Today is the first day of September, it means Eurovision season starts. We have recieved good news from different countries, this time from Finland. The Finnish national final UMK2017 waits for artists who want to represent Finland in Ukraine.
Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (abbreviated UMK, English: New Music Competition) is a contest for new music organised by the Finnish broadcaster, Yle. UMK began in 2012, as a new concept for the Finnish selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, replacing the original Finnish Eurovision Song Contest selection event (Suomen euroviisukarsinta) which had been used since 1961.
The national broadcaster Yle has released the rules for this year’s national selection. It decides on the realization
of the contest and on the timetable, taking into account the rules and timetables set by the European Broadcasting Union.
UMK – CONTEST FOR NEW MUSIC 2017 RULES
Participation and materials
The entry must be previously unreleased.
Demos must be sent to the contest between September 1st noon and September 5th noon in 2016. Only demos which meet this deadline and these rules may take part in the contest.
The demo and other requested material can be delivered either by uploading them in a digital form to Yle’s server or mailing them on a memory stick (addresses and technical requirements are at the end of these rules). If you send the material on a memory stick download, fill in and sign the entry form that you find at yle.fi/umk.
Artists may take part as solo singers in just one song but they can be group members in another song. The creators of the songs (writers, lyricists, arrangers) may participate with numerous entries.
The singer or the group that performs the song on a demo must also be the final performer of the number.
Demos must be sung, be of a high production standard and, besides the melody also the outlines and ideas of the final arrangement must be heard in them.
Demos and other material sent to the contest will not be returned and Yle does not pay compensation for them. Neither is Yle responsible for such costs or payments that result from the production of the material sent to the contest.
In connection with the contest, Yle has the right to use all the material that has been broadcast, including the marketing of the contest and all programs that were produced during the contest, with any means of transmission and without any time limit.
When writers, performers and other copyright owners enter the contest, they give Yle the permission to follow their preparation for the competition.
Yle has the exclusive rights to all the material it has produced during the contest with no regional or time limit. This includes the right to edit the material and give it further.
Contest Procedure
A jury of experts appointed by Yle pick up the entries (artist + song) that go further out of all the songs that were sent to the contest.
Yle reserves the right to decide on the method of picking the contestants.Once the decisions have been made, they are final.
The winning song is picked on the UMK final in a live broadcast in February 2017. In the final, the voting result is determined by the total number of votes from both the public and the panels. The winner is committed to represent Finland in the international Eurovision Song Contest of 2017 with an entry that complies with the rules of EBU.
If public voting fails due to a technical fault or any other reason, the winner is decided by a panel of experts appointed by Yle.
Before a date that will be announced later, the contestants may not publicly disclose the various phases of Yle’s contest procedures, results, etc. Yle has the right to disqualify any contestants who do not follow secrecy or other rules of the contest.
General rules
The demo that has been sent to the contest may not take part in Eurovision qualifiers in other countries.
At least one of the writers and the lead singer(s) has to be a Finnish citizen or live in Finland permanently.
All performers taking part in the contest must be 16 years old by May 10th 2017 (this is a tentative date and subject to change). The above-mentioned restriction does not apply to composers, lyricists or arrangers. Those with a permanent employment at Yle cannot take part in the contest.
The length of the song may not exceed three minutes.
In TV performances the ensemble may have more than six people on stage, but contestants have to take into consideration that, according to EBU rules, in the Eurovision Song Contest only six people can perform live. Yle has the final say on the performing line-up and the staging of the performance.
The language of the song may be chosen freely. The winner has to bear in mind that, according to EBU’s rules, the lyrics of the song may not be political or offensive and that they cannot include swearwords or trademarks.
All TV performances in the contest are done singback with an instrumental backing. Backing tracks must be delivered to Yle before a date that will be announced later.
An associate chosen by Yle produces the final versions of the songs that have gone further. Contestants may also produce the final version in cooperation with the aforementioned associate or independently. Then the contestants or their representatives (producer, record company and so on) have to deliver the finished material by a certain deadline and in the required recorded format. The contestants or their representatives are responsible for the technical execution of the version. If a third party later has some extra claims to Yle about the new backings of the performance and/or sung versions, the producer of the recording is responsible.
A music video is made out of every song that is chosen to the contest. The implementation of the music video will be made separately according to every song.
Yle reports the composers, lyricists and arrangers of the song to Teosto, which takes care of the compensations according to the valid agreement. Contestants have to report the song to Teosto themselves.
Yle compensates contestants for such moderate travel and lodging costs that have been negotiated with a Yle representative in advance. To contestants, backing vocalists and other persons accepted to the performance from abroad, Yle only compensates the travels inside Finland which have been agreed on.
Yle compensates the contestants for TV performances separately.
Yle does not compensate for the contestants’ other assistants or their background personnel, who take part in the planning or preparation of the performance. Neither does Yle compensate for the costumes, special hairstyling, props or transportation of props that have been procured for the performance in the competition.. During the contest Yle offers the normal hair, make-up, costume and choreography services. Competitors are allowed to employ assistants of their own, but Yle does not pay for their expenses or fees.
The compositions or lyrics that take part in the contest may not be performed publicly or issued commercially or non-commercially (sheet music, record, cassette, CD, DVD, movie, video, radio, television, internet, mobile, on demand, etc) before Yle announces which songs have been chosen to go further on January 2017. After that date the songs that continue in the contest may be issued and performed in public.
Those who have the rights to the songs that have gone further in the contest pledge to allow their songs to be released on a possible compilation album. A separate licence fee will not be paid for the use of songs on the compilation album, only sales royalties according to the pro rata practice.
The performers (lead singer(s), band(s), backing singers and other performers) of the songs that have gone further have to be available for practice, performances and marketing on dates announced later and also during the whole contest.
Yle requires all the rights that EBU demands from it from the producer, writers and performers of the winning song. Regarding this, a special preliminary agreement will be drawn with all the writers, performers, and producers or their representatives of the songs in the final. In the preliminary agreement the writers of the songs and/or their representatives also guarantee that they have not surrendered their rights and that they do not have any other commitments which are in conflict with the above-mentioned EBU agreement.
Yle reserves the rights to changes in the rules. Otherwise in participation and in performing the songs, the international rules of the Eurovision Song Contest drawn by EBU are applied. If EBU’s rules or their interpretation force to alter these rules in some ways, Yle reserves the rights to such changes. Yle also reserves the right to disqualify songs that do not meet these rules.
When taking part in the contest, performers, composers, lyricists and arrangers accept the rules and comply with them.
The material required in these rules must be delivered between noon September the 1st and noon September the 5th in 2016, either by uploading them in the digital form at yle.fi/UMK or mailing a memory stick to
UMK 2017
Yle Kulttuuri
PL 65
00024 Helsinki
Entry in the digital form requires:
- Demo of the song. Format: mp3
- Presentation video. A free form video in which participants tell about themselves and perform. Maximum duration is four minutes. (quicktime.mov 25i PAL SD-DV picture and audio: 48khz 16 bit)
- Two photographs of the performer of the song (singer(s) and/or band. Both a vertical and a horizontal photo. Make sure that the name of the photographer is included and that you have the right to use the photos. Format .jpg., the biggest possible file size of the camera (imagesize: large), compression format: fine. Notice! No .raw-files, no mobile photos!
- A bio of the contestant (singer(s), and/or band) fit for publication, including the possible Twitter-, Instagram, Facebook-, Internet sites or other links.
- Song lyrics. (.doc, .pdf or .rtf)
- If you send the material on a memory stick, download, fill in, sign and send also the entry form that you find at yle.fi/umk.
For application click here.
Further information on e-mail at umk@yle.fi