Pete Parkkonen and Linda Lampenius have released “Liekinheitin”, their entry for Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2026.
Pete Parkkonen first came to public attention after finishing third in the fourth series of Idol in 2008. His debut album “The First Album” reached number one on the Finnish Album Charts. After a second album in English in 2010, he began releasing music in Finnish in 2013.
Linda Lampenius, also known as Linda Brava, began performing at the age of three. 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. Last year, she performed as part of the UMK 2025 interval act.
The release order for the remaining songs is as follows:
January 19 – Komiat
January 20 – Sinikka Monte
January 21 – Antti Paalanen
January 22 – CHACHI
January 23 – KIKI
The entries released so far are:
UMK 2026 will take place on February 28 in Nokia Arena in Tampere. The winner will represent Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Vienna.
Erika Vikman represented Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 with “Ich komme”. Finland finished 11th in the final scoring 196 points. Finland received 12 points from the Austrian jury and received 10 points from the public in Sweden, Australia and Estonia.
Finland first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1961. They debuted alongside Spain and Yugoslavia. Finland has finished last in the contest on 10 occasions and has received ‘nul points’ three times. It wasn’t until 2006 that Finland won the Eurovision Song Contest. Lordi represented the country in Athens with the song “Hard Rock Hallelujah” scoring 292 points, a record total at the time.