Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Iina Salin (27) is from Mikkeli but lives now in Helsinki, a singer, musician, vocal coach and music teacher. She also sings in Emma Salokoski Voices and was also a finalist in UMO's new talent contest earlier this year. And now she chose UMK instead of The Voice so that she can sing her own song. She likes soul and dance music and lists Madonna as one of her favorites along with Aretha Franklin but feels most confortable singing disco and pop songs. Coffee and chocolate keeps this energetic woman going.  What did the judges say? Toni Wirtanen: I must give credit that she comes in with the chorus, the strongest part of the song.  Aija Puurtinen: Very strong start indeed. Tomi Saarinen : Best in this clearly is the singer. You can hear she's been doing it a lot. Redrama : Even if the chorus is very strong I don't think it comes out strong enough. I would make it even stronger as now the beat is the same all through the song.  Toni: With better...

Last Panda is a rock band from Oulu but all the guys originate from Kemi, even further north in Lapland. They declae they represent proudly the whole of northern Finland!  The band is Henry Ossian, HC Knuuti, Laze, Aapo Väinämö and Matt. The song is written by Henry Tikkanen, Aapo Immonen and arranged by Last Panda. They grew up together and went to same schools so besides music they also share long friendship. They had done the demo and decided to send it to UMK to get some feedback from professionals, as in today's Finland there's no way for small bands to get noticed when suitable TV-programs are missing at the moment. Except now there's UMK where you have at least a chance to get some feedback and maybe even notoriety. The band is ready to break it big and dreams of living of what they love the most: music. They also want to look like a band on stage and think about their look. The black eye make up is no glamrock inspired thing but refers to panda ...

YLE has finally published their plan for this year's UMK aka Uuden musiikin kilpailu, ex-Euroviisut.  The 12 chosen ones will be announced on December 3, 2012 and we will get to know them all better on December 27. After that two shows will follow when they will be introduced better to the judges and us on January 3 and 10. After that follow three live gigs from Circus nightclub in Helsinki (January 17, 24 and 31) and finally the big final with eight remaining artists in Barona Arena in Espoo.  The judges are Toni Wirtanen (of Apulanta fame), Aija Puurtinen, Redrama and Tomi Saarinen so this time at least that part seems to be rather solid block of people.  The hosts will be Ile Uusivuori and Anne Lainto.  In the three live gigs the jury and the audience will decide who go further, in the final there should be televote only.