Country Finland Selection date(s) 12 February 2000 Selected song "A Little Bit" | Selection process National Final Selected entrant Nina Åström Final result 18th=, 18 points | |
Finland was represented by Nina Åström, with the song '"A Little Bit", at the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 13 May in Stockholm. Finland returned to the Eurovision final after being forced to sit out the 1999 contest due to relegation after a poor result in 1998. "A Little Bit" was chosen as the Finnish entry at the national final on 12 February.
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Final
The final was organised by broadcaster YLE at the Hotel Lord in Helsinki, hosted by Jani Juntunen and Silvia Modig. Twelve songs had participated in a radio-only semi-final in January, with the top six as chosen by public vote going through to the televised final. The winning song was chosen by a split between televoting and an "expert" jury and the final result proved unpopular as "A Little Bit" had not been placed first either by the televoters or the jury (who had chosen "Sleepwalker" and "Viha ja rakkaus" respectively) and was considered a safe compromise winner.
At Eurovision
On the night of the final Åström performed 20th in the running order, following Macedonia and preceding Latvia. At the close of voting "A Little Bit" had received 18 points from only four countries (Estonia, the Netherlands, Romania and Sweden), placing Finland joint 18th (with Spain) of the 24 entries. The 12 points from the Finnish televote were awarded to Latvia. The low placement meant that Finland were once again relegated and did not take part in the 2001 contest – the country would miss every contest held in an odd-numbered year between 1995 and 2003 for this reason. Switzerland missed also those same years except for 1997.
OGAE Second Chance Contest
Anna Eriksson's "Oot voimani mun" represented Finland in the annual OGAE Second Chance Contest, a contest for entries that failed to win the country's national selection process for the annual Eurovision Song Contest, and took Finland's first and to date only victory in the contest.