Jippu, one of the artists in the Finnish selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, will be singing live tonight in Konserttitalo Martinus in Vantaa, near Helsinki. She will perform with her father, opera singer Jorma Elorinne, like she has since 1990 and among the songs will be her Euroviisut 2008 entry!
“We have been doing these Christmas concerts as long as I can remember, long before I started being a recording artist” tells Jippu. “I remember as a kid I was singing some jolly little Christmas songs while my dad did serious opera songs and Christmas songs. I was a little princess that was hanging around my opera singing father.”
A joint concert with an opera singer and a pop/rock singer may sound strange but it is not. “We both look the music in the same way, it’s not about the type of music but the feelings, the lyrics. We both admire similar lyricists, like Katri Vala, Eeva-Liisa Manner and Eino Leino, great Finnish poets. We both feel close to a stereotype Finnish person with his or her sorrow, sadness and pain.” In the concert Jippu will perform with her band, her father with a pianist but they also do some songs together, mainly spirituals and gospels.
Jippu promises to perform also new songs from her forthcoming second album that will be released in March. At the moment she is recording the vocals in studio and says they will follow the first albums theme: heartbreaking stories of the darker side of human life. And yes, the Euroviisut entry will be there, too.
Jippu will take part in the second Finnish semi final on February 15.
