Friday, January 15, 2021

Loituma's Ievan Polkka - the most famous Finnish song

A few days ago, my son sent me the following song saying: "Papa, something about this reminds me of you. Not sure if you used to play this song."

A peppy song but I hadn't heard of it. He was right that I liked such songs, and probably he had heard me play some song similar to this.

It was so captivating that I looked up the web to know more about it, and this is what I found on Wikipedia.

Ievan Polkka is a Finnish song with lyrics published in 1928 to a traditional Finnish polka tune. But it was forgotten till 1995 when the Loituma quartet released their first album by the same name. The four are: Sari Kauranen, Anita Lehtola-Tollin, Timo Väänänen and Hanni-Mari Autere.

The band was selected the Ensemble of the Year at the 1997 Kaustinen Folk Music Festival.

In 2006, the internet catapulted it to fame when a version of it sung by Loituma Girl, an anime character, was posted on a Russian Live Journal blog. I found that on YouTube.

Ever since that there have been many versions of the original song and some of the tunes were incorporated as ring tones by various European telecom companies.

The four performed on the 50th birthday of Hanni Autere in November 2019.

No wonder this is said to be the most famous Finnish song!


12 comments:

  1. Hari OM
    Well, I found that very joyful, thank you for passing it along!!! YAM xx

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  2. At least your son knows your taste. That is good for something.

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  3. Enjoyed it. You and your son have good taste.

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  4. Old is gold. It heartening to note that your son understands you.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Sarala - There is something about the song that makes it very enjoyable. Thanks.

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  5. Hi Pradeep - an interesting song ... we don't often hear things from Finland - so that was enlightening - thank you ... I loved each version. Great your son - thought of you ... stay safe - Hilary

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  6. For some reason, Youtube embedding doesn't seem to work... I found it happen even in my blog... But I saw the song on YT directly and should say that it's DIFFERENT ;)

    Destination Infinity

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  7. Wow! So interesting to know about this :)

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  8. Oh, it is true what your child says if this song is fun to hear.
    I also like it.

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  9. That is interesting. Music is a passion of mine. Thank you for sharing.

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