UMK artist Sinikka Monte is a 23-year-old artist whose roots are in three countries and cultures. She was born in Scotland, grew up in Austria and is half Finnish, half South African.
– I am incredibly proud of my ability to speak Finnish. It feels like a superpower to be able to speak such a difficult language, she says laughing.
Monte says she makes music for “people who are sad and need a hug”. Her UMK song Ready to Leave is a dark, cinematic ballad that captures a painful moment: a relationship has continued for too long, leaving only bitterness and the need to let go.
The roots of Monte's music lie in childhood experiences of being an outsider
When the family moved from Scotland to Austria, Monte was only four years old. She spent her childhood in Sankt Pölten, a small town outside Vienna. The move brought about her first experience of being an outsider.
Learning a new language and culture was not easy. Monte describes how some of the people in the small town were unwelcoming towards newcomers. A dialect, background or “wrong” accent was enough to exclude someone.
– As a child, I did not feel much empathy. That made me decide that I don't want anyone else to feel so lonely or misunderstood. This has become my purpose in a way, she says.
Perhaps that is why Monte has the word "empathy" tattooed on her skin.
She describes herself as a very emotional, melancholic person who is sensitive to reading others. These are the qualities that make up Monte’s music.
From childhood performances to international TV formats
There were no musicians in Monte's family, but she was interested in performing as a child. She danced ballet from the age of five until she was a teenager, and performing on stage quickly felt like the right place.
After ballet, she shifted her focus to singing. Her official debut single It Ain’t You was released in 2019. She released her second single, Play Pretend, after that, and found her long-term trusted producer, Florian “Flo” Spies, around the same time.
So far, the best memories of her career relate to the moment when Monte'ss music played in the reality series Love is Blind. The song was licensed for a dark, dramatic scene.
– I watched the episode on my laptop while I was putting on my makeup. Suddenly, I heard my song play. I started jumping around the room and called my mum. It felt incomprehensible, she recalls.
“I make music for people who are sad and need a hug”
Monte describes herself as an emotional artist who uses music as therapy. Most of her songs are created so that she writes for herself first and only later thinks about the audience.
– I write about things that I don't even talk about with my friends.”
The most difficult moments in my career have been related to uncertainty and comparison, which have sometimes eaten up the joy of writing.
Still, she knows exactly who she wants to make music for.
– I make songs for people who are sad and need a hug.
Monte describes her style as “crying in the club”: the songs might be sad, but you should be able to dance to them with tears in your eyes.
Ready to Leave combines English and Finnish
The previous joint UMK entry by Monte and Flo Spies, Hers Too, made it to the Top 10 in the UMK24 applications. When the next application approached, Monte suffered from blank page syndrome, and she could not finish a song that year.
The turning point came when the duo found inspiration in Alicia Keys' interpretation of a Prince song, the dark themes of James Bond films, and Frank Ocean’s Bad Religion.
The lyrics of Ready to Leave describe a situation where you stay in a relationship for too long, even though you should have left.
– When I was writing it, I felt like someone was physically tearing my heart from my chest. That is the feeling that I would like the audience to experience, at least for a moment, says Monte.
Monte has previously published music in English, but in the UMK song she also sings in Finnish. The decision was made almost by accident when one important line did not sound good in English.
She tried singing it in Finnish at the piano, recorded the version and sent it to her producer.
– I was afraid that he would say it sounds strange. But the response was positive, and let's do this, Monte recalls.
This was how the chorus that mixes English and Finnish was born: "The want and the need, the wanting to leave, ja kaikki aina alkaa alusta. Just need more time, ehkä mieleni muuttuu, I’ll hate you when I’m ready to leave”.
For many Finns, Monte was unknown before UMK. This is about to change.
– I hope people see me for who I am: passionate, emotional and genuinely grateful for this opportunity. I cannot control everything. The most important thing is that I can stand on the stage as myself and sing my story, Monte says.