On our latest podcast episode, we build a bridge to Finland, where we met up with a fan-favourite who is set to participate in Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2025!

Neea River is one of seven artists selected to compete in UMK this year. Her song Nightmares was also the first to be released by Finnish broadcaster Yle. She’s a self-described “pop-princess” and she’s ready to perform her music live for the first time at Nokia Arena for the UMK Final on 8^th February!

Neea River has amassed a large number of fans in a relatively short period of time. She began releasing her own music professionally in 2023, after leaving everything behind in Nurmijärvi and moving to Los Angeles, somewhat serendipitously:

“A local producer from Los Angeles found me through hashtags on Instagram, and he found my singing videos. And he reached out to me and was saying ‘you have amazing voice, do you want to come to the studio and let’s work on songs?’
I didn’t know anything about music business at that time. But we connected and we became friends. And one year later, he and his girlfriend, they had a roommate and the roommate moved out, and the producer was like, hey, now you should just move to L.A. and let’s start making songs. And I was like, well, I’m young, that’s one of my biggest dreams. Like, of course, I’m going to do it! So I saved money. I packed two bags left my small town in Finland and moved to Los Angeles and started writing songs!”

— Neea River

When it comes to Neea River’s UMK entry Nightmares, she shared how her song has a deep, personal, and empowering message about healing from traumatic experiences:

“The message I want to send with this song to people, it’s the people who have been hurt or have gone through similar stuff and are just thinking, ‘How can I manage this all? How can I survive this?’ And I want to send a message that someday you will. Like, it will get better. You will see the light after seeing nightmares for so long.”

— Neea River

When Dave asked her about what fans can expect on stage, Neea River could not hide her excitement about what she has planned for UMK! She was very confident in the visual aspects of her performance while maintaining an air of mystery about the full staging:

“The staging, we’re working on it. It’s looking amazing. There’s, I can’t tell too much, but there’s going to be some elements from the music video. And I also saw my outfit… It’s going to be different from the music video. And it’s looking so beautiful. I’m going to look like a superstar.”

— Neea River

Until then, be sure and check out the full interview with Neea River (above) to hear the full story of how she made it big in Los Angeles, why she decided now was the time to enter UMK, and what her staging might look like at Nokia Arena in Tampere on the 8^th of February! The episode is available now wherever you get your favourite Eurovision podcasts!

We wish Neea River an amazing performance at UMK! Let us know in the comments and on our social media profiles @buildingbridgespod what you thought of the interview and if you think we’ll see her in Basel in May!