YLE announced today that the Finnish national final will be held on 17 February 2007. It will follow the same model as this year, where the broadcaster works together with record companies to find invited artists and songs for them. The list of artists will include male and female artists and bands and will be made public in November 2006.
YLE will have four semifinals, broadcast from the Tohloppi studios in Tampere in January and February (Saturdays 20.1., 27.1., 3.2. and 10.2). In each semifinal three invited artists will perform two songs each, one of which will go to through to the televised live final.
Head of TV entertainment Ilkka Talasranta says, that the recent victory is expected to increase the willingness of big names to participate in the Finnish selection and that many artists already have expressed they want to be in the contest next year. Finland also is automatically in the final next year. Executive producer Timo Suomi says, that the model of invited artists was such a great success, that it is worth doing again. Not only did Lordi get a victory on the international level, but the Finnish final created several hits for the domestic Finnish market.
A compilation CD will be published on the 11 February 2007.
The rules for the contest are published at YLEs Eurovision site in Finnish and Swedish.