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55 albums · 1949–2021

Music of Finland, from tango and Suomirock to metal, dance and today

· 2 min read · by 1001 Albums

Juice Leskinen singing with Grand Slam on a club stage in 1986
A singer in a teal dress at the microphone, a violinist and an accordionist behind her, at the TangomarkkinatKäärijä in a green puffed bolero singing between two dancers in pink
Juice Leskinen & Grand Slam at Hotel Rosendahl in Tampere, 1986. Photo: Kari Nieminen, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Jonna Pirttijoki in the semifinal of the Tangomarkkinat in Seinäjoki, 2025. Photo: Katja Tamminen, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Käärijä in the interval act of the Eurovision final in Malmö, 2024. Photo: Arkland, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Finland's popular music has a tango of its own, the one Olavi Virta and Reijo Taipale sang in the fifties and sixties and the Seinäjoki festival still crowns every July, and a rock of its own, the Suomirock of Tampere's Eppu Normaali, Juice Leskinen and Popeda, of Hassisen Kone and Sielun Veljet from Joensuu and J. Karjalainen, with the prog of Wigwam and Pekka Pohjola before it; around them Hanoi Rocks, Värttinä's songs from Karelia, the nineties of CMX and Apulanta, the metal of Amorphis, Nightwish, HIM and Children of Bodom, Darude and Bomfunk MC's, the jazz of Edward Vesala, and the pop and rap of PMMP, Cheek, Alma and Käärijä, who came second at Eurovision in 2023. The list has 55 records from 1949 to 2021, one or two by each of the names above and only a small part of what they made; the Swedish-language scene, the joik of the Sámi, humppa and the dance pavilions, and most of the classical tradition beyond one Sibelius record would each need a list of their own. About 42 hours of music, 5 days of a few records each.

By genre

Rock 27%Metal 8%Pop 8%Other 57%
  • Rock 27%
  • Metal 8%
  • Pop 8%
  • Other 57%

The genres named most: finnish, rock, pop, suomirock, metal, iskelmä.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 1 country: Finland 55. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1940s

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

The 2020s

More lists

Lists of Countries first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.