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Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle’s Contest for New Music UMK, which grew to an arena size event last year, will this year take place on Saturday 8 February. This season, the show, featuring seven UMK acts, and the yet unannounced opening and interval numbers, will be hosted by one of Finland’s biggest artists, SANNI, together with Jasmin Beloued, a rising star at Yle Youth News.  

The host duo will first appear in the UMK25 artist announcement show on 8 January, 2025 where the UMK25 artists are announced in a live broadcast from Yle studios in Helsinki. The show has English commentary by Jaakko Oleander-Turja and is viewable internationally through Yle’s streaming service Yle Areena.

“Hosting is really different from singing and I think this experience will bring me new ideas for performing. I’m sure that this will strengthen me as a performer in general. For me, UMK means, in particular, celebrating new music and giving new music an opportunity to make it,” says SANNI. “UMK is a wonderful community event where people gather together, both in the arena and in homes. It’s great to be part of this.” 

Jasmin comments: “Being part of UMK has been my dream for a long time, and I have had the opportunity to collaborate with the UMK production team in my role as a journalist. That was how I made myself visible to the UMK team, and eventually I received a request for test shoots and got to join the team. This production is full of top professionals, so even though the role is very nerve-racking, I feel very confident. I am also a Eurovision fangirl, so it feels like a great privilege to be in this role and hit the stage in front of the audience in Tampere.”