VILLE LEINONEN & CHRISSE FOREVER BAND
It never was a secret that Ville Leinonen loves the Finnish schlager tradition. Like every other Finn, regardless of their personal tastes, he too has been immersed in the cheesy, sentimental pop songs of Sixties, Seventies and Eighties for all his life. It is the musical bedrock of the Finnish mental landscape but has been largely forgotten, if not downright despised, by the later rock and pop generations, who always thought the songs to be too camp to be taken seriously. And who, after a few drinks, suddenly revealed that they knew the lyrics of the Finnish version of Et si tu n'existais pas by heart.
It was high time that someone with his fair share of street cred started digging this gold mine for all its worth. Enter Ville Leinonen, the young lion who already at the early days of his career could jump from a pathetic Slavic atmosphere to a song that sounds like it's been stolen from Ennio Morricone's strongbox and never lose a tad of his credibility. Recorded after Leinonen decided to call it quits with his long-time band Valumo, his new schlager album Hei! is a fresh-sounding tribute to all his favourite artists from the past decades. It is a telling example of the authentic attitude that this album is also available as a cassette, intended to be listened on your car stereo on long road trips.
What's best, Leinonen's band on Hei!, the eight-strong Chrisse Forever Band (after Chrisse Johansson, the joan-of-all-trades of Finnish schlager) that among others contains no less than three backing singers, also comes with him to Ilosaarirock. We can expect a rather special event here, with the pop/schlager tradition of three decades saluting the audience who for the most part is much younger than any of these songs. Be careful, or you too may find yourself singing along these songs on the top of your voice, like the rest of the congregation!
ilosaarirock.fi