Yle’s Contest for New Music (UMK) tickets available Thursday October 1 – check out the first artist hints!

In Finland we have this thing called UMK… Yle's Contest for New Music (UMK) has grown during this decade into one of the most followed pre-selections in the Eurovision world and an increasingly significant platform for Finnish music. UMK artists regularly appear on the most popular song and album charts, and many songs featured in the competition have become major hits both domestically and abroad. Last year, nearly 20,000 people experienced the UMK show on-site, and visitors came to the event from all over Finland, and from 26 different countries around the world.

Next February, Tampere's Nokia Arena will once again transform into a pink UMK bubble: the UMK27 show will feature seven UMK competition performances as well as spectacular opening and interval acts. The arena will host pre-parties and after-parties across three floors until 2.30am. The UMK27 show can be experienced in advance at the afternoon dress rehearsal, based on which international juries will award their points.

Tickets for the UMK27 show and the evening event, as well as the afternoon dress rehearsal, will become available on Thursday October 1, 9am at lippu.fi/UMK. This year, tickets will also be available for standing sections in front of the stage.

Mikko Silvennoinen, UMK’s Executive Producer, comments: "UMK strengthens its position year after year as a creator of Finnish music phenomena at home and abroad. The previous season produced several radio hits domestically as well as the overwhelming Eurovision winner favorite according to international betting agencies and industry predictors. The UMK atmosphere is definitely worth experiencing in person – see you in Tampere in February!"

Nearly 500 song applications – Finnish songwriting is world-class

This year, a total of 481 applications were sent to UMK, which is nearly at last year's record level. The final seven UMK contestants were selected by a professional jury consisting of music professionals, and five public juries, which included a diverse group of representatives from various fields.

Tapio Hakanen, chair of the professional UMK jury and Managing Editor, Yle Music comments: “The increasing interest from artists towards UMK is directly reflected in the fact that our jury's task becomes more difficult year after year. The quality of this year's song candidates showed that Finnish songwriting represents the very top in the world.” 

The UMK27 artists will be announced January 13, 2027 in a live Yle broadcast, and the songs will traditionally be released one at a time on weekdays between January 14 and 22.

Hakanen continues: “This season includes a band with a truly international sound and ambitions abroad, a duo with an irresistible club sound that invites you to the dance floor, a dramatic and grandiose song that evokes cinematic imagery, an artist who appeals to a wide variety of audiences, a dark-spoken modern anthem spiced with distorted guitars, an artist presenting a new side of themselves with a fierce dance banger, and a song where a kantele melody grows to epic proportions."

Media material:
UMK27 event trailer
UMK27 media folder
Yle.fi/umk
Lippu.fi/umk

Mediakontaktit: 

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

Artist and Song Selections:
Tapio Hakanen
Managing Editor, Yle Music
tapio.hakanen@yle.fi
+358 50 482 8501

UMK and Eurovision Song Contest:
Mikko Silvennoinen
Executive Producer
mikko.silvennoinen@yle.fi 
+358 40 551 6445

Read press release on Yle's webpage.