Last but not lest in this series: Maija Vilkkumaa. She's been leading Finnish rock stars for years, delivered countless hits and this blogger is a huge fan: Her lyrics are always original, playing with words and double meanings - you can hear she studied Finnish language for sure! Her album sales are over 300.000 and all her albums have sold gold and/or (multi)platinum. She has won 5 Emma awards (aka Finnish Grammy) among others, and she has also written a book and done a lot of television. Her latest album is from 2010 as she has been concentrating on her two kids and marriage but is about to come back this fall.
Maija was a member of all female rockband Tarharyhmä 1990-95 that got a ot of attention, even in Japan but soon the members were too busy with their own projects and fell apart. She was also briefly part of another band Hunajamelonit. But Maija went solo and started writing her own songs, as she always does. Her debut single was a hit, Satumaa-tango played everywhere becoming a #7 hit and her debut album #3 selling gold. Several other singles were released and Salaa and Hiuksissa hiekkaa made it to Top-20. Second album went to #1 selling platinum and provided Ingalsin Laura hit among others, third album was also #1, sold double platinum and gave us title track Ei (#3) and Mun elämä. Fourth album also went to #1 and sold platinum, Se ei olekaan niin (#3) and Kesä being major hits. Two more #1 albums both selling gold followed.
In May 2015 she released Lissu ja mä, her first release in five years. In meantime she has written and published a novel, given birth to two kids, toured twice in different productions (with Lauluyhtye Viisi and replacing Paula Vesala in Kerkko Koskinen Kollektiivi on a tour in 2014.
She is veru excited about the opportunity and hopes the covers by the others are as different as possible from the originals, like Satumaa-tango as rap by VilleGalle could be great. She is a bit afraid about this "human test laboratory" but thinks joy of making music, living it will overcome all the rest, the publicity and pressure. This blogger can't wait as her songs are the ones I know the best out of this year's artists. How they will be? And how will she treat the other songs?
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