This year's Finnish final - 2011 Eurovision Laulukilpailu - consists of three semi-finals held at the YLE TV studios in Tampere. The top 3 songs in each heat (chosen by sms- and televoting) qualify for the final. After all the semi-finals have been held, an "expert" jury will award a so-called "wildcard" for one of the losing songs meaning that the total number of songs in the final will amount to 10.
The five candidates in tonight's first semi-final were the following (qualifiers in bold):
Automatic Eye - I'm Not The One Who's Sorry
Marko Maunuksela - Synkän Maan Tango
Johanna Iivanainen - Luojani Mun
Jonna - Puppets
Cardiant - Rapture In Time
The 2011 Finnish final will be held on the 12th of February at Turku's Caribia Arena and will be hosted by longterm presenter Jaana Pelkonen and newcomer Tom Nylund.
