Categories
Misc News

Sepultura gig moved

 

Sepultura – official website
Stam1na – official website (in Finnish)

Nosturi

Categories
Misc News

Headliner Amy Winehouse cancels Provinssirock

The British soul singer had already arrived in Finland on Saturday, but never made it to the festival ground in Seinäjoki. According to her manager she suffered such a bad throat ache on Sunday morning (17 June), that a doctor ordered her to go home and get rest.

Amy Winehouse was one of the most anticipated contemporary foreign acts of this year’s festival summer in Finland.

Young Finnish metal band Sturm und Drang took her spot in the festival’s big tent. Remaining performers on Sunday included Scissor Sisters from New York, fellow Americans Lamb of God and Finnish The 69 Eyes and Jonna Tervomaa.

Earlier the event had to put up with cancellations from British band The View and Finnish metal group Stam1na, who also had to pull back because of medical reasons.

Provinssirock is Finland’s biggest rock festival. This year’s other foreign headliners included Patti Smith and Band (USA), Velvet Revolver (USA), Tori Amos (USA), Aiden (USA), The Go! Team (UK), Flogging Molly (USA) and MUCC (Japan).

 

Amy Winehouse – official website

Provinssirock

 


Related:

newsflash Don Johnson Big Band and Mokoma replace cancelled acts 

Categories
Misc News

Chuck Berry to play at Finlandia Hall

Categories
Misc News

Don Johnson Big Band and Mokoma replace The View and Stam1na

Provinssirock, Finland’s biggest rock festival, will take place this weekend (15-17 June) in Seinäjoki.

Many of the live performances will be carried on digital TV channel YLE Extra
(14 hours in total) as well as on YleX radio (Fri 6-9 pm, Sat + Sun 2-6
pm – listen live).

 

Provinssirock

The View – official website
Don Johnson Big Band – official website

Stam1na
– official website (in Finnish)
Mokoma – official website

YLE Extra (partially in English)
YleX (in Finnish) – live stream

Categories
Misc News

Suzanne Vega’s Tampere concert moved to Lahti

 

Lahden Jazztori 2007 (in Finnish)

Suzanne Vega – official website
 

Categories
Misc News

Sofya Gulyak wins First Prize in Maj Lind Piano Competition

Gulyak won the finals with her interpretation of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. She will take home the 20,000 euro prize mony that comes with the First Prize in the competition.

Second Prize (15,000 euros) went to Roope Gröndahl of Finland after his performance of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. He was also the audience’s favourite. Russian Violetta Khachikian ended in third place, winning 10,000 euros.

Marko Mustonen (Finland), Yoonjung Han (South Korea) and Irina Zahharenkova (Estonia) took up fourth, fifth and sixth places respectively. They were each rewarded 4,000 euros.

The competition started on 24 May and concluded with the finals taking place on 6 and 7 June at Helsinki’s Finlandia Hall. The six finalists played with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leif Segerstam. Their performances were judged by a seven-member jury led by Gustav Djupsjöbacka.

Besides the top prize, 27-year-old Gulyak also won the Taneli Kuusisto Foundation Prize (1 900 euros) for the best performance of a Finnish piano work. She was awarded the prize for her recital of Joonas Pohjonen’s Bagatelles in the second round of the piano competition.

Sofya Gulyak originates from Kazan, the capital of the Russian republic of Tatarstan. She currently studies in Imola, Italy. In September 2006 she also won the Allegro Vivo International Piano Competition in San Marino.

 

HELSINKI INTERNATIONAL MAJ LIND PIANO COMPETITION

> Oldest and biggest piano competition in Finland

> Arranged by the Sibelius Academy

> First international edition: 6 – 22 August, 2002
(won by Italian Alberto Nosè)

> First organized as a national piano competition in 1945

> Until the sixties open to students of the Sibelius Academy only 

Official website Helsinki International Maj Lind Piano Competition

Competition pages Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE

Categories
Misc News

Platinum debut for “HevAri”

Sales of the album instantly exceeded the amount of copies needed for platinum in Finland: 30,000.

Fuel for the Fire went straight to Number 1 of the Official Album Chart.

After winning Idols 2007, metal singer Koivunen, nicknamed “HevAri” (Finnish slang for 'heavy metal guy'), immediately got to work with some of the top names of Finnish metal and rock. Composers for his debut album included Marco Hietala (Nightwish), Pauli Rantasalmi (The Rasmus), Timo Tolkki (Stratovarius) and Teräsbetoni’s Jarkko Ahola.

Children of Bodom’s Janne Wirman and Thunderstone members Mirka Rantanen and Nino Laurenne are some of the top musicians that can be heard on the long player.

23-year-old Ari is also part of this year’s line-up at the Sauna Open Air Metal Festival in Tampere. On 27 July he will play Helsinki’s Tavastia Club.

Ari Koivunen's official website (partly in English)
Suomen virallinen lista – Finland’s official album chart.

Categories
Misc News

Bigger audiences for domestic films at Finnish cinemas

While there were slightly fewer premieres than in the year before, also the total number of cinema-goers grew in 2006. Nearly 6.7 million tickets were sold, about 600,000 more than in 2005. According to statistics from the Finnish Film Foundation, total box office revenues last year amounted to 50.3 million euros.

The most watched film in 2006 was the Finnish Matti (international title: Matti – Hell Is For Heroes) directed by Aleksi Mäkelä, which drew 461,665 people to Finnish cinemas. The second biggest box office hit in Finland was Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.

 

OVERALL TOP 5 MOST WATCHED FILMS 2006

1. Matti / Matti – Hell Is For Heroes (FIN; 461 665 admissions)
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (USA; 458 833)
3. Casino Royale (GB/USA; 368 621)
4. The Da Vinci Code (USA; 365 276)
5. Ice Age 2 (USA; 272,104)
 

TOP 5 DOMESTIC FILMS 2006

1. Matti / Matti – Hell Is For Heroes (461 665 admissions)
2. Kummelin Jackpot / Jackpot (229 511)
3. FC Venus (223 590)
4. Lupaus / Promise (84 389)
5. Jadesoturi / Jade Warrior (79 600)

 

 Source: Facts & Figures 2006, the Finnish Film Foundation

Categories
Misc News

Russian pianist wins prestigious piano competition in Helsinki

More:

Sofya Gulyak wins First Prize in Maj Lind Piano Competition

Categories
Misc News

Diablo opening for Metallica

 

Related:

Performance Apocalyptica at Metallica concert cancelled

Categories
Cover story Misc

Move your peppu!

{mosimage}Helsinki has lived once
more the magic of the Carnival. Brazilian flavour with a touch of Finnish
national identity: Saaaaamba!!! Who said that Finnish are cold? During the weekend
of 8-9 June, Helsinki
citizens turned their minds (and feet) back to faraway Brazil and
everybody went out to enjoy once more the parade of the
Helsinki Samba Carnival.

 

FREE! Magazine did not want to miss the chance to talk to some members of G.R.E.S.
Império do Papagaio
, the biggest Samba School in Finland, located in the
heart of Helsinki (literally… the dancers rehearse inside an old bomb shelter).

Henna
Seljänperä
, one of the Passistas (the only girls
who dance in bikini during the parade from every Samba School)
of Papagaio Samba School,
who has even danced some years ago in the Sambódromo of Rio de Janeiro, the temple of Samba dancers, explained more about the
secrets of this passionate dance:

Henna, when did
you start dancing Samba in Papagaio?

It was in 1997,
and then I danced in my first parade one year later, in 1998.

Your Samba school
is the most awarded one in the whole Finland, isn’t it?

Yes, we have won the
Finnish Samba Championship seven times in total. We won once five times in a
row, but then two years ago Tampere
Samba School
won, and we got so much energy out of it that we got top store last year, when
we were the champions again.

That was kind of a
sweet revenge…

Yeah, it was the
first time that any Samba school in Finland got the top points.

{mosimage}Which are the
requisites you have to fulfill to be given the points by the judges?

We have the same
scale as they do have in Rio de
Janeiro. We have several judges, and they are judging
conjunction, the song and the “Enredo”, which is the theme of the song. They
also judge the costumes and the overall performance.

Do you have good
relation with the other Samba schools in Finland?

Well, it is not as
tough as in Rio. We don’t go and shoot other
people from other Samba schools… Sometimes after the carnival, some of them
have had this attitude like “oh…they won again”, but in general we are one big
Samba family in Finland
and we to partying together.

This is going to
be the 17th edition of the carnival in Helsinki. Who started with the idea?

There were only four Samba schools at the beginning in Finland: Helsinki, Tampere, Turku and Lahti.  The first carnival was in Turku. Basically it was started by some crazy
Finnish people went to Rio and fell in love
with Samba.

So has it been a
thing started more by Finnish than by Brazilians living in Finland?

Yes, it has always
been very “Finnish Samba”, because we do not have so many Brazilians living
here, and those who do live here do not necessarily attend the Samba schools.

How is the general
Samba level in Finland?

Well, if you
compare to Brazilian Samba, we are far away from them. If we are thinking from
a global perspective, as far as I know, Finnish Samba carnival and Finnish “Sambistas”
are pretty well known around the world among the Samba fans. It is quite unique
in a country like Finland
that has no carnival culture itself, except for Vappu…that it is not exactly
the same…

This year you are
having a guest Samba group, Maravilha from Sweden. Is it normal that foreign
Samba groups come to dance to Helsinki
for the Carnival?

They were here
also last year. With Sweden,
we have had quite a long relation, going there for their carnival. At the
beginning they had not only carnival, but other parades there, and Finns
normally always won the competition, because we had a better level in Samba
parades. Some years some foreign groups contact us about participating in Helsinki carnival, but
usually we do not have the financial power to bring other groups from other
parts of Europe. From Sweden, is much
cheaper just to take the boat and come here.

 

{mosimage}

 

"Here is very different from Río, where many men dance Samba apart from playing"

 

How many members
do you have in Papagaio
Samba School?

Around 250 members.

Do men feel
attracted to come and learn Samba? Is it difficult to get men to dance Samba?

Well, Samba is not
only about dancing. Samba is originated from the music itself that is why
“Bateria” and music is the most important part of Samba school and then dancers
change it into movement. About dancing, it is not very common for Finnish men
(they have only three men who dance samba at the school). It is very different from
Rio, where many men dance apart from playing.

{mosimage}So dancing or
playing, there are also quite many Finnish men who love Samba. We collected the
opinion of one male member of Papagaio
Samba School,
Lauri “Laurido” Tanner, who performs as “Diretor de Tamborines”
(Director of Tambourine section) in Papagaio´s “Ala de Bateria”.

Lauri, how long
have you been playing Samba?

I have been
playing Samba since 2001.

Where did you start
it?

I started it in Tampere, in Uniäo da
Roseira Samba School
, and I also sang there. After that I moved back to Helsinki and here I
started training tambourine. Then I became the official director of the
tambourine section.

Do you dance
Samba?

I like dancing,
but usually I am in the other side, so I rarely have the chance to dance. But I
do dance. For example if I am in Rio in a good
party.

Have you been
there?

Yeah, I was two
times. I was playing in rehearsals and in a small school. Last year I was focused
on recording the carnival. I recorded a lot of material.

So how many people
are there in the "Ala de Bateria" in Papagaio?

Around 25 this
year. Not too much. In Brazil
you could have 250-300 people. The power is magnificent! In Finland we could go with all the
people from all the Samba Schools to 100 people.

So sometimes you
play all together?

Yes. This is one
of my ambitions. To have this "gatherings" organized again and go up to 100
again.

We came back to
Henna who told us some more details and anecdotes about the incoming
performance around the streets of Helsinki:


What is the theme
for the song of Papagaio
Samba School
this year?

It is "surprisingly" about Eurovision Song Contest. We tell about the history of the
contest from the beginning until nowadays.

Some years ago in Helsinki was raining cats
and dogs during the festival. How do you find motivation to dance with that
weather?

It was in 2004. I
remember it very well. Before we went to the parade that year, it was 12
degrees and pouring rain really heavily. We were feeling so down, talking to
other Passistas telling “we are not going there…” but of course we had to go
there. But then when we arrived and the music started playing, then you even
did not notice that it is raining or that it was cold weather, because you do
not feel cold dancing Samba. It is so inspiring music that you get only good
feelings. I was feeling sad for the viewers with the jackets on!

 

XVII  Helsinki Samba Carnival.  8-9 June, 2007.
More information
about the schedule in www.samba.fi
G.R.E.S. Império do Papagaio: www.papagaio.fi

Categories
Misc News

kanYe West concert moved to August

Tickets
will stay valid. Those who want their money back, can return their
tickets at Lippupalvelu offices.

Concert organizer Speed Promotion has
issued an apology, but has given no reason for the 5-week delay.

 

Official website kanYe West: kanyewest.com

Categories
Misc News

New date for Mötley Crüe concert

Categories
Misc News

Nightwish announce first tour with Anette

The tour will start on 6 October (2007) in Tel Aviv, Israel, and
end on New Year’s Day at Helsinki‘s Jäähalli. It will span four
continents.

On the U.S. leg of the tour, which so far includes 23 dates, the
band will be joined by legendary British metal group Paradise Lost.

In Finland, Nightwish will perform eight times, starting with two concerts in Levi, Finnish Lapland, on December 8 and 9 (2007).

After a carefully orchestrated hype, the group last week (24 May,
2007) revealed the name of their new singer and released their new
single "Eva".

35-year-old Anette Olzon, formerly known as Anette Blyckert, used
to be the singer of successful Swedish melodic / adult-oriented rock
group Alyson Avenue. She replaces Tarja Turunen, who was publicly fired
from the band in the autumn of 2005.

Categories
Misc News

Shooting Lordi film under way in Oulu

Dark Floors – The Lordi Motion Picture, based on a joint idea by Lordi singer Tomi Putaansuu and the film’s Finnish director Pete Riski, will be shot in its entirety in an old industrial hall in the Finnish city.

While Putaansuu (”Mr. Lordi”) will of course play an important role, all main actors in the English language film are British.

The script was written by Pekka Lehtosaari.

The total budget of the film is 4 million euros, which makes it the most expensive Finnish horror production to date.

Filming will continue well into July. Dark Floors is scheduled to premiere in February, 2008.