After months of preparations, the first televised program of UMK, Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu, aired in Finland with the announcement of the 12 competitors who will fight for the right to represent the nordic country at 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku, Azerbaijan.

According to eurovision.tv, the first the Finnish broadcaster YLE announced a new format for selecting their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest called "Contest For New Music". Then they received a record breaking 540 songs for the competition. Later, a special jury made of 11 music professionals shortlisted to 40 the number of demos which were made public on UMK's official site.

For the last couple of months, all visitors to the website could listen to the 40 songs and click on the "I like" button. This voting was compiled in a chart called "Fanitusbarometri (Fan barometer)", although the ultimate voting decision belong to the expert judges who picked their 12 favourite demos. Final studio versions of these songs have now been produced by the top producers in Finland and will be released on January 30.