Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026

Finland is set to be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 with the song "Liekinheitin", written by Antti Riihimäki, Lauri Halavaara, Linda Lampenius, Pete Parkkonen and Vilma Alina Lähteenmäki, and performed by Lampenius and Parkkonen themselves. The Finnish participating broadcaster, Yleisradio (Yle), organised the national final Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2026 in order to select its entry for the contest.

Prior to the 2026 contest, Yleisradio (Yle) has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Finland fifty-eight times since its first entry in 1961. It had won the contest once in 2006 with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" performed by Lordi. In 2025, "Ich komme" performed by Erika Vikman qualified for the final and placed 11th.^[1]

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, Yle organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. Finland's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest had been selected through national final competitions that had varied in format over the years. Between 1961 and 2011, a selection show that was often titled Suomen euroviisukarsinta highlighted that the purpose of the program was to select a song for Eurovision. However, since 2012, the broadcaster had organised the selection show Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), which focuses on showcasing new music with the winning song being selected as the Finnish Eurovision entry for that year. Yle confirmed its intention to participate at the 2026 contest on 4 December 2025, announcing that the Finnish entry would again be selected through Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu; the decision had been delayed as Yle had outlined conditions for its continued participation, which were subsequently addressed and approved following the EBU's general assembly.^[2]

Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2026 was the fifteenth edition of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), the music competition organised by Yle to select its entries for the Eurovision Song Contest. The competition consisted of a final on 28 February 2026, held at the Nokia Arena in Tampere and hosted by Sami Sykkö, Jorma Uotinen and Jasmin Beloued.^[3]

A submission period was opened by Yle which lasted between 18 August 2025 and 24 August 2025.^[4] At least one of the writers and the lead singer(s) had to hold Finnish citizenship or live in Finland permanently in order for the entry to qualify to compete. A panel of nine experts appointed by Yle alongside five audience juries selected seven entries for the competition from 491 received submissions, a new record during the current format of the competition.^[5] The experts were Tapio Hakanen (Head of Music at YleX), Johan Lindroos (Head of Music at Yle Radio Suomi), Amie Borgar (Head of Music at Yle Svenska), Katri Norrlin (music editor at YleX), Samuli Väänänen (music professional), Pietu Sepponen (promoter at Sunborn Live), Jussi Mäntysaari (Head of Music at Nelonen Media), Stella Kylä-Liuhala (project director of Ohlogy) and Aija Puurtinen (lecturer at Sibelius Academy and UMK vocal coach).^[6] The competing entries were announced in a televised show on 14 January 2026, hosted by Mikko Silvennoinen, Eva Frantz, Bess, Samuli Väänänen and Tapio Hakanen,^[7] while the music videos for each entry were released between 14 and 22 January 2026.^[8]

The final took place on 28 February 2026 where seven entries competed. The winner, "Liekinheitin" performed by Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen, was selected by a combination of public votes (75%) and seven international jury groups from Austria, Denmark, Malta, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom (25%).^[9] The viewers had a total of 882 points to award, while the juries had a total of 294 points to award. Each jury group distributed their points as follows: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 points. The viewer vote was based on the percentage of votes each song achieved through the following voting methods: telephone, SMS and app voting. For example, if a song gains 10% of the viewer vote, then that entry would be awarded 10% of 882 points rounded to the nearest integer: 88 points.^[10][11] A record total of 446,681 votes were cast during the show: 91,128 votes through telephone and SMS and 355,553 votes through the Yle app.^[12]

In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the show was opened by Erika Vikman performing "Father (I Will Never Confess)" and her 2025 Eurovision entry "Ich komme" and 2025 Eurovision winner JJ performing "Wasted Love", while the acts included Sonja Lumme performing her 1985 Eurovision entry "Eläköön elämä", and Ares, Averagekidluke, Elastinen and Turisti performing "Kui paljon".^[11]

The competition was watched by an average of 1.8 million viewers in Finland (0.32 more than in 2025), with a peak viewership of more than 2.5 million, making it the most watched edition of UMK since its establishment in 2012.^[14]

The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 will take place at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria, and consist of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 12 and 14 May and the final on 16 May 2026. All nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final will progress to the final. On 12 January 2026, an allocation draw was held to determine which of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show, each country will perform in; the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.^[16] Finland was scheduled for the first half of the first semi-final.^[17]

• Official Yle Eurovision site
• Official Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu site