Koop Juho Alexander Arponen (born 20 April 1984 in

Lappeenranta Lappeenranta (; sv, Villmanstrand) is a city and municipality in the region of South Karelia, about from the Russian border and from the town of Vyborg (''Viipuri''). It is situated on the shore of the Lake Saimaa in southeastern Finland, and ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

) is a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

singer and the winner of the fourth series of the '' Idols'' in 2008.

Biography

Koop Arponen was born in

, Eastern Finland to a

father and a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

mother.
When he was two, his family moved to

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

and to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

a few years later where he attended

Cheam High School Cheam High School is a mixed sex academy school located in Cheam, London Borough of Sutton, South London. It consists of a lower school, for those aged between 11 and 16, wherein each year group consists of 300 students and a sixth form for ag ...

Cheam Cheam () is a suburb of London, England, south-west of Charing Cross. It is divided into North Cheam, Cheam Village and South Cheam. Cheam Village contains the listed buildings Lumley Chapel and the 16th-century Whitehall. It is adjacent to ...

, Greater London, between 1995 and 2002. He was elected as Head Boy of the School in 2001, his final year of sixth form. At the age of five he started to play the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

, but quit 6 years later. At the age of 16 he started to play it again and also started to compose music. While doing his

national service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The ...

at the Finnish Army, he learnt to play the

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

.
In England he studied at the University of Hull Scarborough Campus and graduated with a BA degree in Creative Music Technology with Business Management.> He also used to play in local pubs and clubs. Arponen's father died in 2008, and after that he moved back to

to his grandmother's, who lives in the village of Pihlajavesi in Keuruu. Arponen has a son, born in 2016, with his British wife Cordelia, whom he married in 2014. They live in London, England.

Idols

In August 2008 Arponen took part in the Finnish version of ''

Pop Idol ''Pop Idol'' is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer (or "pop idol") in the UK based on viewer voting and par ...

'', '' Idols (Finland)''. Nevertheless, the 18-year-old Pete Parkkonen was the favourite until he was dropped in the penultimate competition.
In the final, Arponen got 70,3% of the votes. Anna Puustjärvi was second. The winner's song, ''Insomnia'' debuted at number one on the Official Finnish Album Chart. After the victory he received media's interest in his mother's home country the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and his former place of residence, England. In 2009 Arponen toured Finland with the semifinalists of that Idols-season. His debut album '' New Town'' was released on 18 March 2009, and entered the Official Finnish Album Chart at number one.

Early career

In the spring and summer 2009 Arponen toured Finland extensively, and in October 2009 he released I Love It When I See You Smile, a song he wrote for the breast cancer charity foundation Pink Ribbon. He donated his royalties from the song to the charity and Samsung also donated a percentage of the purchase price to the foundation. Arponen's second album '' Bright Lights'' was released on 24 March 2010.

Flute of Shame

In early 2010 Arponen and two other musicians, James Lascelles and Dane Stefaniuk formed an acoustic three piece band called Flute of Sham

The group have already toured in Finland and parts of Spain and Britain. In 2011 they represented Finland at the international New Wave Song Contest in Latvia, where they won the Alla Pugachova Golden Star Award for best original song. They are currently working on their second EP, having released their first EP 'Coming Home' on 2 July 2012.

Discography

Albums

* New Town (Koop Arponen album) (2009) * Bright Lights (Koop Arponen album)(2010)

EPs

* Coming Home (Flute of Shame EP, 2.7.2012) *These Hands (Flute of Shame EP, 7.6.2013)

Singles

* Insomnia (2008) * Every Song I Hear... (2009) * Innocent Eyes (2009) * I Love It When I See You Smile (2009) * Cold (2010) * Young And Foolish (2010) * Pictures On My Wall (2011)

References

External links

Official Site

Official Flute of Shame Band Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arponen, Koop 1984 births Living people People from Lappeenranta Finnish people of Dutch descent 21st-century Finnish male singers Finnish multi-instrumentalists Idols (TV series) winners Finnish expatriates in England