UMK22 contestant The Rasmus has released an official music video for their entry “Jezebel”. They are hoping to represent Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022.
The video is directed by Jesse Haaja while the idea for it came from the band and the director. The song “Jezebel” is written by the singer Lauri Ylönen together with Desmond Child. Desmond has written multiple hits to bands such as Kiss, Bon Jovi and Aerosmith. These include “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” for Kiss, “Livin’ on a Prayer” for Bon Jovi and “Poison” for Alice Cooper.
The Rasmus was formed in 1994 in Helsinki and was first named just as Rasmus. Already their first full-length album Peep, released in 1996, charted in Finland and was certified as a gold record after selling over 21 thousand copies. In 2003 the group struck gold when they released the song “In the Shadows”. The song charted all over the world and gave the group top 10 hit in many European countries. The song has over 100 million streams on Spotify.
For the first time since 1999, the group’s line-up had some changes just before it was announced they will take part in Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu. One of the founding members of the band, Pauli Rantasalmi announced he will leave the group. The new guitarist Emppu Suhonen has previously been part of girl group Tiktak, who also had major success in Finland in late 1990s and early 2000s.
The Rasmus is one of the favourites to win Finland’s UMK22. They won an online poll with a landslide and have been the bookmakers’ favourite to represent Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022.
UMK22 final on February 26th
The final of Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2022 will take place on February 26th with seven acts, Cyan Kicks, BESS, The Rasmus, Younghearted, Olivera, Tommi Läntinen and Isaac Sene, competing. The show will be hosted by pop artist Vesala and social media influencer Mmiisas. The winner and Finland’s Eurovision 2022 representative will be chosen by international jury (25% of the vote) and the Finnish public (75% of the vote). The final will have commentators in six languages, including Finnish, Swedish, English, Russian, Inari Sami and Northern Sami.
Finland will compete in the second semifinal of the contest in Turin and will perform on the first half of the show on May 10th.
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