Introduction

The Finnish national selection has changed since last year and it has been renamed into UMK (Uuden Muusiikin Kilpailu) – new music competition. The broadcaster YLE wanted to make this event more contemporary and to give young talented musicians a good platform for their careers and the chance to represent the country on an international level at the ESC. After several semi finals and a grand final, eight participants competed in a well made show. The secret favourite Mikael Saari came second and Krista Siegfrids achieved the crown of the night with her extraordinary performance “Marry Me”.

Krista Siegfrids is 27 years old and born in Kaskinen, Western Finland. She loves the Eurovision Song Contest since her childhood and has been delighted by the former winners. Officially she is a teacher, but she has been working in the music industry for several years as well. She has been touring at different concerts and gigs in Finland, Sweden and Norway and is now working on her debut album. She has become a well known face in Finland through “The Voice of Finland” show. 

The song “Marry Me” is a fresh up-tempo pop song, a bit unusual for Finnish entries and has a provocative stage performance. Krista has been wearing a white wedding dress, in the background there are over dimensional wedding rings, the church bell is ringing and the black styled dancers bring her the wedding veil. The idea is nice, but the song is not outstanding, and there is far too much action on stage which distracts from the music and lyrics. Due to her extensive touring she has gained valuable stage experiences. This might be a big advantage for her in Malmö.

History

Participations: 47

Debut: 1961

Biggest success: 1st place 2006 “Hard Rock Hallelujah” by Lordi, 1x 6th place, 4x 7th place, 1x 8th place, 2x 9th place, 3x 10th place

Finland has joined the Eurovision Song Contest in 1961 with Laila Kinnunen singing “Valoa Ikkunassa” and made a respectable 10th place. So this year in Malmö it will be the 47th entry from Finland in the ESC.

Over the years Finland’s reputation in regards of success has suffered. Even if Finland has send songs of outrageous quality the points did not flow as for other countries. Three times Finland received not even a single point. Maybe this was due to the language issue or it has just been the wrong choice of the Finnish entries for Eurovision.

After all the years of waiting the hard rock band Lordi came with “Hard Rock Hallelujah” in 2006 and Finland had its first fulminate and very well deserved victory in history. The entire country was in Lordi-fever and a long-cherished wish came true. Not to forget that there were quite a few top 10 entries, the most outstanding songs were: “Eläköön Elämä” by Sonja Lumme in 1985 (9th), “La dolce vita” by Anneli Saaristo in 1989 (7th) and “Tom Tom Tom” by Marion Rung in 1973 (6th).

At least Finland is often passing the semi finals, five times out of nine Finland has made it into the grand final with the utmost different songs from hard rock to ballad and pop.