Umk25 - Blog Posts

UMK25 Song Review: Sekaisin

Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK) is back and stronger than ever! We have seven new artists ready to compete for the trophy and the ticket to Basel in May! The third song keeps the quality strike even!

Costee - Sekaisin

Costee is man of 100 million streams and three studio albums under his belt. So a very familiar name in the Finnish music scene!

He started learning music at the age of 8 and he started his career in a band called Sima. His own record deal he signed in 2017 and it's been one hit after another since that. Now days he runs his own record company.

He is known to be an emotional man who is not afraid to be open. He tends to be into darker sounds and vision but lately there has been a more hopeful tune in his music. His UMK entry Sekaisin also fits into this description.

Sekaisin holds a strong contrast to the previous UMK25 entry Nelli's Hitaammin Hautaan. This one is dark with a good elektrobeat. The start is promising, building strongly.

1st chorus works but after that it goes downhill. It doesn't deliver the beginning's promises which is a damn shame.

A lot of people compare this to Benjamin from 2023 with his Hoida Mut but this doesn't reach the same hights and catch you in the same intensity.

Personally I'm not crazy about his voice and I think he pronounces lazily. But there is love for this one as it still holds top20 spot in Spotify Finnish charts so even if he's not winning the trophy he will be fine after UMK.

What do you think of the third UMK25 track and what are the chances of Costee to advance to ESC? Talk to me in the comments below!

UMK25 Song Review: Hitaammin Hautaan

Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK) is back and stronger than ever! We have seven new artists ready to compete for the trophy and the ticket to Basel in May! The second song won't leave anyone cold!

Nelli Matula - Hitaammin Hautaan

Nelli Matula has been a recording artist since 2016 and since then released two albums, achieved Emma (Finnish Grammy) nominations and wide popularity in Finland with her gold-and platinium streaming singles. She's a name you should know!

The singer takes part in UMK25 with her deeply personal song Hitaammin Hautaan which is inspired by the health issues she suffered a few years back. The song fits her musical style and what people have grown to expect from her so for her most loyal fans the song is already a hit!

Hitaammin Hautaan is a pure pop track that doesn't play too many games with different genres. Again sounding in the beginning like a ballad it picks up a beat that is very difficult to resist. Chorus is strong and memorable and I do believe we have the next Ylivoimainen (UMK, 23) or Ram Pam Pam (UMK, 22) making here.

Her voice is very clear and fine and goes well with the melody. There's a beautiful harmony here with the visuals, the pink and grey color scene isn't too over the top but still princess enough like and she fits the role like a glove. This is probably the best UMK25 videoclip btw!

Structure like this is pretty close to perfection: builds up is just right and keeps the viewer / listener hooked. There's nothing life changing here but still enough that pleases you until the very end.

These types of songs are very popular in the national selections because now days many shows offer fame and opportunities for tracks to become big hits even without the trophy. However, that's where they'll stay as viewers rarely give their votes to these big radio hits.

What do you think of the second UMK25 track and what are the chances of Nelli to advance to ESC? Talk to me in the comments below!

UMK25 Song review: Nightmares

Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK) is back and stronger than ever! We have seven new artists ready to compete for the trophy and the ticket to Basel in May! The first song kicked off the UMK season with a banger!

Neea River - Nightmares

Neea River is a singer-songwriter who was discovered on Instagram (she sang Céline Dion's All By Myself) during her holidays in L.A. The singing sensation has since written songs for other artists (Bess, Laura Voutilainen, Blanka, K-Pop artists etc). So she has a full day job as a music professional and she's made a name for herself as one.

As a solo artist she's been pushed by her label to switch to Finnish but she's always found English as a more natural choice. Now days, she has own label. She loves dance pop genre, loud bangers and Eurovision. Her musical influencers are Britney Spears, Weekend and Rihanna.

Her UMK song Nightmares was inspired by traumatic experience and reminds the people that there's always an exit of the difficult experiences. She wrote it together with Ilkka Wirtanen and Petri Alanko. With Nightmares she wants to bring pure pop banger to Eurovision from Finland.

Nightmares is her first own song to be released as a solo artist. And so far it has been compared to Loreen (Sweden, 2023), Keiino (Norway 2019) and Saara Aalto (Finland, 2018). This defintely has a nordic sound!

The beginning starts with a dark, mysterious tone - some might be fooled to think we have a ballad in our hands. The song builds up strong to the first drop which reveals the EMD/ disco beat which is the core of the song. This could be easily taken from early 2000's house music scene.

The woman can sing even though many have been worried the layered edits on her voice during the track. Personally, I'm not one of those people. There's a debate going on whether the dancing she does in the music video is part how you do it in this type of music or if she's actually just not the best at it.

It's true that often EMD tracks it's difficult to get a real climax, a drop happening later in the song because the beat is so strong and in here the song tends to continue kind of predictably without further surprises. This bothers me a bit tbh.

A lot of people speak about "the eurovision sound" and how much this song has it. Yeah would be an easy fit to the contest and a big pleaser for a lot of people. But I don't see this pulling a lot points

However, this is an impressive defeat for someone producing her own music as independantly as Neea does and running her own label on top of it - I do hope all the best for Neea but I have a feeling this ain't our UMK25 winner.

What do you think of the first UMK25 track and what are the chances of Neea to advance to ESC? Talk to me in the comments below!