The theme of this year's Tangomarkkinat will be "100 years of Finnish tango". It will be held on 10-14 July 2013, but details of who will be appearing have not been published. Tango in the Snow will be held in Tampere on 9th February. Details in English are here:
http://www.hurmio.fi/lumitango/snowtango2013 . Of course the event depends on a good layer of snow on the ground, and I will be keeping an eye on the Tampere web camera before deciding whether to go.
Seija, the landlady in Seinäjoki, sent me the latest record by Arja Koriseva and Jouni Somero. It is called
Joulukirkossa (Christmas in the church) and features Christmas carols sung by Arja accompanied by Jouni on the piano. One of them,
Taivas sylissäni (Heaven in my arms) is composed by Carola Häggkvist. Could she be the same Carola Häggkvist who won the Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden in 1991? Indeed she could, and I have to thank Heidi Pakarinen for this information.
The
Muistojen polku (Pathway of Memories) tango concert which took place during the 2012 Tangomarkkinat was broadcast on Finnish tv on 31st December. It was introduced by Marko Maunuksela (Tango King 2010) and a small lady reminiscent of Charlene Tilton. She was Natali Lintala, the daughter of Lasse Lintala, the founder of the Tangomarkkinat. Natali remarked that she wasn't born when the Tangomarkkinat started. Performers included Jari Sillanpää, whose version of
Ecstasy was much better than that of Mikko Vihma in the 2012 semifinals. Also appearing were Arja Koriseva, who sang the old favourites
Kultaiset korvarenkaat and
Rannalla; Kari Piironen, Seija Tuupanen, Jenna Bågeberg, and Amadeus Lundberg.
