Finland’s biggest music show, UMK, officially began Monday with the opening of the new season’s song submission period.

The open song contest welcomes all music creators and is looking for new artists, new songs, and Finland’s next Eurovision representative.

The UMK26 submission period ran from August 18 to August 24, 2025.

UMK is known worldwide

Over the past decade, UMK has become one of the most followed national selections in the Eurovision world.

In Finland, UMK has established itself as a springboard for new artists and songs, and many of the entries have become major hits both domestically and internationally.

The winner of UMK26 will represent Finland in the next Eurovision Song Contest in Austria in May 2026, performing for hundreds of millions of viewers.

The 15th edition of the Contest for New Music, UMK26, will be held at Nokia Arena in Tampere on February 28, 2026. The selected artists and songs will be announced, as per tradition, in January.

Contestants chosen by juries

The song and artist selections for UMK will once again be made by several juries this year.

The main influence lies with the professional jury, chaired by Tapio Hakanen, Head of Music at YleX. In addition to the professional jury, the selections are influenced by five public juries, which bring together a diverse group of representatives from different fields.

The jury reform introduced last year was a success and will continue this year as well.

– UMK’s impact on creating Finnish music phenomena has grown year by year. Last season’s successes included Erika Vikman’s Ich Komme with over 30 million streams, Nelli Matula’s Hitaammin hautaan – the biggest radio song of the year – and Goldielocks’ breakthrough with the English-language song Made Of. UMK has no genre restrictions, and we hope to receive as diverse a selection of songs as possible for our professional and public juries to review, says professional jury chair Tapio Hakanen.

Applications are closed

The application period began on August 18, at 8:00 a.m., and ended on August 24 at 11:59 p.m.

All applicants will be contacted by October at the latest.

You can find more information about the contest at yle.fi/umk.