Laila Kinnunen died ten years ago today. A true legend with a tragic life.
Her career started in 1955 when she participated in a singing contest in secret to her parents and won. The year after she got a contract to tour with Lasse Pihlajamaa's ochestra, she was only 16. The year after her first single Lazzarella was released and became a huge hit followed by other hits like Illalla, illalla (1958), Marina (1959) and Romantica (1960). In 1961 she became the first Finnish entrant in Eurovision with Valoa ikkunassa. Hits followed with Pojat (1962), Lauantai (1962) and Rinnakkain (1963) - all performed with her sister Ritva. She also starred in several movies, did a lot of television until mid-1970's when she was already stuggling with alcohol and personal life.
Also her love life was very dramatic and closely followed by the Finnish press. Her first engagement was in 1959 with a medical student but soon she met and fell in love with an Italian musician Armando Fugazza. The love story lasted seven years until Laila found out he was married and had a son in Italy. He was followed by actor Ville-Veikko Salminen who she married in 1967. While married she met Milan Misic and got pregnant while still married. Divorced she married him and Milana was born but the marriage lasted only a bit over a year. Laila then met German Walter and she almost got over alcoholism but Laila's both brothers - both violent and alcoholic - died separately in 1984. Walter died in 1989 in heart attack and Laila got deeper than ever before with Keijo, her next boyfriend who was another alcoholic and also violent and beat her up. She didn't want to leave him though and the couple was evicted from their Helsinki apartment. The journey that took them deeper and deeper started. At some point there were living in a camper in some forest. In 1999 some scandal rags found them and in result a "Save Laila" charity concert was planned and held against her will and her family's. "She just wanted to be left alone" tells her daughter Milana who met her the last time on Mother's day in 1996. "She didn't want the papers writing about her and reporters knocking at her door. It was sad but she wanted to be left alone. The organizers managed to get grandmother, in wheelchair and already senile in the concert and in the frontpage of the papers the day after. It was so sad. People didn't know what they were doing. My mother wrote to Helsingin Sanomat an open letter telling she didn't need or want help. She just wanted to be left alone. It was her will but it was not respected."
Ilta-Sanomat recently featured a never before released interview with her done in 1999, less than a year before her death. She tells about her youth as a warchild in Sweden and difficulties to fit in after she was returned to her family, start of her career and refusal to sing in Finnish at first. In her career she recorded some 200 songs in eight different languages. Musically talented she also played accordeon, guitar and piano and preferred jazz to humppa she hated. "It was around 1975 when I was forced to take in my gig playlist some odd humppa song. I dispiced it with all my heart!" She was also strong willed and had a temper. "The conductors and musicians were a bit afraid of me even if I was only 18 when we were recording the songs. I couldn't sing same song over and over again. I would lose the feeling. So I insisted on one run through with the orchestra to practise, the second one was to be recorded. The orchestra couldn't make mistakes or I would go mad! I was sure about my singing, they were a bit afraid" she recalls. Her first hit was Lazzarella, an Italian cover but she names her favourite Mandshurian kummut, in Russian. "There's something about the Slavic melancholy! Even the gigs east of Helsinki were always better. I hated to sing in Turku or the west coast, people were so stiff!"
She also recalls her Eurovision experience: "I hated Valoa ikkunassa at first but later on I grew fond of it... I was thinking "so this kind of crap", the composer was an amateur. I got a couple of points from Italy. And Norway."
She also talks about today's (1999) singers. "Laura Voutilainen has become so good, she's really good. Paula Koivuniemi, who was also my good friend, and Katri Helena, they're in their league. Katri Helena worked so much for her career. But Laura Voutilainen is also a cellist, so she is also a musician. She has a great voice!"
Laura Annikki Kinnunen aka Laila Kinnunen was born November 8, 1939 and died October 26, 2000. Her recording career lasted from 1957 to 1967 with an expection of Kohtalon lapsi/Toiset meistä single in 1980. She released only one album Laila in 1965 but some twenty official compilation albums have been released, many including unreleased tracks and doubles or boxes until recent years, including the 8 cd box A la Laila with book in 2009.
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