The Rasmus’ UMK entry Jezebel was written specifically with Eurovision participation in mind, lead singer Lauri Ylönen has revealed.

Ylönen was speaking in one of his first interviews since the band was unveiled as participating in Finland’s national selection for Eurovision 2022 and conceded it was unexpected that The Rasmus would take part.

“It’s pretty unexpected that we take part in the competition because I think usually it’s newcomers mostly,” Ylönen said.

“Last summer after struggling with COVID for a year and a half, I came up with an idea for a song. I contacted a good friend of mine, Desmond Child, telling him ‘I need your help man, we gotta write the best song and win the Eurovision’.”

Desmond Child is a prolific songwriter and music producer with credits on international hits including Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer and Ricky Martin’s Livin’ la Vida Loca. Child also wrote Bonnie Tyler’s 2013 Eurovision entry Believe in Me.

After being in contact, Child suggested Ylönen join him on the Greek island of Folegandros where he was at the time.

“I went there [Folegandros] for two days,” Ylönen added.

“We wrote the song. We thought it was incredible and I also had the vision of us taking part in the UMK, aiming for Eurovision. So it was like a different inspiration to write this song. While I think it sounds like The Rasmus, there’s something more. Maybe it’s because we had the competition in mind.”

Broadcast on February 26, UMK will be The Rasmus’ first live performance with Emilia Suhonen who joined the band earlier this month.

“It’s great that we have this challenge,” Ylönen said.

“At the same time we have a new band member – Emilia joined the band as a guitarist. Having her is a big change but now we have this challenge to overcome; we have to conquer something together.”

The Rasmus have been an international performing band for two decades and Ylönen feels that being able to represent Finland at Eurovision would come naturally.

“It would be an absolute honour to represent Finland. We have done that in a way for years because 95% of the gigs we play have been outside of Finland. We always bring that message of being a Fin to the world. It would actually be quite natural for us.”

Image Credit – Venla Shalin