Good evening Europe! Good morning Australia .

Tonight , Finland will decide who will represent the nation at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Basel , Switzerland . Six acts will battle it out for the golden ticket to Basel at the Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2025 final in Tampere, Finland . at the Nokia arena . The show will be hosted by SANNI and Jasmi Beloued.

The six competing acts are ( in order of performance ).

1. costee “Sekaisin”
2. NEEA RIVER “Nightmares”
3. Goldielocks “Made of”
4. VIIVI “Aina”
5. Nelli Matula“Hitaammin hautaan”
6. Erika Vikman ” ICH KOMME”

The winner will be chosen by a combination of international jury and public vote .

As always, we at Eurovision Ireland are keen to bring you our thoughts and comments about the acts as they perform so please join me, Sarah, for our #Live blog of the events from Tampere at 19.00 GMT 20.00 CET .

You van watch the events unfolding in Finland live , HERE or HERE you can also get English commentary HERE

LIVE BLOG STARTS HERE

I’m sorry, but you’re a bit early ! Please come back and #joinus at 19.00 GMT 20.00 CET for al the fun and action live from Tampere.

In the meantime, while you’re waiting ,here’s a reminder of last year’s UMK winners, Windows95man , who went on to represent Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, Sweden. They finished in 19th place in the Grand Final .

And welcome back ! So , shortly , we’ll be going over to the live link to the show in Tampere to enjoy a night of fun, laughter and hopefully, good music . Get your drinks and snacks and make yourselves comfortable , while I guide you through tonight’s goings-on from Finland. It’s at this time that I usually pray that the live link actually works and that I will be able to get the one with English commentary. It kind of helps if you know what they are talking about on the show ! :-)

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And we’re off ! starting off with a performance from last year’s winners. Windows 95Man . This time the lead singer seems to have borrwed Tixx’s ( Norway 2021) Fallen Angel wings!

Our host introduce themselves . Sanni and Jasmi , you’ll grow to love them as the night goes on ….

The English commentator tells us that UMK is now getting commentary in a lot of languages , including Swedish, Finnish, Ukrainian , English , Russian, that’s pretty impressive !

The final is also available on Dutch and Spanish TV !

Voting has started now! Yes, you heard that right! They are using the same process as the Eurovision Song contest itself ! Finns can vote via an App or by text , so please don’t try this if you’re anywhere else!

Voting is by a public vote plus 7 international juries, we are told .

Looks like we’re finally getting down to business, the first act is ready to go !

1. Costee “Sekaisin”

They have very long introductory videos . Hopefully we’ll get to the stage performance soon .

Is it me or does Costee remind me a bit of Marc Almond from Soft Cell ( 1980s group)with his eye make -up?The song title means “Messed up ” and Costee appears on stage on top of several platforms with a chair on top. His clothing is a white out fit with several logos on it . He comes off the platforms and the stage then erupts into pyros and fire LED effects in the backdrop and through the platforms . This could work on a big stage at Eurovision .Not a bad first act .

1. NEEA RIVER “Nightmare

Neea starts off surrounded by blue plinths, with blue strobe lights and lazors galore . She’s wearing a very skin tight suit of black and silver very warrior queen like! She’s joined by two backing dancers later in the performance, who dance around her. It has a very electro pop feel and not unlike many Eurovision entries we have seen in the past and at Melodifestivalen in Sweden. Could be a good choice for Basel but will people think this is another of hundreds of songs we’ve seen before?

Goldielocks “Made of “.

Now we’re told that Goldie locks can’t perform tonight as she has lost her voice ( not the most helpful of things to happen!), so , they will showing a recording of a performance from yesterday ‘s rehearsals . She starts off sat inside a circle , which she moves around in and out of throughout the performance, surrounded by three female backing dancers, the ending produces three circles with three images of Goldielocks ! It’s quite clever staging , could be a contender tonight, even if she hasn’t sung live tonight .

VIIVI “Aina”

Now if you want a classic Eurovision ballad with a strong meaning behind it , then Viivi ticks the boxes. She is alone on stage , which is dark to begin with then the backdrop changes to a misty waterfall type background and Viivi belts out the song and shows real emotion behind it .It’s just gorgeous ! I could feel the emotion, even though I don’t understand Finnish ! With a lot of the songs being chosen so far being uptempo numbers, this could stand out in Basel for those who like a good ballad.

Nelli Matula“Hitaammin hautaa

Another song in Finnish, she’s well-known in Finland, apparently their version of Ariana Grande. She’s making a come back after illness apparently .Her staging is totally dark, and she looks like she’s moving about in space .Wearing a red dress and red boots, the dress is very low cut on top ! She’s joined by backing dancers , dressed in white and they dance between what looks like two parallel large curtains, which then drop down towards the end of the song. I just think it’s a little too safe as a song to send to Basel but the crowd liked it !

Erika Vikman ” ICH KOMME”

Time to send your Granny out of the room , this is one of the most talked about acts on discussions about UMK on social media !Apparently Erika ‘s song is about being equal and being loved for who you are .She’s in a very tight , short leather all in one suit , which shows rather a lot of flesh. Black thigh length boots .The words Ich Komme stand out in the backdrop .She’s stood with a microphone, which she makes suggestive moves with throughout the performance, a little bit like a n updated version of Lena Phillipson ( Sweden 2004) only Lena was tame compared to Erika ! . She struts along the stage, there’s flashing images and pyros. If Finland want to send something really in your face, then this is it ! Huge cheer from the crowd at the end of the performance . She certainly put on a show ! Compared to the preview video, I thought it was quite tame !

So that’s it ! You’ve heard them all ! We get a recap now .

I have to say that the quality in this final is the best I have seen so far out of all the national finals I have seen in the last weeks .

We having a bit of a film now where the performers have been filmed with headphones on, looks like they have to try and guess some songs….each others ! These are the fill in type films which draw out the time until we get the results .

We have another recap . who is your favourite tonight ?

There’s a little film of SANNI, one of tonight’s host, talking about making music and what people need out of music .

Which leads us to a performance from her . Watching her, she could easily have been one of tonight’s competitors . Perhaps YLE should internally select her one year .

She also plays the violin well too !

The voting has now closed and we’re told the voting App HASN’T CRASHED ! which it did last year . Phew !!

I think we’re going to get the jury votes now :

Croatia up first -Baby Lasagna is their spokesperson ! They have a joke about how juries have prevented both Croatia and Finland from winning Eurovision the last two years. Let’s get to the points please .!!!!

Erika Vikman gets the Croation 12

Over to Netherlands now , spokesperson apparently was involved with Kaarija’s entry in 2023

12 points from Netherlands to …Goldielocks ! puts her in the lead !

Over to Lithuania..Sylvester, who represented the country last year is their spokesperson .

Goldielocks gets another 12

San Marino up next …….12 points to Nelli Mattula

The jury marks are all over the place !

Spain next …… the hosts are trying out the language of every country they are contacting , it seems !!

Goldielocks gets another 12

Viro- 12 points to Erika Vikman

Switzerland to vote now -host tells us they can’t wait to welcome us to Basel

Erika Vikman gets 12.

So this is how it stands after all the jury votes…..but,remember we have the public vote to come yet and that can change the whole thing !

Interval act now, this lady is apparently Finland’s answer to Linda Woodruff in Sweden !

Another interval act, the UMK Fantasy dream girls …which includes past perfomers from UMK and Eurovision

A reminder of how things are at the moment …

Public vote to come ……..this is nerve wracking !! They are going to do this the same way as Eurovision , working from bottom ,going up .

NEEA -60 points

Viivi -100 points

Costee-43, he won’t win with that

Nelli -88, she can’t win .

Erika …..it’s a biggie ….362 ! Puts her in the lead. Can Goldie locks beat that ?

ERIKA has won !!!!

Final Results :

So Erika will now go forward to represent Finland in Basel. Whatever happens, she’s certainly going to cause a stir in Switzerland !

So we leave the live stream there, with Erika doing the reprise . Thank you for joining me tonight, it’s been a blast !

Keep a look out for more live blogs from us at Eurovision Ireland as we go through the next weeks of countries making their selections for Basel 2025.

Good night Europe, Good day Australia .

Author: Sarah Rudman

Source : YLE