Here they are: the entries for Finland's Contest for New Music UMK 2026

The songs for UMK26 will be released one song and music video at a time on each weekday beginning tomorrow, 15 January. Each song will be released at midnight on each artist’s reveal day on Yle Areena and YouTube, as well as on Spotify and other streaming services.

Release dates for UMK26 entries:

Thu 15 January: Etta – Million Dollar Smile
Fri 16 January: Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen – Liekinheitin
Mon 19 January: Komiat – Lululai
Tue 20 January: Sinikka Monte – Ready to Leave
Wed 21 January: Antti Paalanen – Takatukka
Thu 22 January: CHACHI – Cherry Cake
Fri 23 January: KIKI – Rakkaudenkipee 

Tapio Hakanen, the chair of UMK’s professional jury comments: “This UMK season is set to be unique in many ways. We handpicked the contestants from a record number of applicants, and the entries range from pop to folk music, dance, and light dance music. In UMK, the song really determines who gets to compete, so both self-funded artists and seasoned legends can take part. I am really excited that UMK26 will feature new artists who are not familiar to most Finns, and that the selection of instruments is so varied, including a violin, accordion, whistling, delicate singing, club bass drum and rapping.”

The professional and audience juries made the pre-selection

A total of 491 songs were submitted to UMK26 in the application process in August 2025. In addition to the professional jury, consisting of music industry professionals, chaired by YleX’s Head of Music Tapio Hakanen, five audience juries were invited to select the artists and songs for the UMK26 show. 

In addition to Hakanen, the professional UMK26 jury consisted of Yle Radio Suomi Head of Music Johan Lindroos, Yle Svenska Head of Music Amie Borgar, YleX music journalist Katri Norrlin, Music Industry Expert Samuli Väänänen, Sunborn Live Promoter Pietu Sepponen, Head of Music for Nelonen Media Jussi Mäntysaari, Project Director, Ohlogy, Stella Kylä-Liuhala, and Sibelius Academy professor and UMK vocal coach Aija Puurtinen.

UMK26 artists: 

Etta – Million Dollar Smile

Etta, whose real name is Emmalotta Kanth, describes herself as a singer, rapper, and an outspoken processor of emotions whose story has taken her from the suburbs of Vantaa to the biggest stages in Finland. She and her four older siblings were raised by a single mother.

Her childhood was full of music: there was always music at home, her older brothers were really musical, and at family parties, the youngest sibling was always asked to sing. At school, she spent her days singing in music class and playing the flute.

“I didn't choose music, music chose me,” Etta explains.

Her debut single Ballerina (2018) quickly made Etta one of the most interesting new artists in Finland. She says she had to do three times as much work to receive as much appreciation as her male colleagues.

"Sometimes I'm labelled as a female rapper, and sometimes as a pop artist. But I'm really an artist. Being able to both rap and sing is my superpower."

Etta started touring actively and released EPs called 10 and 10+ the following year. 

Her debut album Tyttö (2021) included the hit song Ämmä, which particularly captured the hearts of young people. With her next album Tykkäät kummiski  (2022), Etta made Finnish rap history by becoming the first female artist to have an album reach number one on the official album chart in Finland.

The deepest wounds were revealed in the song Demoneista ystävii, released in 2023, and the following year in her album Tähtisumua.

"Demoneista ystävii was the first song in which I dared to be completely open. After that, I realised that the more personal I write, the more universal it becomes."

In 2024, Etta was the warm-up act for PMMP’s arena tour – a band she had listened to since childhood.

Million Dollar Smile will be released on Thursday 15 January at 00:00.

Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen – Liekinheitin

Pop star Pete Parkkonen and the internationally acclaimed violin legend Linda Lampenius form an impressive duo for UMK. 

The career paths of the artists, who recently started their collaboration, have been very different, but both have a deep love for music and performing.

"We both feel at home on the stage. When we step on the stage, we own the place," says Parkkonen.

Linda Lampenius is best known worldwide as a classical violinist.

At the age of eight, she joined the Helsinki Junior Strings orchestra and, already as a teenager, toured North America, Europe, and Asia. Later, Andrew Lloyd Webber personally invited her to perform as a soloist in his work in England, and a classical solo album released by EMI Classics made her the best-selling Finnish classical artist of her time.

During the same decade, international media also strongly highlighted Lampenius’s pop persona and Baywatch-style image. Her classical music record label demanded the same level of sex appeal as the entertainment industry.

Lampenius has since addressed her experiences, among other places, in her autobiography My Untamed Life and in the Linda documentary series, which won the Golden Venla Award (“Finland’s Golden Globes”).

Since then, Lampenius has performed, made TV appearances and presented the classical crossover tradition for which she is known around the world.

In the 2020s, Lampenius made a spectacular comeback in Finland. The Shanghain valot interval number at the UMK 2025 show received huge attention, particularly with a younger audience discovering her.

Pete Parkkonen, who has also had a diverse career, has grown into an artist through bands and various stages. Parkkonen started as a drummer as a kid and ended up singing as a teenager when a soloist from a band of friends could not make it to rehearsals one day.

Parkkonen became known to larger audiences through the Idols singing competition, when he came third in 2008. Since then, he has released several albums, toured almost all Finnish clubs and festival stages, and established himself as a Finnish pop and soul artist. In 2014, Parkkonen won Dancing with the Stars Finland with Katri Mäkinen.

The album PETE, released in 2018, went platinum, with hits like Mitä mä teen feat. JVG and Kohta sataa, which have positioned Parkkonen as one of the leading Finnish pop and soul artists. The singles Voimaa ja valoa and Portaat, released in 2020, made Parkkonen more popular on the radio, and the release of Oon tässä in 2022 solidified his position as an interpreter of emotional and highly appealing pop.

Liekinheitin will be released on Friday 16 January at 00:00.

Komiat – Lululai

The band consists of singer Aleksi Yli-Sissala, guitarist-singer Samuel Järvinen, accordion player Antero Linden, drummer Eero Nummela, and bassist Juho Eskola.

Each member has a different background, but together they form a band whose music they describe as “straightforward accordion humppa with a good vibe”.

"Our music and gigs are a great way to break free from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. The audience can just breathe, be present and enjoy the moment," Eskola explains.

Now the band is aiming to win Finland’s biggest music show.

Komiat was born in the middle of the 2010s from the idea of establishing an accordion-based dance music band that played traditional Finnish popular dance music without anything extra. In 2016, the band agreed on its first cover songs and played its first gig in July 2017.

Their rapid rise to fame began in 2018, when Komiat won the dance orchestra’s Finnish Championship at the Tangomarkkinat tango festival. It brought visibility, more gigs and collaboration with composer Esa Nieminen.

The first album, Komiat, was released in 2020. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the band focused on creating their own music and keeping in touch with fans through social media. When they returned to performing, the pace accelerated.

Hit songs Pakka sekaisin, Soittajat soittavat and Minähän vien were released in 2022–2024. The biggest hit from the Kaihosielu album, released in 2025, was the song Kaihosielu, which went platinum through streaming, featured on radio playlists for more than six months and, at its peak, was the fourth most played song in Finland.

By making dance pavilions a social media trend, Komiat became mainstream, their concerts sold out and the band was asked to perform on ever larger stages.

The biggest milestone in recent years was the performance at Katri Helena’s stadium concert in summer 2025.

In 2025, Komiat also received four Emma nominations (Finland’s Grammy award) and the Kullervo Linna award.

Lululai will be released on Monday 19 January at 00:00.

Sinikka Monte – Ready To Leave 

UMK artist Sinikka Monte is a 23-year-old artist whose roots are in three countries and cultures. She was born in Scotland, grew up in Austria and is half Finnish, half South African. 

"I am incredibly proud of my ability to speak Finnish. It feels like a superpower to be able to speak such a difficult language," she says laughing.

Monte says she makes music for “people who are sad and need a hug”. Her UMK song Ready to Leave is a dark, cinematic ballad that captures a painful moment: a relationship has continued for too long, leaving only bitterness and the need to let go.

There were no musicians in Sinikka’s family, but she was interested in performing as a child. She danced ballet from the age of five until she was a teenager, and performing on stage quickly felt like the right place.

After ballet, she shifted her focus to singing. Her official debut single It Ain’t You was released in 2019. She released her second single, Play Pretend, after that, and found her long-term trusted producer, Florian “Flo” Spies, around the same time.

So far, the best memories of her career relate to the moment when Sinikka’s music played in the reality series Love is Blind. The song was licensed for a dark, dramatic scene.

"I watched the episode on my laptop while I was putting on my makeup. Suddenly, I heard my song play. I started jumping around the room and called my mum. It felt incomprehensible," she recalls.

Sinikka describes herself as an emotional artist who uses music as therapy. Most of her songs are created so that she writes for herself first and only later thinks about the audience.

The most difficult moments in her career have been related to uncertainty and comparison, which have sometimes eaten up the joy of writing. Still, she knows exactly who she wants to make music for.

"I make songs for people who are sad and need a hug."

Monte describes her style as “crying in the club”: the songs might be sad, but you should be able to dance to them with tears in your eyes.

For many Finns, Sinikka was unknown before UMK. This is about to change.

"I hope people see me for who I am: passionate, emotional and genuinely grateful for this opportunity. I cannot control everything. The most important thing is that I can stand on the stage as myself and sing my story," Monte says.

Ready To Leave will be released on Tuesday 20 January at 00:00.

Antti Paalanen – Takatukka

Antti Paalanen, who lives in Kokkola and is originally from Alavus, is a folk musician, accordion player and throat singer.

Paalanen’s instrument is a diatonic, two-row accordion that he started playing at the age of eight: the same instrument was also played by both of his grandfathers back in the day.

Paalanen is fascinated by the idea that both the Southern Ostrobothnian folk music tradition and the Mongolian throat singing tradition can fit naturally into the framework of pop and rock music. 

His mission is to bring this combination to the attention of the wider audience.

“I am fascinated by how tradition can live as part of modern music”, Paalanen explains.

As a child, Paalanen’s path took him from accordion lessons at the civic college to rock bands. He admired W.A.S.P. and Kiss in the videos his friend had recorded on MTV, and at home he raided his big brothers’ record collection.

"I soon discovered AC/DC, which is my all-time favourite. I was deeply impressed by Angus Young’s energy on stage," Paalanen recalls.

After his military service, Paalanen started his studies at the department of folk music at the Sibelius Academy and immersed himself in various traditions, from poetry to improvisation. As part of his doctoral studies, he composed new music for the diatonic accordion and worked tirelessly to establish himself as a solo artist.

As a result, Paalanen has released many albums. The album Halituli, recorded in 2006 with harmonica player Eero Turka, won an Etno-Emma award in 2007. The same year, Paalanen’s debut album Äärelä was released. Other milestones in Paalanen’s career include the album Breathbox, produced by Kimmo Pohjonen in 2010, and the album Meluta, released in 2014, which was nominated for both the Teosto Award and the Nordic Council Music Award.

His international breakthrough was at the WOMEX showcase concert in Copenhagen in 2011. The release of the album Rujo (2019) raised Antti’s international profile to a new level, and since then he has performed throughout Europe – France in particular – as well as in the USA and Japan.

As a singer, Paalanen's trademark is a low growl that is based on a throat singing technique. It is a vocal technique where the voice is formed in the throat. The Kargyraa technique used by Paalanen produces a deep, guttural and growling sound.

He sees throat singing as a channel that opens up primitive energy in both himself and the audience. Paalanen says he became familiar with throat singing for the first time during his studies. For Paalanen, the throat singing technique opened up a new level of expression and physicality. 

"Whenever I start singing, I relax. This is a really therapeutic way of singing, it has something really purifying and spiritual," Paalanen explains.

Takatukka will be released on Wednesday 21 January at 00:00.

CHACHI – Cherry Cake

CHACHI, whose real name is Chachi Hildén, describes herself as a Mexican-American family person and performer who has lived her entire life surrounded by music and dance.

She was born in Houston, Texas, the youngest of five children. A difficult childhood was saved by dance, which she started at the age of four.

“I grew up in a place where, most of the time, I was scared and lost. But dance kept me sane. It allowed me to say everything without words,” Chachi says.

At nine, ballet was replaced by hip-hop. Michael Jackson on MTV and R&B music made a deep impression on young Chachi.

Chachi’s career exploded in her teens. At 15, she ended up in the dance competition show America’s Best Dance Crew. It was the first season to allow underage contestants. The team won the entire competition, making Chachi its youngest-ever champion.

Chachi began teaching dance herself already at age 12. Her mentor asked her to substitute for a class, which became the starting point for a long international teaching and performing career.

In the mid-2010s, her career expanded into TV and acting. She had her own reality show, Chachi’s World, and various roles in different productions.

Music has been with Chachi all along – from childhood piano lessons to learning music programming at seven and experimenting as a teen artist.

Still, becoming an artist herself frightened her for years. She describes her early music experiments as inauthentic because there were too many expectations imposed by others.

In 2017, Chachi’s life changed suddenly. She was in Peru filming the series Ultimate Expedition and climbing the over-5,000-meter-high Mount Ishinca.

Reaching the summit meant much more than a physical achievement. Chachi says the mountain gave her courage and a new kind of confidence.

At the top, she also found love. Among the cast was the Finnish stunt performer known from the Finnish TV-show Dudesons, Jukka Hildén. Chachi says Jukka’s exceptional gentleness and bright energy drew her in.

Love led her to move across the world. For the first time, she felt she had found a place she could honestly call home. Chachi says she has embraced Finnish everyday life so deeply that she considers herself Finnish.

Chachi put family and motherhood first for several years. In 2020, she decided to participate in Masked Singer Finland. The show led to a record deal signed in 2023.

“Behind the mask I could perfectly test what it feels like to sing and how people respond to my voice,” Chachi says. 

Cherry Cake will be released on Thursday 22 January at 00:00.

KIKI – Rakkaudenkipee

UMK artist KIKI, whose real name is Petra Gavalas, has built her career on the foundation of two cultures, sensitivity, and a strong inner world. KIKI has a Finnish mother and a Greek father.

Although KIKI’s music is known for being dramatic, it is all about empathy and the desire to make the listener feel less lonely.

"I hope that my music arouses emotions and makes people feel safe."

When she was a child, she got used to hearing pop and rap played side by side through the walls. Hip hop music from the room of her little brother, rap artist Lukas Leon, mixed with the pop tunes playing in KIKI’s room. For KIKI, music and singing have been a channel for emotions since her childhood.

The artist’s journey to stardom began in her twenties when she met producer Jimi Pääkallo through her brother. KIKI’s first single 666 was released in the autumn of 2021. The song became a hit the following year and she was chosen as YleX’s breakthrough artist.

KIKI describes herself as an artist in three words: authentic, emotional, and dramatic.
Her music is a combination of Finnish melancholy and Greek darkness. 

KIKI draws inspiration especially from strong female artists who convey powerful emotions. Her idols include Rosalía, Lady Gaga, and Rihanna.

Like her role models, KIKI wants to grow and develop and allow her shows to become bigger and bigger.

The artist name KIKI dates back to her childhood.

"My parents thought I had an imaginary friend because I was always talking about KIKI, but it was my own made-up nickname for myself.”

In Greek, “Petra” means stone. As a child, Gavalas had pointed at the stones in the sauna stove ("kivi" in Finnish), but she was unable to pronounce the letter “v".

KIKI describes herself as a spiritual person who believes in something greater. She believes that everything has a purpose.

The artist's own experiences have also changed her attitude towards manifestation.

"UMK is my most successful manifestation. For a year, I kept telling myself that I would perform at UMK. When I heard that I had been selected, I cried out of happiness."

Rakkaudenkipee will be released on Friday 23 January at 00:00.

UMK26 show and event at Tampere's Nokia Arena on 28 February

The winner of the Contest for New Music UMK will be announced on 28 February 2026 at the UMK26 show at the Nokia Arena in Tampere. The UMK show will be broadcast live on Yle TV1, Yle Areena, YleX and YleX3M. The winner will be determined by adding together the audience votes and the international jury score: the share of the audience vote is 75% and the share of the international jury vote is 25%.

For media: Apply for accreditation to UMK26 now!
Accreditation for the media day at UMK26 is now open. Read about the programme and apply for accreditation.

Media Material:
UMK26 artist trailer
UMK26 media folder
Yle.fi/umk

Media Contacts:

Artist interview requests: contacts.

UMK and Eurovision Song Contest:
Juhani Lassila
Head of Media
ext-juhani.lassila@yle.fi
+358 40 541 2365

UMK and Eurovision Song Contest:
Anssi Autio
Executive Producer
anssi.autio@yle.fi
+358 40 749 0047