Hanna Pakarinen
Hanna Pakarinen |
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Hanna Helena Pakarinen (born April 17, 1981 in Lappeenranta, Finland) is a Finnish pop and pop-rock singer who rose to fame as the winner of the first series of the Finnish singing competition Idols in 2004. Since then she has also participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2007, and to date has sold over 160,000 albums in her home country.
Biography
Early life
Hanna was born in Lappeenranta, Eastern Finland (though she now resides in Helsinki she still proudly speaks the local dialect of the region). Throughout her early twenties she worked as a forklift driver, an unusual occupation for a female, and was part of a local Finnish band named Rained.
Idols Series 1
In the summer of 2003, a twenty-three-year-old Pakarinen auditioned for the inaugral season of the Finnish singing competition Idols in the country's capital, Helsinki. Her powerful and emotion-filled vocals impressed the panel of judges and she was unanimously passed through to the next round of the contest, before making it through to the live finals. From the outset of the live shows, Pakarinen was considered a hot favourite to win. She received consistent high praise from the judges, and on one occasion she was even hugged by one of them. On numerous occasions they described her as, "the first real singer in the competition".
On January 3, 2004, Pakarinen secutred a place in the top two grand finale of the contest, alongside Jani Wickholm. During the finale, broadcast a week later on January 9, Pakarinen performed Tina Turner's The Best, the Bangles' Eternal Flame and the coronation song made especially for the Idols winner, Tulin Voittamaan ("I Came to Win"). She also made an English version of the song titled Love is Like a Song. Later that night, it was announced that Pakarinen had secured 60% (or 413,000) of the viewers' votes, thereby defeating runner-up Jani Wickholm, who had received 40% (or 282,000) of the public vote. Pakarinen was crowned as the first Finnish Idol and was given an advanced payment of €30,000, along with a recording contract with Sony BMG.
Post-Idols Career
2004-2005: When I Become Me
Immediately after winning Idols, Pakarinen signed a recording contract with Sony BMG and she released her debut single "Love Is Like A Song", which debuted at number one on the Finnish singles chart, a position it held for four non-consecutive weeks. Her debut album When I Become Me was released in June 2004, five months after her win on Idols, and debuted at number two on the Finnish albums chart. Although it held the number two spot for a total of five weeks and stayed within the top five for ten weeks, the album did not manage to reach the number one position. However, it was still a huge success and was certified double platinum for the sale of 76,000 copies in Finland alone. Although a second single was not released commercially from the album, the songs "Heaven", "Fearless", "How Can I Miss You" and the title track "When I Become Me" were released as promotional singles in order to support the album, with "How Can I Miss You" becoming Pakarinen's first music video. Pakarinen also embarked on her first nationwide tour as a recording artist named the When I Become Me Tour, which received excellent reviews and sold out at every venue.
2005-2006: Stronger
In the late summer of 2005, Pakarinen returned to the music scene with her second commercial single "Kiss Of Life", which would serve as the first single to be taken from her sophomore album Stronger. The song debuted and peaked at number four on the Finnish singles chart, and when the album was released in September, it (like her first album) debuted and peaked at number two. Stronger was not as successful as her first album, falling to number ten within its first two weeks, however it still managed to sell 21,000 copies to be certified gold. The songs "Stronger Without You" and "Damn You" were chosen as promotional singles, the first of which was accompanied by a music video. To further support the album, Pakarinen travelled across Finland on her Stronger Tour, performing many songs from the new album as well as several from her previous record.
2007: Lovers and Eurovision
In January 2007, after a short break from the music industry, Pakarinen released the song "Go Go" as a promotional single from her highly anticipated third studio album. The song was accompanied by a music video which became extremely popular, and when Lovers, the third album was released on February 14, it debuted at number three on the chart. Although it placed lower than her previous record, Lovers went on to become more successful in terms of sales and weeks spent on the albums chart. It was certified platinum and sold 52,000 copies in Finland. The album also marked Pakarinen's personal debut as a songwriter. She is credited on six of the album's eleven original tracks.
On February 17, 2007, it was announced that Pakarinen had been chosen to represent Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki with the song "Leave Me Alone", the first commercial single from her new album and her third commercial single overall. During the live finals, the song received 53 points and finished in 17th place. However, the contest allowed Pakarinen to gain a much wider European audience, and "Leave Me Alone" and its music video became very popular, especially in Sweden. Here, the song topped the radio chart for three consecutive weeks and peaked at number eight on the Swedish singles chart. In the UK, the song charted at number one-hundred-and-twenty-two on downloads. Back home in Finland, the song peaked at number eleven.
Following the Eurovision Song Contest, Pakarinen returned to her music and embarked upon her Lovers Tour, again playing to sell-out audiences and receiving rave reviews for her powerful voice and stunning stage performances. On October 17, 2007, she appeared on the soundtrack of the Finnish movie Musta Jää. Pakarinen sang the title song "Black Ice", for which she made a music video to promote the movie.
2008-Present: Love In A Million Shades
Following her highly successful Lovers album, Pakarinen took a break from the music industry in order to write material for her fourth studio album. In late 2008, Pakarien released "Make Believe" as the first single from her upcoming fourth studio album, Love In A Million Shades, the title of which was announced via her official Myspace[1]. After almost two years since the appearance of her third album, Love In A Million Shades was released on January 14, 2009. Having taken a creative step away from the rock-image of her previous album Lovers, Love In A Million Shades debuted and peaked at number 7 on the Finnish albums chart, her first release to peak outside the top three. Despite this however, the album mantained Pakarinen's popularity and in late April, was certified gold for the sale of just over 15,000 copies[2]. The title-track, "Love In A Million Shades" was also released as the second single in late February and was accompanied by a msuic video, her first since "Black Ice" over a year earlier.
Discography
References
- ^ "Hanna Pakarinen MySpace". MySpace.com. Retrieved 2008-04-12.
- ^ http://finnishcharts.com/showitem.asp?key=34752&cat=a