Jenni Vartiainen explains how she was sometimes deprived of her freedom to come to Finland

Next In the autumn, the Masters Arena tour, which has been declared “Finland’s largest joint tour of all time”, will be held in Finland.

On the tour, a new line-up of Champions will form Kaija Koo, Vesala, Ellinoora and Jenni Vartiainen.

The tour starts in October and consists of a total of six concerts in Espoo, Vaasa, Turku, Kuopio, Oulu and Tampere. The gigs will be held in October-November 2022.

About it at a press conference held, the entire quartet reassured their enthusiasm. Kaija Koo, Vesala and Ellinoora were on site in the center of Helsinki. Vartiainen attended the event remotely from New York.

“With that in mind, the feeling went all the way to the scalp. This is a great thing, history, ”Kaija Koo described her mood.

Vartiainen, who still lives in New York for the time being, said that he would visit Finland several times during the training period.

So far, the group has met in the form of remote meetings. Among other things, what has been agreed is what kind of set list consists of the extensive production of four artists.

Vesala also hinted at the press conference that PMMP and Gimmel-era productions will probably also be heard at the concert.

“We both have a band history with Jenn, so maybe we’ll take a look there too,” Vesala said.

So far, the line-up has not yet confirmed what kind of cogeneration they will be releasing during the project.

Original The Masters ensemble actively gave concerts in 1998–1999. It included Church, Pepe Willberg, Hector and Pave Maijanen.

In 2000, a concert series called Leidit Lavalla was held Katri Helena, Paula Koivuniemi, Marion Rung and Lea Laven.

Ellinoora Leikas28, is the pit of the Masters Quartet, whose first hit songs were released in 2015. He is known for, among other things, songs The weight of an elephant, The Lion King and Dinosauruksii.

Leikas says that in his youth he has had a strong relationship with Paula Vesala and Mira Luodin PMMP and Jenni Vartiainen, Susanna Korvalan and Ushma Karnanin To the Gimmel band.

“This is where many threads come together. When I was called and told that such artists would be involved in a project like this, the initial reaction was a surprise. But so far everything has gone terribly naturally, and these ladies are wonderful people, ”says Leikas.

The new Masters on the Arena tour has been prepared in secret for a long time. The quartet has held meetings with each other, especially remotely, because Vartiainen lives in the United States.

“Everyone treats others really equally. Everyone has a lot of ideas of their own, and the meetings have been a throwback to creativity. ”

Leikas thinks the new Masters on Arena tour is a tribute to the first Masters, of whom Leikas was also with Pepe Willberg Only life season.

In the 1990s, the Masters quartet consisted entirely of men, now the line-up is made up of female artists. The cut thinks the Masters of the 2020s “embodies the time we now live in”.

Jenni Vartiainen39, began his career in the early 2000s pop starscompetition and the ensemble Gimmel. Vartiainen, who has since had an extensive solo career, is known for his songs, among other things In front of people, Where is my Darling and The wrong way.

Unlike the other artists in the Mestarit line-up, Vartiainen was not physically present at the press conference in Helsinki but attended it far from New York, where he still lives.

For Vartiainen, participating in the Masters Arena tour also means that he will be able to spend more time in Finland in the coming months. That’s what the artist says he’s looking forward to.

“It feels wonderful to come to Finland again. At one point during the corona, the mold was completely taken away from the freedom to leave here and come back, and I could not leave the country at all. Now it feels calm: you can come and go again, ”says Vartiainen.

Returning to Finland also knows the return to the concert stages. Vartiainen last performed in front of the public in 2018 – except for last year’s Emma Gala, where he presented Elastic with a joint piece Without hesitation for a moment. Vartiainen describes his mood as “full-body tingling” when talking about waiting to return to the concert stages.

“I miss going out on the road with the group, starting to train together and looking for a shared vision. Performing music in front of an audience concretizes it for us musicians and makes it even more meaningful. ”

When Vartia was asked to join the Masters, he immediately answered “yes”.

“There was not a hint of doubt. I immediately thought this had to be done. ”

Vartiainen also says that he made new music while living in New York, and it is expected that at some point Vartiainen will be heard about new solo production for a long time. However, at the time of its release, the singer has yet to promise anything.

Paula Vesala, 40, began his career with the band PMMP and has since pursued a solo career under the artist name Vesala. Among other things, the songs are remembered for his solo production Tequila, Don’t drop my mood and Now it’s time to leave.

Vesala says his first thought after hearing about the new Masters on Arena tour was “Why?”

“Why dare I be involved? I probably don’t belong in this. Of course I was really taken in when asked, and then I thought now is the time and now the Masters look like this. ”

As a whole, Vesala describes the Masters in the Arena tour as a project of good spirits and a concert song with great familiar songs.

Vesala describes the team spirit together, and he joined the project himself precisely because he can collaborate with names like Vartiainen, Kaija Koo and Ellinoora.

Vesala thinks the 2020s have taken a “step forward” in the sense that it doesn’t matter what gender the artists in the line-up performing under the name Masters represent.

He has not been watching the original Masters at the Arena concert but still remembers it well from his own childhood. Later, he has watched gigs from Youtube and especially admired Pave Maijanen’s style of being on stage.

“It was kind of an everyday sheet. They hung out casually on the stage of the Olympic Stadium. ”

Kaija Koo59, real name Kaija Kokkolais the most experienced artist in the new line-up, whose decades-long solo career is full of hits such as Who invented love, Tinakenkätyttö and Superwomen.

He is also the only one of the quartet whose active career was already underway when the original Champions line-up toured Finland. However, Kaija Koo says she has no special emotional connection to that line-up.

“I didn’t go to see those concerts. It was very different music than what I actually listened to. I don’t think this can be compared to that tour in any way, ”says Kaija Koo.

In her biography published last year, the singer has talked about, among other things, how she has experienced in her own career over the past decades that women’s and men’s music has been valued in very different ways. Now times have changed, Kaija Koo says.

“I have lived through the Dark Ages, when women’s music was still underestimated. It’s annoying because I would have been more productive myself then if I had thought it was possible to make music differently. ”

When Kaija Ko was called and told about the idea of ​​making a new Masters in the Arena concert, she was immediately excited. The name doesn’t really matter to her even at this point, but to the fact that she gets to collaborate with the female artists she admires and organize a big concert with them.

“When I heard about this idea, I thought my dreams would come true. I had just dreamed of something like this already when I did Come closer baby a new version of Vesala, Jenni Vartiainen and Sannin with.”