The Finnish Top Twelve (or, arguably, Fifteen) were revealed today on national broadcaster YLE, after a jury had whittled down the 540 nationwide applicants to a worthy few.  Twelve songs were handpicked by a jury consisting of musical professionals, but a thirteenth song will be up to the decision of the viewers of this year’s “Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu”.

The twelve jury-selected entries are:

• Aili – Mun taivas
• Aura Pineda – Kunpa vois
• Freeman & Uusi Fantasia – Noitanainen
• Iconcrash – We Are The Night
• Jari & Taika – Aamuyön salaisuus
• Kaisa Vala – Habits Of Human Beings
• Kirahvi nimeltä Tuike – Sinisulkien viimeinen
• Leola – Rytmit rikkoutuu
• Mica Ikonen – Antaa mennä
• Pernilla Karlsson- När jag blundar
• Stig – Laululeija
• Ville Eetvartti – Lasikaupunki

From now until next Thursday, Finnish viewers will have the opportunity to select a thirteenth finalist from the following three songs:

• The Spyro – Teleport My Heart
• Martina – Checkmate
• Jessica Wolff – Better

For the record, that means that out of the fifteen songs in the running this year, only five are in English, while nine are in Finnish and one is in Swedish.  Finland has sent songs in their native tongue twice (2008 and 2010) since the EBU’s National Language Rule was dropped in 1999, which may seem paltry, but fellow Nordics Iceland, Denmark and Sweden have only performed in English since the rule change, and Norway has only sent one non-English entry (in 2006, unless you count smatterings of Spanish and Swahili).

After a series of specials and elimination heats, Finland will select their song for Baku on February 25th at the Helsinki Ice Hall.