Some 1.7 million people in Finland tuned in to Yle TV1 to watch the Eurovision song contest on Saturday evening.
In total, the broadcast attracted some 2.8 million viewers in Finland, with more than 800,000 watching the show via Yle's Areena platform as well as Yle's website.
"Käärijä has truly captured Finns' hearts this spring, with the excitement reaching nearly unprecedented levels. Eurovision has been on everyone's lips. It is a great joy to see how the positive spirit and music have brought people together," said Anssi Autio, Yle's main producer for Eurovision.
This year, in addition to Finnish and Swedish, Yle narrated the Eurovision grand final in Russian, Inari Sámi, Northern Sámi and Ukrainian. Yle News also hosted a live blog covering the show in English.
The United Kingdom hosted this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool on behalf of last year's winner, Ukraine. A total of 26 countries performed in Saturday’s finale in which Finland's representative, Käärijä, finished second. The winner was Loreen from Sweden with her song Tattoo.