Finland’s Contest for New Music UMK 2025: Presenting the hosts SANNI and Jasmin Beloued

Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle’s Contest for New Music UMK, which grew to an arena size event last year, will this year take place on Saturday 8 February. This season, the show, featuring seven UMK acts, and the yet unannounced opening and interval numbers, will be hosted by one of Finland’s biggest artists, SANNI, together with Jasmin Beloued, a rising star at Yle Youth News.  

The host duo will first appear in the UMK25 artist announcement show on 8 January, 2025 where the UMK25 artists are announced in a live broadcast from Yle studios in Helsinki. The show has English commentary by Jaakko Oleander-Turja and is viewable internationally through Yle’s streaming service Yle Areena.

SANNI expects new perspectives on performing

SANNI, one of Finland’s most beloved pop artists, celebrated her remarkable 10th anniversary in the music industry last year. Renowned for her signature lyrics and bold pop melodies, she recently released her highly anticipated new album, Muutos, which she also produced. As an acclaimed songwriter, SANNI has earned widespread respect, winning three Emma Awards (Finland's equivalent of the Grammys) and the Music Publishers' Song of the Year award. Her hit single "2080-luvulla" became the most-played radio song in Finland over the past decade. With a career spanning five albums and one EP, SANNI's music has garnered over 300 million streams, solidifying her place as a powerhouse in Finnish pop music.

SANNI looks forward to gaining fresh insights and unique experiences through her role as a UMK host.

"Hosting is really different from singing and I think this experience will bring me new ideas for performing. I’m sure that this will strengthen me as a performer in general," SANNI says. 

SANNI values UMK’s values and sense of community. 

“For me, UMK means, in particular, celebrating new music and giving new music an opportunity to make it,” says SANNI. "UMK is a wonderful community event where people gather together, both in the arena and in homes. It’s great to be part of this." 

Jasmin’s UMK dream came true

At UMK, SANNI's co-host is the energetic journalist Jasmin Beloued from Yle’s Youth News. Jasmin began her career hosting Yle’s youth program Yle Galaxi in 2017 and gained further recognition in spring 2020 as the host of Yle’s special COVID-19 program for children. Since 2020, she has been a journalist for Yle’s children’s news service, Yle Mix, and since 2021, she has also reported from Finland’s prestigious Independence Day Reception. Jasmin, who comes from Pirkanmaa (a small town near Tampere), says that stepping on stage in front of her home audience makes her especially happy.

Jasmin comments: "Being part of UMK has been my dream for a long time, and I have had the opportunity to collaborate with the UMK production team in my role as a journalist. That was how I made myself visible to the UMK team, and eventually I received a request for test shoots and got to join the team. This production is full of top professionals, so even though the role is very nerve-racking, I feel very confident. I am also a Eurovision fangirl, so it feels like a great privilege to be in this role and hit the stage in front of the audience in Tampere." 

Jasmin feels like she shares the same energy with SANNI.  

“We have a good vibe together, our energy merges and we are both performers and perfectionists in a good way. Also, I’ve been listening to SANNI’s music since day one, so this is a pretty special fan encounter for me!”

Material for the media:
UMK25 media folder
Yle.fi/umk

Media contact: 
Juhani Lassila
Head of Media
ext-juhani.lassila@yle.fi
+358 40 541 2365