Loituma Girl (also known as "Leekspin") is a

Flash animation Adobe Flash animation or Adobe Flash cartoon (formerly Macromedia Flash animation, Macromedia Flash cartoon, FutureSplash animation, and FutureSplash cartoon) is an animation that is created with the Adobe Animate (formerly Flash Professional) ...

set to a scat singing section of the Finnish song "

Ievan polkka "Ievan polkka" (Finnish for " Ieva's Polka") is a popular Finnish song with lyrics printed in 1928 and written by Eino Kettunen to a traditional Finnish polka tune. The song is sung in an Eastern Savonian dialect spoken in North Karelia. I ...

," sung by the Finnish quartet

Loituma Loituma is a Finnish quartet whose members combine the Finnish vocal tradition with the sounds of the kantele. Loituma were selected Ensemble of the Year at the 1997 Kaustinen Folk Music Festival. History Loituma’s initial incarnation was i ...

on their 1995 debut album ''

Things of Beauty Loituma is a Finnish quartet whose members combine the Finnish vocal tradition with the sounds of the kantele. Loituma were selected Ensemble of the Year at the 1997 Kaustinen Folk Music Festival. History Loituma’s initial incarnation was i ...

''. It appeared on the Internet in late April 2006 and quickly became popular. The animation consists of four frames showing the ''

Bleach Bleach is the generic name for any chemical product that is used industrially or domestically to remove color (whitening) from a fabric or fiber or to clean or to remove stains in a process called bleaching. It often refers specifically, to ...

'' anime character

Orihime Inoue is a fictional character and in the ''Bleach'' manga series and its anime adaptations created by Tite Kubo. She is one of Ichigo Kurosaki's friends, and later his wife. Like the many other characters in the series, she quickly develops spiritua ...

twirling a

Welsh onion ''Allium fistulosum'', the Welsh onion, also commonly called bunching onion, long green onion, Japanese bunching onion, and spring onion, is a species of perennial plant, often considered to be a kind of scallion. The species is very similar ...

leek The leek is a vegetable, a cultivar of '' Allium ampeloprasum'', the broadleaf wild leek ( syn. ''Allium porrum''). The edible part of the plant is a bundle of leaf sheaths that is sometimes erroneously called a stem or stalk. The genus '' Al ...

, set to a 27-second

loop Loop or LOOP may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Loop (mobile), a Bulgarian virtual network operator and co-founder of Loop Live * Loop, clothing, a company founded by Carlos Vasquez in the 1990s and worn by Digable Planets * Loop Mobile, an ...

from the song. The part of the song which is included in the meme is improvisation by Hanni-Mari Autere which are totally random.

Content

The animation of Loituma Girl is taken from episode two of the ''

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

series, between the twelfth and fourteenth minute (depending on the version). In the clip, Orihime is twirling a

while talking to Ichigo Kurosaki and Rukia Kuchiki. The scene is an instance of a recurring joke surrounding her character, in which she wants to cook something so unusual that it seems almost inedible. The music used consists of the second half of the fifth

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have ei ...

(four lines) and the complete sixth stanza (eight lines) from "

". Unlike the rest of the song, these two stanzas have no meaning, consisting mostly of phonetically inspired Finnish words that vary from performance to performance and are usually made up on the spot by the singer (compare scat singing in jazz). These stanzas are therefore not generally listed on lyrics pages, causing confusion for people looking for lyrics that match the animation. There has been some uncertainty about the exact nature of the vegetable in the animation. In the Japanese version of the

, it is identified as a

, but the American dub identifies it as a

, from which the name of the animation is derived. As with many confusions about vegetables, this debate can be resolved by comparing both scientific and common names. Welsh Onion is a common name for ''

Allium fistulosum ''Allium fistulosum'', the Welsh onion, also commonly called bunching onion, long green onion, Japanese bunching onion, and spring onion, is a species of perennial plant, often considered to be a kind of scallion. The species is very simil ...

'', which is a staple in Japanese cuisine referred to in Japanese as . "Large varieties of the Welsh onion resemble the

, such as the Japanese ''negi'', whilst smaller varieties resemble

chive Chives, scientific name ''Allium schoenoprasum'', is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaryllidaceae that produces edible leaves and flowers. Their close relatives include the common onions, garlic, shallot, leek, scallion, an ...

s."

Popularity

On 10 July 2006, the Finnish newspaper ''

Helsingin Sanomat ''Helsingin Sanomat'', abbreviated ''HS'' and colloquially known as , is the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries, owned by Sanoma. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. Its name derives from that o ...

'' reported that Loituma Girl had caused a resurgence in Loituma's popularity, and the band had received thousands of fan letters from around the world. Band member

Timo Väänänen Two Witches is a gothic rock band from Finland, formed in 1987. As with several other late 1980s bands (like Dream Theater and Nosferatu), Two Witches started basing the main part of their appearances and lyrics on vampiric imagery. The group ...

describes his initial reaction to the video: The first mentions of the meme are from Livejournal from April 20th, by user mikkikoron. The meme was later popularized by Russian LiveJournal user "g_r_e_e_n", having posted a link to it on his LiveJournal feed on 23 April 2006 at 15:40. The song clip soon enjoyed overwhelming popularity in Russia as a ringtone, with most of the young urban population aware of the "Yak zup zop" lyrics. PRI's ''

The World In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

'' radio program covered the animation in a segment, in which they noted the clip's trance-inducing qualities. Patrick Macias, who was interviewed in the program, described the animation: As with most

Internet meme An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...

s, numerous videos, remixes, and parodies have been inspired by the Flash animation. These may feature the animated background, the song clip, or otherwise reference the style of the animation. In August 2010, Disney Channel aired " Summer Belongs To You!", a one-hour television special for ''

Phineas and Ferb ''Phineas and Ferb'' is an American animated musical-comedy television series created by Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh for Disney Channel and Disney XD. Produced by Disney Television Animation, the series was originally broadcast as ...

''. During the segment of the special where the cast visits

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

, Phineas and Ferb convince Stacy to participate in a dance and tune with them similar to " Caramelldansen". During the dance, Isabella can be spotted waving a leek in her hand, similar to the Loituma Girl. In December 2010, Operation Leakspin played off the "Leekspin" meme during efforts to raise awareness of potentially important documents leaked by

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...

Commercialization

In August 2006,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

ringtone A ringtone, ring tone or ring is the sound made by a telephone to indicate an incoming call. Originally referring to and made by the electromechanical striking of bells, the term now refers to any sound on any device alerting of a new incoming ...

provider

Jamba! Jamba (formerly Jamba!) was a German company, operating under the name Jamster in China, Armenia, Georgia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Oman, France, Kuwait, Turkey, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Austria, Brazil, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Unit ...

began selling a collection of media based on the animation. The video shows an

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

donkey (called '' Holly Dolly'') dancing to the animation which is displayed (flipped horizontally) in the background. The animation is marketed as the "Dolly Song", and the music is played faster than the original Loituma version. It was also given an extra 30-second drum preface. In January 2007, a similar video entitled "Holly Dolly – Dolly Song (Ieva's Polka)" appeared in the Google Video Top 100, though it had already been present on the Internet for some time. It features the same donkey, along with some dancing sheep and a snowman, but the leek-spinning girl in the background is only there briefly. In April 2007, a Dutch power company ( Eneco) used the melody of Loituma's Ievan Polkka in its TV commercial for "ecostroom" (green energy). The Dutch company Artiq Mobile launched a website where people can upload homemade Loituma Girl spoof videos. TV commercials state the best video will win 500

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

s. The Romanian company

Romtelecom Telekom Romania Communications (formerly known as Romtelecom) is a Romanian telecommunications company, which provides fixed voice, television and data services, for residential and business customers in Romania. As of 2020, Telekom Romania Commun ...

uses the song in one of their commercials for Dolce, a satellite television service. In October 2007,

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...

used this song in a Hungarian TV spot for their McCafé coffee. Typing "Loituma Girl" in the 2009 DS game '' Scribblenauts'' results in a red-haired girl spinning a leek.

Vocaloid adaptation

In September 2007, a cover of "Ievan polkka" was made, sung by

Vocaloid is a singing voice synthesizer software product. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project led by Kenmochi Hideki at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, in 2000 and was not originally intended to b ...

Hatsune Miku , also called Miku Hatsune, and officially code-named CV01, is a Vocaloid software voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media and its official anthropomorphic mascot character, a 16-year-old girl with long, turquoise twintails. Miku's pers ...

, with Otomania arranging the music and providing Miku's voice manipulation. It was accompanied by an animation of a

chibi Chibi most often refers to: * Chibi (style), a super-deformed style of Japanese-influenced caricature *Chibi, Hubei (赤壁 lit. Red Cliff), a county-level city in southeastern Hubei, China. Chibi may also refer to: Places * Chibi Subdistrict, ...

version of Hatsune Miku waving a Welsh onion. To date, the video has over 12 million views on Nico Nico Douga and

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

combined, and as a result, Miku's fame for the Welsh onion-twirling outshone Orihime's. The popularity of the Vocaloid version of "Ievan polkka" has led to the chibi-Miku featured in the video being treated as a separate character known as Hachune Miku. Good Smile Company produced a Nendoroid action figure version of her.Good Smile Company – Nendoroid Miku Hatsune: Hachune Face Ver.
/ref>

References

External links