Unto Uuno Mononen (23 October 1930 in Muolaa – 28 June 1968 in

Somero Somero () is a town and municipality of Finland. It is part of the Southwest Finland region in the province of Western Finland, located northeast of Salo, east of Turku and northwest of Helsinki. The municipality has a population of () and cove ...

) was a Finnish songwriter and musician. He is best known for his numerous

tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries as the result of a combina ...

compositions including the famous Finnish tango song, ''"

Satumaa "Satumaa" (roughly, in English "The Fabled Land" or "The Fairytale Land") is the quintessential Finnish tango. It was written by Unto Mononen, and published in 1955. The most famous recording is probably the one made by Reijo Taipale in 1962. Th ...

".'' His first name was originally Uuno.

Biography

Mononen is often said to come from

, but was actually from Muolaa and did not come to Somero until the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

was over and Muolaa was conquered by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. Mononen studied

church music Church music is Christian music written for performance in church, or any musical setting of ecclesiastical liturgy, or music set to words expressing propositions of a sacred nature, such as a hymn. History Early Christian music The on ...

in the

University of Turku sv, Åbo universitet , latin_name = Universitas Aboensis , image_name = University of Turku.svg , motto = ''Vapaan kansan lahja vapaalle tieteelle'' , established = 1920 , type ...

. He quit these studies since he felt he did not learn anything important. As a composer he was self-taught. Mononen began his musical career by singing with local dance groups while he was under 20. After a failed operation to his adenoids damaged his voice, Mononen started to compose. In 1950, Mononen first successfully sold his songs to a record company. The first song recorded was ''"Pieni laulu"'' ("A small song"), a

waltz The waltz ( ), meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position. History There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the w ...

sung by Pentti Halme. In 1955 Henry Theel recorded the famous ''"Satumaa"'' to some success, but the song's status wasn't cemented until seven years later, in 1962, when

Reijo Taipale Reijo Toivo Taipale (9 March 1940 – 26 April 2019) was a Finnish pop singer since the 1950s specializing in Schlager music and tango. Many of his albums have gone gold and platinum. Biography Taipale was born in Miehikkälä, Finland. Thro ...

recorded it. Other famous tangos by Mononen include ''"Tähdet meren yllä"'' ("Stars above the Sea"), ''"Lapin Tango'''' ("The Tango of Lappland"), ''"Erottamattomat"'' ("Inseparables"), ''"Kangastus"'' ("The Mirage"), ''"Kaipuuni Tango"'' ("The Tango of my Longing"), ''"Kohtalon Tango"'' ("The Tango of Destiny") and ''"Yön Hiljaisuudessa"'' ("In the Silence of Night"). The last two of these became better known when another famous musician from Somero, singer Rauli "Badding" Somerjoki, recorded them. Singer Esko Rahkonen also worked with the composer in the 1960s. One of the most well known figures in Finnish popular culture, provocative entertainer

M. A. Numminen Mauri Antero Numminen (born 12 March 1940 in Somero, Southwest Finland) is a Finnish artist who has worked in several different fields of music and culture. Biography In the 1960s, Numminen was known particularly as an avantgarde, underground ...

had played drums in Mononen's band. Later Numminen asked Mononen to compose a humorous tango to his lyrics. Mononen answered that for Numminen, he would write a tango even to the words of a phone book. From this collaboration, the song ''"Naiseni kanssa eduskuntatalon puistossa"'' ("With my Woman at the Park of the Parliament House") was born. During his later years, Mononen suffered from

alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomina ...

and eventually shot himself with a

pistol A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, ...

on 28 June 1968. He was 37 years old. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mononen, Unto 1930 births 1968 suicides People from Vyborg District Finnish songwriters Finnish tango musicians Suicides by firearm in Finland