a bit of an 1980s edge to it, which is cool and gives it a good beat. While Isaac is a great performer and sells the feel of the song effortlessly, I’m a bit disappointed by how dark the staging is. Yes, I get they’re trying to create a bit of a club feel and make it edgy and sexy, but it’s quite dark… that could back-fire on a Eurovision stage. Especially as sometimes the camera work was a bit messy. The song itself though has a great beat and Isaac is a dynamo of a performer!

A big shout out to everyone reading along tonight, including Mikko in Finland! Hope you’re enjoying the show and enjoying the blog! 😀

Song #3 already… they’re not hanging around in Finland tonight!

Olivera – Thank God I’m An Atheist

Well! How’s that for an opening! With only her face lit by a tiny flame, Olivera immediately draws you in. She’s got a very powerful voice and there’s a real emotion and melancholy to the lyrics. Although I’m sure a lot of people will connect with her as a performer and the mood of the song, that bleak and hopeless feel of it (especially these days), I am curious how a wider European audience will respond to its name… people will react to such things. “Fall asleep and disappear”… I mean, it’s so bleak and sad… but it’s engaging for sure! That was a very special moment.

About the song coming up next: “This song is 3 minutes of going at it hard.” – bring it on!! 😉

BESS – Ram Pam Pam

Admittedly Bess was my favourite coming into tonight’s show and I was curious to see what she’d do onstage – and I’m not disappointed! Love the motif of ripping petals off her jacket and her backing dancers smashing up a rather romantic looking flower arrangement! The energetic performance is effortlessly confident, Bess glares down the camera and you believe every syllable she growls – and it’s in Finnish!!! This is awesome and she sells it so well – and watching her backing dancers take aim and shatter the lights was a fantastic touch! Brilliant – Finland, I think this could do VERY well in Turin!

Younghearted – Sun Numero

This has a rather gentle feel to it. Sat on stalls with their guitars while she sings, the performance feels quite intimate. Musically it’s fairly contemporary but I feel like it’s ever so slightly one note… or at least I did till the rockish instrumental went loud!! It strikes me as the kind of song you’d love listening to in a small, intimate venue, but in a larger arena it would lose quite a bit of this impact. The audience seemed to love it though and the commentators claim to be in tears at how beautiful it is… so perhaps there is something to be said for understanding the poetry in the lyrics! It’s not bad at all, I enjoy it. I’m not sure it’s right for Eurovision though.

Our penultimate song already?! Sanremo, I hope you’re watching!!

“The rest of the world deserves more Finnish rock and roll!” – it sure does!!

Cyan Kicks – Hurricane

That synthiser sound just grabs you and doesn’t let go! Visually it’s very striking in black and white, though some of the moving graphics end up being a bit nauseating (that might just be me though!). It’s got a real pop-rock edge to it and the vocalist is amazing! Lyrically it feels a tad repetitive, but the sound and the energy from them is undeniable – and listen to that crowd reacting! I can see now why some fans have them tipped to do very well tonight – bravo guys, I enjoyed that!

How could anything ever top this as an UMK memory? 😀

Our last song of the night – what’s Finnish for “time flies when you’re having fun!” ??

Tommi Läntinen – Elämä Kantaa Mua

Tommi is clearly a pro and the crowd are on their feet for him! It’s a great old school rock track being performed by someone who comes to life in front of an audience, and that’s always great to see. Like many performers who are used to doing live shows, Tommi doesn’t connect very often to the camera, which will be problematic in Turin – the votes will come from the camera, not the audience in the hall! Despite it’s more classic rock feel, there’s a bit of a more modern melody under it which works really well. Overall, it’s a really solid effort and what a way to end the show!!

FINLAND! START VOTING NOW!

While they talk through how to vote and give televoters a recap, I’m going to summarise what I’ve made of tonight’s show and how I think things will play out – brb!

As always, Finland have put on a stellar show and UMK has been amazing! I’m almost surprised we’ve gone through all the songs so quickly, I really must have loved the show as it feels like I’ve only been watching for 20 minutes! Tonight’s contestants were all fantastic and offered a nice range of styles. I’d like to think Bess will do well tonight, not because she’s my favourite from before the show but because she has the stage presence and voice – staging was also near perfect too! Cyan Kicks and The Rasmus should do very well too, and I also wonder if Olivera could be a dark horse with her emotional ballad. I suspect Finland’s next Eurovision entry will come from one of these 4, but everyone did a great job and Finland should be very proud for putting on such a first-class show – Kiitos Suomi! ❤

While Finland votes, we get to watch a montage of the contestants hearing each other’s songs for the first time… not sure what that expression is on the right, definitely a face I’ve pulled listening to some national selections though!

While this looks like some form of ritual sacrifice, I’ve been assured it’s one of the hosts providing an interval act for us…

What a show that was!

Finland, you have a few more minutes to vote – so here’s a last minute recap to make your choices!

We’ll also be hearing from our international juries soon – but their votes only account for 25% of tonight’s results!

Finland! Stop voting NOW! Your Eurovision 2022 fate is sealed!

But before our results from Finland itself, we’ll hear from our international juries. Cyprus is first, and Elena Tsagringnou of El Diablo fame awards the top Cypriot marks to Olivera, Thank God I’m An Athiest

Norway’s KEiiNO are giving out Norway’s points, but not before plugging a possible Finnish tour! They give their 12 points to The Rasmus!

Next up Serbia and Bojana Stamenov! It’s a Eurovision Who’s Who tonight! Serbia give their top points to Bess and Ram Pam Pam!

Germany’s Jendrik handing out points… at least he got some at last! The Rasmus get 12 points from Germany

Rosa Lopez is the face of the Spanish jury – Europe’s Living A Celebration, and also apparently a bit of a time lag on the internet connection… at least the audience is amused! Spain’s 12 go to Bess

The scores with 2 juries left to declare

Albert from Lake Malawi from the Czech Republic! His views on Finland are popular! Interesting that the Czech Republic’s lowest points all went to the Top 3! Their top marks however go to Cyan Kicks

Our last jury is that of host nation Italy – who have awarded their 12 points to The Rasmus! They’re still at the top of the scoreboard with a 12 point lead over Bess.