Arja Enni Helena Saijonmaa (born 1 December 1944) is a Finnish singer,

political activist A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some ...

and occasional actress.

Life and career

She studied at the

Sibelius Academy The Sibelius Academy (, ) is part of the University of the Arts Helsinki and a university-level music school which operates in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland. It also has an adult education centre in Järvenpää and a training centre in Seinäjoki ...

and earned a Bachelor of Arts at the Helsinki University. She made her breakthrough as a singer in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. She has made albums with Swedish translations of songs by

Mikis Theodorakis Michail "Mikis" Theodorakis ( ; 29 July 1925 – 2 September 2021) was a Greek composer and lyricist credited with over 1,000 works. He scored for the films '' Zorba the Greek'' (1964), '' Z'' (1969), and '' Serpico'' (1973). He was a three-ti ...

, as well as covers of

Zarah Leander Zarah Leander (; 15 March 1907 – 23 June 1981) was a Sweden, Swedish singer and actress whose greatest success was in Germany between 1936 and 1943, when she was contracted to work for the state-owned UFA GmbH, Universum Film AG (UFA). Althou ...

songs. In 1978 she issued ''Miten voi kyllin kiittää'', an album of Finnish translations of the songs of the Chilean composer and singer

Violeta Parra Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval (; 4 October 1917 – 5 February 1967) was a Chilean composer, singer-songwriter, folklorist, ethnomusicologist and visual artist. She pioneered the Nueva Canción Chilena (The Chilean New Song), a renewal and a ...

. A Swedish version, ''Jag vill tacka livet'', came out the following year. The title song, "Jag vill tacka livet" (" Gracias a la vida") was one of her greatest hits. Swedish prime minister

Olof Palme Sven Olof Joachim Palme (; ; 30 January 1927 – 28 February 1986) was a Swedish politician and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1969 to 1976 and 1982 to 1986. Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969 until as ...

had been a close friend, and his widow wanted Arja to sing at the funeral in 1986. She sang ''Ine Megalos O Kaimos'' in Swedish. In 1987, she participated at

Melodifestivalen Melodifestivalen (; ) is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged almo ...

with the song " Högt över havet", ending up second. The same year, she scored a

Svensktoppen ''Svensktoppen'' () is a weekly record chart airing on Sveriges Radio. Until January 2003, the songs had to be in the Swedish language. Svensktoppen has aired since 1962, except for the years 1982–1985. In the years leading up to the January 20 ...

hit with the song '' Jag vill leva i Europa''. As a politician, she has been a member of the Swedish People's Party in Finland, and in 1987 she was appointed

UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador is an official postnominal honorific, honorific title, title of authority, legal status and job description assigned to those goodwill ambassadors and activists, advocates who are designated by the United Nations. UNHCR ...

. She has written a Norwegian-language book, ''Sauna'', about the

Finnish sauna The Finnish sauna (, ) is a substantial part of Culture of Finland, Finnish and Culture of Estonia, Estonian culture. It was inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists at the 17 December 2020 meeting of the UNESCO Intergovernmen ...

tradition. She appeared in the first season of ''Let's Dance'', the Swedish version of ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (commonly referred to as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly Ballroom dance, ballroom and Latin dance, Latin dance. Each couple is ...

'' in 2006. Her professional partner was Tobias Karlsson, aged 28, and they were eliminated in the 7th week. In December 2007, Saijonmaa participated in the Swedish reality show '' Stjärnorna på slottet'' along with

Peter Stormare Rolf Peter Ingvar Stormare (; Birth name, né Storm, 27 August 1953) is a Swedish actor. He played Prince Hamlet, Hamlet for Ingmar Bergman, Gaear Grimsrud in the film ''Fargo (1996 film), Fargo'' (1996) and List of Prison Break characters#John ...

Britt Ekland Britt Ekland (born Britt-Marie Eklund; 6 October 1942) is a Swedish actress. She appeared in numerous films in her heyday throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including roles in ''The Double Man (1967 film), The Double Man'' (1967), ''The Night They ...

, Jan Malmsjö and Magnus Härenstam. She participated in Melodifestivalen 2019 with the song "Mina fyra årstider". Saijonmaa is both the Finnish and Swedish voice actor of Emma the Stage Rat in the Finnish-British animated television family drama ''

Moominvalley Moominvalley (, ) is a fictional place, where the Moomins live in the tales by Finnish author Tove Jansson. Especially in the early books Moominvalley is depicted as a beautiful place with green slopes, rivers, fruit trees, flowers and a pla ...

'' (2019–).

Discography

Finnish language *1972: ''Laula kanssani toveri'' *1972: ''Arja Saijonmaa & Mikis Theodorakis'' *1973: ''Koko yön minun poikani valvoi'' *1975: ''Huomenta sydämeni'' *1979: ''Jokainen arkiaamu – Arja Saijonmaa & Mikis Theodorakis Ateenassa'' *1979: ''Miten voin kyllin kiittää'' *1981: ''Ruotsiin ja takaisin'' *1983: ''Ystävän laulu'' *1985: '' La Cumparsita'' *1988: ''Arja Saijonmaa & George de Godzinsky Finlandia-talossa'' *1989: ''Yhteinen taivas ja maa'' *1993: ''Paijaa mua'' *2000: ''Sydänten silta'' *2006: ''Rakkaus on rohkeutta'' Reissues *1985: ''Valitut laulut'' *1988: ''Arja Saijonmaa'' (2LP) *1995: ''20 Suosikkia: Ystävän laulu: '' *2001: ''20 Suosikkia: Satumaa'' *2007: ''Tähtisarja – 30 suosikkia'' (2CD) Swedish language *1977: ''Det är tid att sjunga sånger'' *1977: ''Tango Jalousie'' *1978: ''Arja Saijonmaa i Stockholms konserthus'' *1979: ''Jag vill tacka livet'' *1981: ''Sånger från asfalt och ängar'' *1982: ''Leksar och parfym'' *1987: ''Högt över havet'' *1988: ''Arja sjunger Zarah'' *1989: ''Samma himmel, samma sol'' *1994: '' La Cumparsita'' *1998: ''Bara du kommer'' *1999: ''En bro av gemenskap'' *2003: ''Arja Nära'' Reissues *1994: ''Arja's bästa'' *2000: ''Guldkorn'' *2002: ''100%'' (2CD) *2005: ''Vad du än trodde så trodde du fel'' Other languages *1976: ''Bonjour mon coeur'' *1983: ''Es ist Zeit''

Films

Arja Saijonmaa has appeared in the following films: *1969: ''Punatukka'' *1969: ''Pohjan tähteet'' *1979: '' Herr Puntila and His Servant Matti''

Bibliography

Swedish language *''Sauna'', (bound) Malmö, Sweden : Richters förlag, 2000 Swedish 271 pages. *''En ung naken kvinna : mötet med Mikis'' (A young naked woman – the meeting with Mikis), (bound) Stockholm, Sweden : Piratförlaget, 2011 Swedish 443 pages, 6picture pages + 1 CD with four songs by

References

Sources

Tony Latva and Petri Tuunainen, Iskelmän tähtitaivas, WSOY 2004,
M.A. Numminen, Tango on intohimoni, Schilds 1998,

External links

Official website
(warning: background music)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saijonmaa, Arja 1944 births Living people People from Mikkeli United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees goodwill ambassadors Sibelius Academy alumni Swedish-language singers of Finland Finnish-language singers of Sweden French-language singers of Sweden French-language singers of Finland German-language singers of Finland German-language singers of Sweden Finnish expatriates in Sweden Finnish expatriates in France Participants in Swedish reality television series 20th-century Finnish women singers 21st-century Finnish women singers