Finland 2021 🇫🇮 Listen and vote for the seven finalists

FINLAND – With a leaked list of participants last night, YLE revealed this afternoon the 7 finalists who will compete in UMK 2021 edition, aiming to represent their country in the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest. The leaked information is now officially confirmed.

In the following poll, you can choose up to three of your favourite participants in this year’s Finnish national final.

Ilta – Kelle mä soitan

Ilta Elina Fuchs is a Finnish-German singer-songwriter who originally became known after being a visiting soloist with Cheek’s “Bridges” in 2015. Ilta ended up singing the song “Bridges” after getting to know another student through her singing teacher, who later ended up working for the management company Fullsteam and suggested her to take over as her manager. Ilta made demos to Fullsteam, which also ended up being heard by Cheek, who was managed by the same company. In early 2016, she signed a record deal with Warner Music Finland and released covers of Adele’s songs “All I Ask” and “River Lea.” Her first single “On the Hook” was released in July 2017.  The “hook” has crossed the gold plate limit. Ilta competed in the spring of 2019 on the fifth season of the Stars, Stars program on MTV3. She finished third in the competition. Ilta debut album For These Moments was released in September 2020.

Laura – Play

Laura started her career in 2005, when she participated in Eurolaul 2005 with the song “Moonwalk”. “Moonwalk” came second, but Laura won the contest as the member of the girl group Suntribe. Suntribe represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005, but failed to advance to the final. Laura also took part at “Eurolaul 2007” for the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, her entry “Sunflowers” came third. In September 2007, Laura released her debut album “Muusa” and started studies in Berklee College, Boston, putting her music career on hold. In 2009, she returned to Eesti Laul as a solo singer in hopes of representing Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. Her entry “Destiny” came third. The same year, she released her album “Ultra”. In November, 2011, Laura released her first compilation album “Sädemeid taevast”, which consisted of all her singles since 2005 to 2011 as well as a track from her second studio album “Ultra”. Laura once again competed to represent Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, entering Eesti Laul with the song “Supersonic”. It placed second in the Superfinal. In Eesti Laul 2017 she competed in a duet with Koit Toome with the song “Verona” and won. They thereafter represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 in Kiev, Ukraine. Despite being fan favourites, the duo failed to advance to the Grand Final after placing 14th in their semi-final, a blended result of 6th place from the Televoting and 17th from the Juries voting. They had been predicted as likely qualifiers beforehand, ranked 5th in the second Semi-Final by betting odds and 5th by OGAE voting overall. Laura again competed to represent Estonia at Eurovision in Eesti Laul 2020 with her song “Break Me”. Reaching the final, she finished 11th out of 12 entries. In January 2021, it was revealed that Laura would attempt to represent Finland at Eurovision in Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2021.

Oskr – Lie

Oskari Ruohonen has just adapted his new stage name Oskr. He has released few singles in Finnish, but now kickstarts his career in English. Next to his solo career he also is part of bands Yournalist antd Traffic Island. Oskr comes from very musical family. His dad and uncle form the duo Matti ja Teppo, who have sold the second-most records in Finland.

Telfon Brothers x Pandora – I Love You

Teflon Brothers released their first single “Matkal kotiin” in 2006. It was also featured on a soundtrack for a film Adihasla. Their first album T followed in 2009 and peaked at number 26 on the Official Finnish Albums Chart. In April 2010, they offered a free mixtape Iso hätä, which featured songs by other artists as well. The second Teflon Brothers album © was released in August 2010, also peaking at number 26 on the albums chart. In January 2013, the group reached number nine with their third album, Valkoisten dyynien ratsastajat. The song “Seksikkäin jäbä”, featuring Stig and Meiju Suvas, also managed to enter the Official Finnish Singles Chart where it peaked at number three. In 2014, their single “Kendo Anthem” also reached number three on the singles chart and was quickly followed by their first number-one single, “Maradona (kesä ’86)”. Both are included on their fourth album, Isänpäivä. The same year, Teflon Brothers started to look for a new member to join the group through an online bidding, and hired a professional poker player Ilari Sahamies who paid 50 000 euros for the position. Sahamies appears as a featured guest on the group’s 2015 song “Pämppää”.

Pandora started her career in 1990s and became one of the most successful eurodance artists in Nordic countries. She also had some succes in Asia and Australia. Her 1998 single “Spirit to Win” was the official track of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Previously she has taken part in Sweden’s national selection Melodifestivalen twice, most recently in 2004 with the song “Runaway“.

Aksel – Hurt

Aksel Kankaanranta was supposed to represent Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam. with the song “Looking Back”. In 2017, he placed second in The Voice of Finland. He was born in Turku. Aksel Kankaanranta was scheduled to represent Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam with the song ”Looking Back” after winning the Finnish national selection Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu, but then on 18 March, it was cancelled because of the Coronavirus pandemic. Later that month, the Finnish national broadcaster, Yle, announced they would not internally select Aksel, and he would have to participate in UMK 2021. In episode 2 of Eurovision Home Concerts, Kankaanranta confirmed that he would audition for the 2021 edition of the national selection.

Danny – Sinä päivänä kun kaikki rakastaa mua

Ilkka Johannes Lipsanen (born September 24, 1942), commonly known by his stage name Danny, is a Finnish singer and guitarist. Still active, Danny’s singing career is one of the longest in Finland, spanning over more than 50 years. He has recorded many evergreen hit songs. He achieved some notoriety outside Finland in 2006 when his 1978 music video duet with the late Armi Aavikko, “Tahdon olla sulle hellä”, sung in English as “I Wanna Love You Tender”, became an internet meme. The choreography was apparently intended to be “erotic and tantalizing” but in the eyes of many it principally succeeded in being hilarious. Danny was born in Pori. He started his career with the band Islanders who released a couple of singles, among them Danny’s first recording which was in English: East Virginia by Joan Baez in 1964. During his national service Danny switched to his native Finnish and recorded two hits, “Kauan” (“Downtown” by Petula Clark) and “Piilopaikka” (“You’ve Got Your Troubles”). After the army in 1966 Danny launched his own management company, D-Tuotanto, and started his hugely popular and spectacular “Danny Shows” which toured around Finland every summer all the way to the late 1970s. During the 1960s, he recorded a number of hits, among them “Kesäkatu” (Loving Spoonful’s “Summer in the City”), “Vähän ennen kyyneleitä” (“El angel de la guarda”), “Tuuliviiri”, “Rebecca” and “Se eikö todista että muutuin” (“If I Promise”). In 1968 Danny appeared in Spede Pasanen’s film comedy Noin seitsemän veljestä as a medieval troubadour and performed his song “Seitsemän kertaa seitsemän” which became another hit. Some of the best known hits for Danny in the 1970s were “Vai niin, vai niin” (“How Do You Do”), “Maantieltä taloon” (“Son of My Father” by Chicory Tip) and “Kuusamo” (“L’ete Indien – Africa” performed also by Joe Dassin) in reality Danny´s “Kuusamo” is exactly based on the version recorded by Frank Farian, a version which Farian recorded using an alias-name “Exodus” as the artist name and produced the version by using an alias-name “Monfa” as the producer, the first and original version of the song is recorded by the band named “Albatros”, where Toto Cutugno was the Lead singer. In 1977 Danny joined together with former Miss Finland, Armi Aavikko, with whom he had the extremely popular hits “Tahdon olla sulle hellä” and “Kaiken sulle antaisin”. A song by Jukka Kuoppamäki, “Tämä taivas, tämä maa”, was a big hit for Danny in 1992. In 1997 performed in China and in 1988 in Turkey. Danny and his band have a small cameo appearance in the 2013 British black comedy film The Double.

Blind Channel – Dark Side

Blind Channel is alternative rock band formed in 2013. The group describes their music as “violent pop”. They have released three studio albums and toured around Europe, including the Wacken Open Air festival. In 2020 producer and DJ Alex Mattson joined the group. Beside their own songs, the group has also released covers of songs such as “Left Outside Alone” by Anastacia and “Don’t” by Ed Sheeran.

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