Marko Vuoriheimo (30) from Helsinki says he loves a good competition and winning but let's see how he will manage his worthcoming big challenge of convincing the majority of Finns that he is the one to be sent to Moscow. There's one big BUT: he was born deaf. There are approx 5.000 others in Finland like him. They use singlanguage as their mother tongue that has an official status in Finland only since 1995
. Only being invited is a half of a victory. "The main problem for us in Finland is that the hearing majority doesn't know that we do have our own subculture: own language, history, culture and community. And the lack of information of course causes misunderstandings, like labeling us just handicapped" says Vuoriheimo who has become a sort of an image and coverboy for the deaf. The paradox is he is doing so by using a field that is made for the hearing! In September a biography written by Nuppu Stenros was released about Signmark's life so far.
Vuoriheimo understands the idea of a deaf Eurovision artist may sound rather absurd by some people. Five years ago he didn't himself believe something like that could be possible. But he decided already at the age of 13 that one day he will be a videostar on MTV. "I had tried playing piano and drums but it didn't feel right for me. When I discovered hip hop I just know that's my thing. It's not only vocal but your whole body is in it, even the def can feel the rhythm and the lyrics have a message and meaning." For the time being music was still a dream and Vuoriheimo concentrated on sports. He did running, played football, ice hockey and did even deaf Olympics. After high school he studied nursing, PE teacher and teacher in the university. At the moment he also teaches signlanguage to translator students."The possibilities to study for deaf people have gotten much better but still the primary school is still the same. We are still considered special cases even if being deaf and using singlanguage is a major part of one's identity, like with me" he concludes.
. Only being invited is a half of a victory. "The main problem for us in Finland is that the hearing majority doesn't know that we do have our own subculture: own language, history, culture and community. And the lack of information of course causes misunderstandings, like labeling us just handicapped" says Vuoriheimo who has become a sort of an image and coverboy for the deaf. The paradox is he is doing so by using a field that is made for the hearing! In September a biography written by Nuppu Stenros was released about Signmark's life so far.
Vuoriheimo understands the idea of a deaf Eurovision artist may sound rather absurd by some people. Five years ago he didn't himself believe something like that could be possible. But he decided already at the age of 13 that one day he will be a videostar on MTV. "I had tried playing piano and drums but it didn't feel right for me. When I discovered hip hop I just know that's my thing. It's not only vocal but your whole body is in it, even the def can feel the rhythm and the lyrics have a message and meaning." For the time being music was still a dream and Vuoriheimo concentrated on sports. He did running, played football, ice hockey and did even deaf Olympics. After high school he studied nursing, PE teacher and teacher in the university. At the moment he also teaches signlanguage to translator students."The possibilities to study for deaf people have gotten much better but still the primary school is still the same. We are still considered special cases even if being deaf and using singlanguage is a major part of one's identity, like with me" he concludes.The invitiation for Euroviisut didn't come out of nothing. Signmark released his first album already two years ago. Self produced double album was a sensation as no other deaf artist had tried something like that before. All the 8 tracks are performed twice: on CD with the vocals by Signmark's vocalist Heikki "Mahtotahto" Soini and on DVD where Signmark himself performs the songs also in signlanguage. The third member of Signmark is Kim "Sulava" Eiroma, who is responsable for the melodies and scratching. "Making the words and signs match is surprisingly hard because the grammar in Finnish and signlanguage is very different. But we didn't want to give in and use shortcuts, because in live performances Signmark's strenght is right in that."
One of the themes on the album is the shameful racistic law from the 1930's that was the order of the day in Finland: deaf people could only marry if the woman was sterilized. During 1935-1970 at least 7.530 women were sterilized for "race hygienical" reasons. If Marko Vuoriheimo would have been born during those years he would not have existed at all as both his parents are also def. "My strong self confidence comes from the fact that at home being deaf was natural; no one forced me to speak or tried to normalize me in any way" he tells. He has also caused some critizism by questioning the use of hearing aids and implants. "The question if manysided and difficult but I still think trying to normalize children by these medical things is not only a good thing. It's only an attempt to make us fit in the society by the rules of the majority!"
One of the themes on the album is the shameful racistic law from the 1930's that was the order of the day in Finland: deaf people could only marry if the woman was sterilized. During 1935-1970 at least 7.530 women were sterilized for "race hygienical" reasons. If Marko Vuoriheimo would have been born during those years he would not have existed at all as both his parents are also def. "My strong self confidence comes from the fact that at home being deaf was natural; no one forced me to speak or tried to normalize me in any way" he tells. He has also caused some critizism by questioning the use of hearing aids and implants. "The question if manysided and difficult but I still think trying to normalize children by these medical things is not only a good thing. It's only an attempt to make us fit in the society by the rules of the majority!"Watch "Our life" here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYP2FawU2ik&feature=related
(Source: Helsingin Sanomat October 4, 2008)
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