Aarno Raninen (27 April 1944 – 3 September 2014) was a Finnish singer, songwriter and musician. His main instrument was

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

but he has also mastered

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

and

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

. Born in

Kotka Kotka (; ) is a town in Finland, located on the southeastern coast of the country at the mouth of the Kymi River. The population of Kotka is approximately , while the Kotka-Hamina sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is th ...

, Raninen began his musical studies at a young age. After he moved to

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

in 1966 he got a job as a studio conductor at Musiikki-Fazer. While working there he made a lot of cooperative work with the likes of songwriter Juha Vainio. Later on Raninen went to work in Discophon where he wrote lyrics for many Finnish musicians, such as

Seija Simola Seija Saara Maria Simola (25 September 1944 Helsinki – 21 August 2017 Vantaa), married Franzén, was a Finnish singer. She began her career musical in the mid-1960s in the band Eero Seija & Kristian Trio, and her debut solo album was released ...

, Carola,

Tauno Palo Tauno Valdemar Palo (born Tauno Brännäs; 25 October 1908 – 24 May 1982) was a Finnish actor and singer in what some consider the golden age of Cinema of Finland, Finnish cinema. In ''Guide to the Cinema of Sweden and Finland'' Peter von Bagh ...

Vesa-Matti Loiri Vesa-Matti "Vesku" Loiri (4 January 1945 – 10 August 2022) was a Finnish actor, musician and comedian, best known for his role as Uuno Turhapuro, whom he portrayed in a total of 20 movies between the years 1973 and 2004. Loiri made a strong i ...

, Monica Aspelund,

Heikki Kinnunen Heikki Kinnunen (born in Raahe) is a Finland, Finnish actor, who became well known in the beginning of the 1970s in the comedy program ''Ällitälli''. Kinnunen was known specially for his roles in comedy films and -series. He has played the lead ...

Arja Koriseva Arja Koriseva (born 21 April 1965) is a Finnish singer. She first came to fame as a Finnish tango, tango singer; her repertoire now includes evergreen, pop, musical theatre, and sacred music. Koriseva has sold over 330,000 certified records, mak ...

, Erkki Liikanen and the Soitinmenot-ensemble. An important acquaintance for Raninen has been the songwriter for film and television, Pertti "Pertsa" Reponen. Raninen set the music for at least the following Reponen's TV-series: 1983–85, 1985–87, 1994–95, 1990–92 and . He also set the music for feature films such as , , , , and . Raninen and his work received several awards over the years, including the win at 1968 ("Näin on" performed by Kristian), 10th place at

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster submits an origina ...

in 1977 ("Lapponia" performed by Monica Aspelund) and the main prize at the Menschen und Meer competition in 1978 ("Silver and gold" performed by Monica Aspelund). He died in

Tuusula Tuusula (; ) is a municipality in Finland, located in the southern interior of the country. Tuusula is situated in the centre of the Uusimaa region. The population of Tuusula is approximately . It is the most populous Municipalities of Finland, ...

in 2014.

References

1944 births People from Kotka 2014 deaths 20th-century Finnish male singers Deaths from fire Accidental deaths in Finland {{Finland-musician-stub