YLE has finally revealed some information on how the 18 songs were selected. First of all 420 demos were sent (exactly the same amount as last year, but less than in 2013 and 2012). Around ten people from the UMK production team listened the songs and made their own lists of their favorites. Those lists were then compared and a new list of some 30-40 songs was made. Then these lucky ones were met in person and the team had a chat with them to find out how prepaired and serious they were, what kind of ideas they had and what their plans were in case they win. That means those who just sent in a demos out of curiosity without having any proper plans how to proceed were eliminated. Apparently YLE has also invited artists to take part besides the open submission possibility.
This year all shows will be live broadcasts from YLE studios in Helsinki, even the final. The first three shows have six songs and half of them will make the final, the other half is eliminated. The previous year's has seen various arenas used as the location but usually the tickets haven't sold so well, not even to fill up arena, so this decision is understandable - even if some fans seem to disagree with me in this.
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