The Land of Sad Songs

Finnish singer and songwriter J. Karjalainen was not only a man to whom never happened anything, but he was also a man who put the cat on the table as we say in Finland. In the 1990´s he made a song called “Sinulle suomalainen melankolia” (For you Finnish person, melancholy). And this is not the only example of our depressive music that just makes you want to poor a can of gasoline on you and start smoking. Finnish music is full of stories about drunken fathers, lost friends, death, alcoholism and suicides.

I have known this for a while, but I really started thinking about it again a while ago, since for some reason I have been listening lots of Finnish music on my way to work. I mean most of our internationally succesfull artists and bands like HIM, Apocalyptica or Nightwish are quite dark, but even the songs in Finnish have kind of the same dark idea. Or what do you non Finns think about songs as following?

The land of sad songs (Murheellisten laulujen maa)

A boy was born to this cold dark land. He grew up to be like his dad and drank because a cold summer made his fields die and then after he started drinking, he thought it would be a good idea to throw his family to the cold snow during winter…

Mom hoped his son would be a minister (Äiti pojastaan pappia toivoi)

Mom hoped his son would be a minister, but the boy just wanted to be drunk. Still the mom made him Baltic herring for breakfast…. How sweet is that?

Hey you elfs, JUMP! (Hei tonttu-ukot hyppikää)

Not an earlier version of the famous Van Halen song, but a very traditional Finnish Christmas carol that has a nice positive touch. It starts by saying how the elfs should be having fun, because it is a party time (Christmas). Until the point when the elfs apparently realize that they are Finnish and in the middle of all the partying and jumping the lyrics go “life only lasts a while and even that is dark and depressing” (Hetken kestää elämä ja sekin synkkä ja ikävä). Such a slap in the face when you are just starting to get to the happy Christmas feeling….

Carefully now (Varovasti nyt)

Song that starts in a nice slowly way and just seems like a perfect song for the Finnish nightless night until it gets to the point where the singer sings that he is standing on the and “look mom I am not holding up…”

These are just a few examples, since there is plenty of this material in the Finnish music history. But after all, what can you expect from a country who´s national anthem is an old German drinking song…

ps. Sorry for the song name translations. Not from the Finnish-English guidebook I think...