The winners of the Folk Song 2050 competition will be announced on 30 July.

The winners of the Folk Song 2050 competition, organised to celebrate the anniversary of Etno-Espa, have been selected and the winning songs will be announced on Tuesday 30 July. A total of 48 songs were submitted and the jury chose three of them to be awarded. The jury received the entries anonymously.

“We are delighted with the attention the competition has attracted and the number of authors who have taken part. The future theme was particularly evident in the lyrics, but we chose a song that looks forward, especially musically, as the winner,” says Riikka Hiltunen, the jury’s chair, vice-chair of the Etno-Espa association’s board and musicologist. The other members of the jury were Pauliina Lerche, chair of the board of the Finnish Music Makers Association, songwriter and musician, and Risto Blomster, archivist and docent at the Finnish Literature Society.

“The balance of the competition was rich in terms of quantity, style and even values. There was a keen desire for diversity, but also all kinds of traditional values in both texts and music. Based on the songs, the world of the future seems interesting, varied and opinionated – on the one hand, very Finnish”, sums up Blomster.

The winning songs will be announced on Tuesday 30 July and the winning song will be performed live at the opening of Etno-Espa on 5 August at 17:00. The authors of the winning songs have been notified of their placements.