Hitz from Finland Vol. 1

[credoimprobus]

Here begins an long-planned and longer-flaked out on post series abt POP FROM FINLAND. It's going to be part retrospective and part current hits -- more retrospective, likely, with the amount of ground to cover even if I only keep to millennial pop! (And, y'know, the fact that I only just started listening to Finnish pop radio again after a good two years. What can I say: I suffered from a ridiculously persistent allergy to rock the last several years, and an allergy to rock + Finnish pop radio = bad, bad combination, haha.)

Starting it up is:

Jenni Vartiainen was in Finland's first Popstars band, Gimmel; they broke up a bunch of years ago, and Jenni is the first of the members (to my knowledge) to resurface as a solo artist. She had one of last year's most controversial hits with second single Ihmisten edessä, which ends the opening verse on the line "you're beautiful as always/in your high heels" -- with the inevitable result of huge amounts of is she/isn't she spec and exchange of flames words between the pro- and anti-gay camps. Meanwhile, the song's touched hearts and resonated with unconventional couples of all kinds everywhere, with its theme of courage in the face of social disapproval won through love.

(Author of the track, incidentally, is increasingly prolific hitmaker Teemu Brunila of The Crash, who professes to have been inspired to write the song after seeing a lesbian couple in the street, "walking with their heads bent down".)


The real point of this post is miss Vartiainen's stunning third single, "Toinen", though, in which she's feeling bad about being a lying cheater that cheats on her man. Quite a change of pace, that!

All I have to say is: her VOICE!