VAIN ELÄMÄÄ 4: ANSSI KELA

Anssi Kela is one of those artists who shot to the fame and success with his debut album, then sales and popularity dropped by each album until he was dropped by his label. A break, new label, still a lot of loyal fans in social medias got him back on top last year. And now he gies his song repertoire to other artists to cover and he sure has a lot to choose from. And it will be interesting to see what he makes of the songs of the others, having quite a personal style. He says he hopes the other artists will make his songs as different as possible, showing also him a new side of them. On the other hand he says sky's the limit in his own versions, as there's no need to think they would fit into any album context or whatever - they can be anything!

Anssi comes from a musical family so it was natural he would take that road, too. After being in a band playing gospel music at 13, the band changed name and repertoire. The band got some notoriety but their debut albul flopped and they split soon enough and Anssi went solo.

His debut album Nummela sold 4 x platinum and among the top-15 best selling albums ever in Finland and scored hits like Mikan faijan BWM, Kaksi sisarta, Puistossa and Nummela. Milla was added to the triple platinum re-release of the album and is claimed to be the best selling single ever in Finland (couldn't find any truth to that, Ed.note). Second album sold platinum and included another megahit, 1972. Third one still sold gold but no major hit came out of it. Fourth album was a concept one and didn't cause much of an attention, except Aamu that became a minor hit. His story with Sony was sealed with a release of a greatest hits album that didn't sell so well either. It seemed like his story was over.

Four years later with a new label he released Levoton tyttö, that became one of his biggest hits ever. Miten sydämet toimii also was a hit and two more singles were released from it. His latest one is Nostalgiaa. 

He had always written all his songs, but now he also plays all the instruments on the new album (except a sax solo). He's back thanks to his loyal fans on social medias who kept him going while he had no music to offer. He has also written three books and is a succesful Formule 3 driver. 

I personally liked his debut album and its songs a lot, the rest not so much. It will be interesting to see what songs the others pick.....

In this series also: Pave Maijanen, Virve Rosti, VilleGalle, Antti Tuisku, Sanni, Maija Vilkkumaa