Next Up: 2021 – Finland

After the sad cancellation of Eurovision 2020, the lyrics of the Finnish song suddenly got a deeper meaning. “We never know what we had, until it’s over and we’re looking back”. Today we are looking ahead, to Finland in 2021.

In today’s episode we look at Finland in 2021. For a full review of their potential entry for 2020, check out this article on our partner website Eurovision Union. Check out our thoughts for next year below.

Key takeaways: Slick visuals and interesting lyrics

In the Eurovision fan community, a lot of people were disappointed that the schlager-song Cicciolina was not chosen for Eurovision. But when that disappointment disappeared, ‘Looking Back’ turned out to be a song with potential as well. It’s a song with good reflecting lyrics and a solid vocal performance of Aksel.

The rest of his performance was not very convincing. Perhaps his somewhat introvert personality, as he showed during Eurovision Shine A Light, plays a part in this as well. Anyway, broadcaster YLE was not willing to let him go to Eurovision 2021 with another song. Aksel needs to take part in a preselection to do so.

Exploring other options

Considering Finland in recent years, they took a step in the right direction in 2020. But perhaps the nation could be better off with something bombastic such as Erika’s Ciccolina. Finland announced there will be a new line-up for preselection UMK 2021 with several artists taking part. Not the carte-blanche idea like with Saara Aalto, where she was the only artist taking part with multiple songs in UMK. The broadcaster is looking forward to celebrating the tenth anniversary of its national final. The song submission period for UMK 2021 will open on 1 September. The broadcaster has now confirmed that the submission period will run until 7 September, giving interested artists and songwriters one week to get their entries in.

The broadcaster said that Aksel was welcome to submit an entry for consideration. In April, Aksel confirmed his intention to enter, saying he was working on new music for the contest. The rest of the line-up is not known yet, but the Finnish broadcaster also requires that at least one songwriter and at least one lead vocalist must have Finnish citizenship or permanent residency.

This was supposed to be Finland’s Eurovision 2020 entry

About “Next Up: Eurovision 2021”

In our series Next Up: 2021, we look ahead to the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. After the cancellation of Eurovision 2020, all participating countries now face the choice: Stick with their Eurovision singer, or come up with a new preselection or internal selection.

We make an analysis based on what we know so far. What will this country do, or most likely do? And is that the wise choice, looking at the fact that the Eurovision Song Contest remains a music competition?