Tonight, Sandhja won the national final of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu, where Finland chose the power-pop number as their entry in Stockholm. From 18 finalists, three semi-final heats pared the competition down to the best nine entries, and the public decided that the song Sing it Away was worthy to carry the Finnish flag in May.
The results tonight were determined by a 50/50 split between televoting and a total of 10 juries.
This year’s selection saw two past favorites return in Saara Aalto (2011) and Mikael Saari (2013), who both qualified for the final this evening. It was a close call in the jury vote, with power-pop act Sandhja leading the board, followed by both Saari and Aalto. But the final decision came down to the televote, and falling in line with those scores, the public chose Sandhja as their winner.
The final was packed with music, humor and a celebratory atmosphere. Three past Finnish entries performed: Lordi (contest winner in 2006), this year’s UMK host Krista Siegfrids (2013), and last year’s entry PKN (2015).
The final lineup follows (winner in bold):
- Cristal Snow – Love is Blind
- Stella Christine – Ain’t Got Time for Boys
- Annica Milán & Kimmo Blom – Good Enough
- Eini – Draamaa
- Barbe-Q-Barbies – Let Me Out
- Tuuli Okkonen – Don’t Wake Me Up
- Sandhja – Sing it Away
- Saara Aalto – No Fear
- Mikael Saari – On It Goes
Let ESC Daily know what you think of the winner in the comments or on Facebook!