Finland: “Jezebel” gets into Finnish blood, The Rasmus go to Eurovision!

Helsinki, 26 February 2022

Hyvää iltaa Eurooppa, we’re bringing you more news from the North, with Finland picking their entrant for tonight. As the title implies rock legends The Rasmus fulfilled the expectations and won the whole event, and will represent Finland in Turin with the song “Jezebel”.

However, before Lauri & co won, Finland put up an impressive show. Hosted by Vesala and Mmiismas, UMK 2022 was widely available for online streaming, with commentary being provided in Finnish, English, Swedish and for the first time ever, the Sami language. 

The Finnish final foresaw this running order: 

1. The Rasmus – “Jezebel” 🏆
2. Isaac Sene – “Kuuma jäbä“
3. Olivera – “Thank God I’m an atheist“
4. BESS – “Ram pam pam“
5. Younghearted – “Sun numero“
6. Cyan Kicks – “Hurricane“
7. Tommi Läntinen – “Ellämä kantaa mua“

After the performances, viewers were treated to a bevy of fun interludes, with the crowning moment being Vesala’s live performance of several iconic hits, one of which included her reclining down on a giant slice of pie. Talk about making the art of performing a piece of cake. 

After the interval acts, it was time for the international jury to cast their votes. In UMK, the jury votes contribute 25% of the total tally, with the remaining 75% being determined by the televote (thus, every three televote points is equivalent to receive in a single jury point). Tonight’s international juries were Cyprus (Elena Tsagrinou), Norway (Keiino), Serbia (Boiana Stamenov), Germany (Jendrik Sigwart), Spain (Rosa Lopez), Czech Republic (Lake Malawi) and Italy (Marta Cagnola).

After the jury tally, The Rasmus took an early lead over Bess. However, as televotes are worth triple the amount as a jury, it was evident the televote would determine the winner here. 

And indeed, The Rasmus not only maintained the lead, but extended it by receiving a sizeable 242 televote points (equivalent to 80 jury points). It’s a smaller margin than Blind Channel’s victory last year, but let’s just say this was due to the improvement in overall qualify of the national final. They won with 310 points over the kid with their pumped-up Cyan Kicks and JezeBESS‘s Ram Pam Pam. 

The final scoreboard looked like this: 

You can listen to the winning performance here:

Finland will compete in the First Half of the Second Semifinal on 12 May 2022. Other countries in this semifinal include Estonia and Sweden, as well as Poland, San Marino and Australia. 

Finland won Eurovision in 2006, and received their second best placement of all time in 2021, with Blind Channel’s 4th place in the televote carrying them to a respectable 6th place overall. 

What do #YOU think about “Jezebel”? Do #YOU think Finland made the right choice? Let us know in the comments, on social media or on our forum HERE. Alternatively, join the discussion on our Discord HERE.