Krista Siegfrids performed 'Marry Me' on stage in Malmö in 2013
EBU
Finland's UMK
The Finnish broadcaster, YLE, has announced that it has received 420 entries for their Eurovision national selection UMK, the final of which will take place the 1st of February 2014.
The full calendar of dates for UMK 2014 is as follows:
Presentation: 10th December 2013
Heat 1: 28th December 2013
Heat 2: 4th January 2014
Heat 3: 11th January 2014
Heat 4: 18th January 2014
Heat 5 25th January 2014
Final: 1st February 2014
Those 420 hopefuls must be now reduced to only 12 songs, which is the final number of participants in the public selection of UMK. The 12 names will be revealed the 4th of November 2013 and only one of them will have the chance to represent Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest in Denmark next year.
Sweden's Melodifestivalen
Once again many songs were received in Sweden. A total of 2628 entries "although we had probably hoped for less" confirmed Melodifestivalen producer Christer Björkman.
we have asked everyone to be very restrictive and only send what they are passionate about
It seems that the goal is to prioritize quality over quantity, as the Swedish broadcaster, SVT, already intended in the last couple of years.
That big number must be reduced to only 15 by the jury panel. One further participant name we already know is the band EKO who won Svensktoppen nästa back in August. The remaining 16 participants, which will be decided by SVT, will be announced in the coming weeks. That makes the total of 32 contestants in Melodifestivalen 2014.
As we informed you some days ago, SVT released the dates, venues and cities for the Melodifestivalen 2014 tour:
Semi-Final 1: 1st February 2014 - Malmö Arena, Malmö
Semi-Final 2: 8th February 2014 - Cloetta Center, Linköping
Semi-Final 3: 15th February 2014 - Scandinavium, Gothenburg
Semi-Final 4: 22nd Februrary 2014 - Fjällräven Center, Örnsköldsvik
Andra Chansen: 1st March 2014 - Sparbanken Lindköping Arena, Lindköping
Final: 8th March 2014 - Friends Arena, Stockholm
The winner of Melodifestivalen 2014 will follow on the footsteps of this year's winner Robin Sternberg (below) and represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhaguen.
