Finland has participated in the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

55 times since its debut in . Finland won the contest for the first – and to date only – time in with Lordi's " Hard Rock Hallelujah". The country's best result before then was achieved by Marion Rung with the song "Tom Tom Tom" in , which placed sixth. Finland has finished last in the contest eleven times, receiving '' nul points'' in , and . Since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004, Finland has failed to reach the final eight times. In , the country had its best result in eight years when Softengine with "Something Better" finished 11th, a result that would be surpassed seven years later by Blind Channel with " Dark Side", which came sixth in , thereby achieving the country's joint-second best result to date and its first top 10 result since 2006. In , Finland finished last in the first semi-final with the shortest-ever Eurovision entry, "" performed by Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät.

History

Before the 2006 victory, Finland was considered by many as the ultimate under-achiever of Eurovision. Prior to its triumph, it had placed last a total of eight times, once with '' nul points'' after the introduction of the current scoring method. Finland's entry in

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

, "" by Kojo, was one of only fifteen songs since the modern scoring system was instituted in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

to earn no points. ( Norway had placed last eleven times and scored zero points four times, but had also won twice before 2006). Due to low results, Finland was excluded from the contest in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, and

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

. In 2006, Finland won with the band Lordi and its song " Hard Rock Hallelujah", an entry different from the mainstream europop that dominated the competition. The song broke records scoring the highest number of points in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest, with 292. The record was eventually broken by Norway in

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, with 387. In 2015, Finland finished last in the first semi-final with the shortest-ever Eurovision song, the one minute and 27 seconds "" performed by Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät. Finland reached the final for the first time in four years in 2018, with Saara Aalto placing 25th. After a non-qualification in 2019 with Darude featuring Sebastian Rejman, Finland gained its joint-second best result to date in 2021, with Blind Channel placing 6th. All of Finland's entries were in English between

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

and

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

and again since

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

(except in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

and

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

); both of these periods allowed submissions in any language. Two entries,

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

and

, were in

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

, which is an official language in Finland alongside Finnish. All of Finland's other songs have been in Finnish.

Participation overview

Hostings

Awards

Marcel Bezençon Awards

Related involvement

Conductors

Commentators and spokespersons

Photogallery

File:Eurovisie Songfestival 1962 te Luxemburg, voor Finland Marion Rung, Bestanddeelnr 913-6605.jpg, Marion Rung in Luxemburg () File:Eurovision Song Contest 1965 - Viktor Klimenko.jpg, Viktor Klimenko in Naples () File:Eurovision Song Contest 1976 rehearsals - Finland - Fredi & Ystävät 7.png, Fredi in The Hague () File:Kirka12589.jpg, Kirka (pictured in 1989) File:LordiMoscow.jpg, Lordi (pictured in 2005) File:ESC 2007 Finland - Hanna Pakarinen - Leave me alone.jpg,

Hanna Pakarinen Hanna Helena Pakarinen (born 17 April 1981) is a Finnish pop and pop-rock singer who rose to fame as the winner of the first series of the Finnish singing competition '' Idols'' in 2004. Since then she has represented Finland in the Eurovision S ...

in Helsinki () File:ESC 2008 - Finland - Teräsbetoni, 1st semifinal.jpg, Teräsbetoni in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

() File:Waldo's People.jpg, Waldo's People in Moscow () File:Kuunkuiskaajat.jpg, Kuunkuiskaajat in Oslo () File:ESC2013 - Finland 01 (crop).jpg, Krista Siegfrids in Malmö () File:ESC2014 - Finland 01.jpg, Softengine in Copenhagen () File:20150515 ESC 2015 Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät 6620.jpg, Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät in Vienna () File:ESC2016 - Finland 04.jpg, Sandhja in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

() File:ESC2017 - Finland 01.jpg, Norma John in Kyiv () File:ESC2018 - Finland 06.jpg, Saara Aalto in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

() File:ESC2019 - Finland.jpg, Darude and Sebastian Rejman in Tel Aviv () File:Eurovision 2022 - Semi-final 2 - Finland - The Rasmus (01).jpg, The Rasmus in Turin ()

Notes

References

{{Authority control Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest