Up until very recently, Finland was one of the Scandinavian countries to have never won the Eurovision Song Contest and neither even reaching the top ten of the scoreboard with the best result being a sixth place finish but that all changed when Lordi and the track Hard Rock Hallelujah trumped the rest of the competition. Since then, Finland have been quite successful in making the final on four occasions from a total of six missing out earlier this year thanks to Pernilla Karlsson and her charming ballad När Jag Blundar which ended up in twelfth place. It seems that despite the disappointment, YLE, the Finnish broadcaster will be keeping to the same selection process hoping that the final result would be more positive.

The official regulations for the upcoming selection process which will be known as Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu were published today through the official website of the Public Broadcaster and they could be accessed here. Apart from the typical regulations which have to comply with those set forth by the European Broadcasting Union, it is also stated that the songs sent in could be in any language that performed or songwriters deem fit to represent the country. There has to be a Finnish presence in the team which is proposed including the lead vocalist and at least the composer or the lyricist. The first part of the selection will run online as was the case last year with the number of acts always brought down so that they would compete in a specific final which would take place in February 2013. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com for all of the latest news regarding the 2013 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest taking place in Malmo, Sweden.

Source: YLE