Lea Laven (née Luukinen; after that Marjanen, Forssell and Tulonen; born 19 June 1948,

Haukipudas Haukipudas is a town and former municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Oulu and part of the Northern Ostrobothnia region. Its shore runs along the Gulf of Bothnia, with the river Kiiminkijoki running through the province. Alo ...

) 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 ...

pop singer. Laven grew up in meager circumstances in the small town of Haukipudas: she began singing in shows while in school and as a teenager began participating in talent competitions. After completing her schooling she lived for a time in Sweden where she worked as a domestic in hotels and nursing homes. In 1966 while back in Finland for an intended visit Laven attended a dance where Pentti Oskari Kangas was playing: Laven asked to sing with his band and the reaction resulted in her being recruited as a vocalist. When not performing with the band Laven worked at a textile mill in the town of Rauma which was Kangas' home base. In 1969 Laven began recording for EMI Columbia - later known as CBS Records - with a debut album ''Se Jokin'' issued in 1970: during this time Laven also had a "day job" as a secretary at the label's

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

office. For several years Laven typically recorded Finnish language

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

s of contemporary international hits with the 1974

double A-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

single "Niin"/ "Tumma Nainen" - comprising Finnish renderings of " Sì" and " Dark Lady" originally by respectively

Gigliola Cinquetti Gigliola Cinquetti (; born Giliola Cinquetti on 20 December 1947) is an Italian singer, songwriter, and television presenter. Life and career Gigliola Cinquetti was born into a wealthy family in Verona. From the ages of 9 to 13, she studied and ...

and

Cher Cher (; born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Often referred to by the media as the Honorific nicknames in popular music, "Goddess of Pop", she has been described as embodying female ...

- affording Laven her career record with a #5 peak on the Finnish national charts: "Niin"/ "Tumma Nainen" debuted in the Top 30 in August 1974 and was still ranked in the Top 30 in August 1975. In 1978 Laven took second place - in a tie - in the Finnish national preliminary round of the

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

contest with the song "Aamulla Rakkaani Näin" which served at the title cut of Laven's seventh album which became Laven's first gold-certified album. Laven's subsequent recorded output was more focused on new material including the 1979 Syksyn sävel winner "Ei oo, ei tuu" which was the #1 hit in Finland for the months of December 1979 and January 1980. Laven still recorded Finnish-language covers including "Lahjan Sain" which as "

Si la vie est cadeau "Si la vie est cadeau" (; "If Life Is a Gift") by Jean-Pierre Millers (music) and Alain Garcia (lyrics) was the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1983, performed in French by French singer Corinne Hermès for . The song is a dramatic ballad ...

" had won Eurovision 1983. In 1984 Laven switched to Bluebird Records where her debut album ''Sanat murenevat'' - Laven's twelfth album release - became her sole platinum-certified album to date. In 1990 Laven debuted on the Polarvox label with the album ''Ali Baba'' which was Laven's seventeenth album release and her sixth album to be certified gold. Laven subsequently experienced a drop in her career profile but was afforded a major comeback in 1999 when she again won the Syksyn sävel and her winning song ""Nyt kun oot mennyt" reached #6 on the Finnish national charts. Laven's twenty-fourth album ''Tähdenlennon alla'' was issued in 2006. Laven has resided in

Naantali Naantali (; sv, Nådendal) is a town in southwestern Finland, and, as a resort town during the summer, an important tourist centre of the country. The municipality has a population of (), and is located in the region of Southwest Finland, west ...

since 1984.

References

External links

Lea Laven
official site (in Finnish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Laven, Lea 1948 births Living people 20th-century Finnish women singers Finnish pop singers People from Haukipudas 21st-century Finnish women singers