Sunday, May 30, 2010

Finland - Työlki Ellää - Kuunkuiskaajat

11 - 49 pts in semi 1Finland picked duo Kuunkuiskaajat (Moonwhispers) for the Oslo contest. The folk song Työlki Ellää is  available on the duo's CD Kuunkuiskaajat (Magnum Music).

Työlki Ellää is influenced both by old Finnish runo song and gypsy music. Susan Aho even claims some Roma blood. Part of the song is performed in Karelian dialect, which is spoken in Eastern Finland. The tongue-in-cheek title translates as “You can also make a living by working” (but it's business that makes you rich).
Kuunkuiskaajat are Susan Aho and Johanna Virtanen, both members of acclaimed folk band Värttinä. Työlki Ellää is written by Timo Kiiskinen, a recording artist himself. His latest CD Chet is a collection of Chet Baker songs recorded in Finnish.
A promo cdsingle features both the Eurovision and album versions of the song. (Magnum Music MGM 205)
The version named remix on the album is actually the Eurovision version that also appears on the official Oslo 2CD.

- versions -
Työlki Ellää - remix on cds, CD Kuunkuiskaajat and the Laulukilpailu CD (below) = ESC version
Työlki Ellää - album version on cds, CD Kuunkuiskaajat
Työlki Ellää - Discoremix (available through log in code on promo cds and see below)

update 2012: The Discoremix has now been released on CD. It is included on the Various Artists album Kaikkien Aikojen Bileet (Magnum Music MGM 250). The CD also includes new(er) versions of the Finnish entries of 1987 (Sata Salamaa) and 1994 (Bye Bye Baby).

The CD Kuunkuiskuiskaajat is available in the Finnish shops.
Both the cds and the album are now at BeaRecords.

More on Susan Aho and Johanna Virtanen:
Susan Aho, vocals and accordion
Susan (36) started playing accordion at the age of 13. She has obtained a Master of Music degree at the Sibelius Academy Folk Music Department. Susan played accordion already on Värttinä’s “Vihma” album (released in 1998) before moving to vocals. Susan is not only a professional musician, but also a puppeteer. Currently she works at the internationally renowned puppet theatre Sampo.

Johanna Virtanen, vocals
Johanna (33) started her musical studies at the Central Ostrobothnian Conservatory in Kokkola. She continued studying folk music and singing at the Sibelius Academy and her plan is to obtain a Master of Music degree in the near future. Johanna is a professional vocal teacher and is specialized in childbirth singing. In addition she plays harmonium, kantele and 2-row accordion. She joined Värttinä in 2001.

As members of Värttinä, Susan and Johanna have toured extensively in Europe and all over the world, in more than 30 countries in total. One of the group’s most notable projects in recent years was composing music for The Lord Of The Rings theatrical adaptation, based on the book by J. R. R. Tolkien. The musical, premiered in Toronto, Canada in 2006, moved to London in May 2007 and was closed after more than one year run.
- from the official bio, many thanks to Miia Linnusmaa & Magnum music.
Kuunkuiskajat homepage has a video of the song.
Kuunkuiskajat MySpace

Coverversion
Anna-Liisa Räsänen recorded a coverversion of Työlki Ellää for her album Ikivihreitä (2010, Light Team records)


The CD with all preselection songs Eurovision Laulukilpailu
2010 (Universal 2730391) is out now and available through BeaRecords.
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Listen to the 15 songs of this years Finnish selection here at YLE (Finnish TV)

Finland in 2009

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