Finland will take part in the Eurovision song contest 2026 for the 59th time. Finland has taken part every year since its debut in 1961 - 65 years ago - except in 1970 (when boycotting along with Austria, Norway, Sweden and Portugal the voting system and previous year's chaos) and due to being relegated in 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001 and 2003 thanks to those insane rules back then. Over the years Finland was considered quite an under achiever with last places coming this way a bit too often in the first decades. In this series I will go through the first contests, how we came up with the eventual entry and we can remember from the other songs from those years. Finland returned in 1962 after the modest but respectable debut in 1961. The open call for songs was launched in the fall and Yle received 170 songs. The number was smaller compared to 1961 as this time they wanted a full song with lyrics and piano arrangement ready rather than only note sheets. Another change was the chosen four...