Finland had last participated in Eurovision at Eurovision 2000 where the eighteenth place showing of Nina Åström with "A Little Bit" had resulted in a one-year Eurovision disqualification for Finland. The Finnish national preliminary round for Eurovision 2002 was the first Finnish national preliminary round for Eurovision to feature no songs sung in Finnish: in an effort to ensure international favor at Eurovision 2002, eleven of the twelve competing songs in the Finnish national preliminary round for Eurovision 2002 were English-language numbers with the twelfth competing song having Italian lyrics.