{"id":443799,"date":"2026-02-24T23:33:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T23:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/443799\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T23:33:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T23:33:13","slug":"%f0%9f%87%ab%f0%9f%87%ae-finland-umk-2026-winner-not-obliged-to-compete-in-eurovision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/443799\/","title":{"rendered":"\ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddee Finland: UMK 2026 Winner Not Obliged to Compete in Eurovision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yle, the Finnish national broadcaster, has revealed that the winner of UMK 2026 will not be obliged to compete in Eurovision 2026.<\/p>\n

Juha Lahti, Managing Director of Entertainment at Yle, revealed that the winner of UMK 2026 will not be forced to go to Eurovision if they are opposed Israel\u2019s participation in the contest. A decision will be taken after the contest as to whether or not the winner of UMK 2026 will represent Finland in Vienna. Lahti explained:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe winner will be determined on Saturday, and after that we will move ahead according to what happens. We will discuss the matter with the winner as soon as the contest is over. UMK\u2019s main producer Anssi Autio and I will participate in the discussions. If big decisions have to be made, Jonnu Aho, Editor-in-Chief of Culture for Yle, will come along.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s really important to us that we\u2019re with the artists on this journey from start to finish. The contestants know this. When the winner is determined, we will stand by them and discuss everything with them. In no case will the winner be left alone.<\/p>\n

The artists have actually asked Yle to tell the rest of the media that they don\u2019t want to talk about these political issues while the contest is in progress. Of course, the organisation of UMK does not have any say in what the participants should think about politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lahti also reaffirmed that UMK is following Yle\u2019s policy<\/a> on Eurovision:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as the Eurovision Song Contest is concerned, UMK is following Yle\u2019s official policy on participation. It boils down to four points: Yle will participate in Eurovision if security is taken care of, the number of participating broadcasters will remain large, and the costs will not increase unreasonably. In addition, Yle requires that the Eurovision organisers implement the agreed rule changes to ensure that the voting result cannot be manipulated.\u201d<\/p>\n

UMK 2026 will take place on February 28 in Nokia Arena in Tampere. The winner will have the option to represent Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Vienna. UMK will be held in Tampere for the fifth time and in the Nokia Arena, the largest indoor arena in Finland, for the third time.<\/p>\n

The show will be hosted by Sami Sykk\u00f6, Jorma Uotinen, and Jasmin Beloued, and will feature guest performances from former Finnish Eurovision representatives Erika Vikman and Sonja Lumme.<\/p>\n

The running order for UMK 2026 is as follows:<\/p>\n

Komiat \u2013 \u201cLululai\u201c
\nEtta \u2013 \u201cMillion Dollar Smile\u201c
\nKiki \u2013 \u201cRakkaudenkipee\u201d (Lovesick)
\nAntti Paalanen \u2013 \u201cTakatukka\u201d (Mullet)
\nCHACHI \u2013 \u201cCherry Cake\u201c
\nSinikka Monte \u2013 \u201cReady to Leave\u201c
\nLinda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen \u2013 \u201cLiekinheitin\u201c (Flamethrower)<\/p>\n

Erika Vikman represented Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 with \u201cIch komme\u201d. Finland finished 11th in the final scoring 196 points. Finland received 12 points from the Austrian jury and received 10 points from the public in Sweden, Australia and Estonia.<\/p>\n

Source: Yle<\/a><\/p>\n

Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest+<\/p>\n

Finland first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1961. They debuted alongside Spain and Yugoslavia. Finland has finished last in the contest on 10 occasions and has received \u2018nul points\u2019 three times. It wasn\u2019t until 2006 that Finland won the Eurovision Song Contest. Lordi represented the country in Athens with the song \u201cHard Rock Hallelujah\u201d scoring 292 points, a record total at the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yle, the Finnish national broadcaster, has revealed that the winner of UMK 2026 will not be obliged to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,33958,391,56,138917,54,55],"class_list":["post-443799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-headline","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-umk-2026","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}