The midsummer day is just around the corner! It's going to be 23th June this year! It's a very big day in Finland. People celebrate the longest day of the summer. People go to their cottages, make vihta out of small branches of birch tree. Go to sauna, swim in the lake, burn a big bonfire in the evening!
This is my Midsummer song! It's a very special song for me. It represents at the same time lot of the Finnish things that are special and make it special! Have a good Midsummer! Enjoy the summer!
Oh my. Sorry for the longer break. Went to Finland. So now it's going to be some Finnish old school music post and very awesome songs! All these people were big stars long ago, around 50's 60's in Finland. And they are still great because they have style and glamour in them!
Pirkko Mannola is a very famous Finnish iskelmälaulaja, singer that sings hit songs, also an actress and she won the title of Miss Finland in 1958. She became also the second in the competition tv format Dancing with the stars in 2009 in Finland. She can sing in many languages and sung also Finnish versions of international hits. Some of my favorites are the following songs:
Pirkko Mannola - Tytön tie (1961)
Pirkko Mannola - Oi mitkä tunteet (So soviel liebe)
And very famous cover from "Itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini" - "Pikku pikku bikinissä"
original was done by Brian Hyland.
One song from Helena Siltala - "Ranskalaiset korot"
Laila Kinnunen (1939-2000) was very famous hit singer from the 50's and 60's. Here's some my faves.
Laila Kinnunen - "Kellä kulta sillä onni"(Everybody loves a lover)
Kinnunen made also a cover of "Bei mir bist du schön" but I like more the cover of Arvi Tikkala (1906-1940) from that song. He was in the 1930's the forth most records published hit singer artist in Finland. He was also an actor. His career ended because he had to go to the Winter war against The Soviet Union (30.11.1939-13.3.1940) as so many other Finns at that time. And he died in the battle field just 10 days before the war ended at the age of 33.
Arvi Tikkala - "Sä kaunehin oot"
Harmony Sisters was the first ever hit song group in Finland in the mid 1930's. It was a group of three sisters Vera, Maire and Raija Valtonen. From the "living archive" of Yleisradio you can listen some of the great songs from them: "Sataman valot", "O Josef Josef", "Kodin Kynttilät", "Sulle salaisuuden kertoa mä voisin" and "Kielon jäähyväiset"
and cover of "Whistle while you work" - "Laulaen työtäs tee"
Oskar Merikanto (1868-1924) was a very famous and is still famous composer and musician in Finland. One of the dearest songs, at least most well known for many Finns is "Kesäillan valssi". I listened to this when I was really small when one of my relatives used to play this to me on piano.
