16 August 1965: Jari Sillanpää born


Jari Veikko Sillanpää was born on 16 August 1965. With over 820,000 records sold, he is the fifth-best-selling music artist and second-best-selling solo artist in Finland. Sillanpää gained fame after winning the Seinäjoki Tangomarkkinat tango contest in 1995. Sillanpää's 1995 self-titled debut album is the best-selling album of all time in Finland, with over 270,000 copies sold.

Sillanpää represented Finland in Eurovision Song Contest 2004 and his song "Takes 2 to Tango" (which he wrote the lyrics for) received 51 points in the semi-final, taking the 14th place and not qualifying for the final. Sillanpää participated in the Finnish National Final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song "Kirkas kipinä", making it to the final show, but finishing out of the final three.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

29 July 1931: Kjell Karlsen born

Image
Rather surprisingly, no Eurovision performer has ever been born on 29 July as far as we know - nor has anyone ever passed away on this date. In that case, there's always the next best thing: a composer. And in 1931 on this day, a very renowned composer was born: Kjell Oddvar Karlsen, a Norwegian band leader, composer, arranger, jazz pianist and organist, with a career spanning more than 60 years. Inspired by the Nat King Cole jazz ensembles from the time of World War II, he started his own orchestra at the age of 16 in 1947, The Syncopators Band, in Sarpsborg, and he soon became a central figure in the local jazz scene. His Kjell Karlsen Orchestra performed the music in the national final of the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix in 1966, 1967 and 1968. Karlsen also was the composer of 'Kom sol, kom regn', which represented Norway in 1962, as performed by Inger Jacobsen.
Keep reading

8 June 1961: Katy Garbi born

Image
Katerina "Katy" Garbi was born on 8 June 1961. As a singer she is mainly popular in Greece and Cyprus, with some popularity in Turkey as well. Her career has spanned over 20 years and is marked by several multi-platinum releases. Garbi participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1993 for Greece with the song 'Ellada, Hora Tou Fotos', taking ninth place.The CD-single was actually released all over Europe, making it the first Greek entry to achieve this. Do you like this blog? Please consider buying me a coffee so I can keep filling this blog in the small hours of the day. Your help is highly appreciated!
Keep reading

9 July 1967: To Cruz born

Image
Tó Cruz represented Portugal in 1995 with his song 'Baunilha e chocolate'. He was born as António José Ramos da Cruz in Lisbon on 9 July 1967 and started out as a studio backing singer and voice over performer for television and radio commercials. His appearance on the Eurovision stage was his first international performance. The song 'Baunilha e chocolate' did not prove popular with the juries, finishing in 21st place of the 23 entries after receiving points only from France and Greece. This was Portugal's lowest Eurovision placement ever at the time. His first album, 'Alma nua', was released in 1998, followed two years later by 'Camaleão', but neither sold well. In 2001, Cruz moved to the United States, where he recorded an English-language album under the name of António TC Cruz. Having returned to Portugal, Cruz provided more voiceover work for Disney's 2007 film 'Enchanted' and has sung with artists such as Laura Pausini, Paulo
Keep reading