Marion Rung (born 7 December 1945 in

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 ...

) 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. She is known for having represented

Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest Finland has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 55 times since its debut in . Finland won the contest for the first – and to date only – time in with Lordi's "Hard Rock Hallelujah". The country's best result before then was achieved ...

in 1962 and 1973. Her 1962 Eurovision song placed 7th, and in 1973, she managed to bring Finland's second best result in the contest until 2006 by finishing in 6th place. She also won the Grand Prix of the

Sopot International Song Festival The Sopot International Song Festival or Sopot Festival (later called ''Sopot Music Festival Grand Prix'', ''Sopot Top of the Top Festival'' from 2012–13 and ''Polsat Sopot Festival'' in 2014) is an annual international song contest held in So ...

in 1974 and the

Intervision Song Contest The Intervision Song Contest (ISC) was an international song contest for artists from countries of the former Soviet Union and members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. It was previously the " Eastern Bloc equivalent to the Eurovision ...

1980 with "Where is the Love."

Life

Rung started her career in 1961, when she placed second in a Finnish song contest. The success gave her a chance to record her first single ''Brigitte Bardot''. Her most famous schlagers include " Tipi-tii", "

El Bimbo Bimbo Jet was a French euro disco group led by Claude Morgan and Laurent Rossi (22 May 1948 – 20 August 2015), that gained international fame during the summers of 1974 and 1975 with the song "El Bimbo". "El Bimbo" is popular with street musician ...

" and " Eviva Espanja." In the 1970s, she also became well known in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. She continued her career, and in 2000, she was one fourth of the Leidit lavalla line-up with

Katri Helena Katri Helena Kalaoja (née Koistinen, born 17 August 1945) is a Finnish singer. Career Katri Helena released her first songs in 1963 and has since sold over 630,000 certified records, which makes her the second-best-selling female soloist ...

Paula Koivuniemi Paula Kristiina Koivuniemi (born 19 June 1947) is a Finnish singer who started her singing career in the 1960s. Koivuniemi released her first hit single "Perhonen" (''Butterfly'') in 1966. In the 1970s her career was in decline, but during the 198 ...

, and

Lea Laven Lea Laven (née Luukinen; after that Marjanen, Forssell and Tulonen; born 19 June 1948, Haukipudas) is a Finland, Finnish pop singer. Laven grew up in meager circumstances in the small town of Haukipudas: she began singing in shows while in sch ...

. Rung's mother tongue is Swedish, and she has appeared in Swedish radio and television. In 1962, she made a show at the famous Swedish live music bar ''Hamburger börs'' in Stockholm and also made records in Swedish. During the 1970s, she recorded five singles in Germany 1975-79, and the most successful, ''El Bimbo'' sold 100 000 copies. She also made an LP in English, ''Love is...'' in 1978. Marion Rung won "Syksyn Sävel" ("Tune of Autumn") at schlager Finnish song festival in 1977, as the first woman so far, with the song "Rakkaus on hellyyttä" (Love is affection) and in 1974 and 1980 she won the

. She celebrated 45 years on stage 2005 with concerts in Savoy-teather, Helsinki. The same year a 4CD- collection "Shalom,rakkaimmat lauluni" (Shalom, my favorite songs) was released as well as her biography "Minä ja Marion" ("Me and Marion"). She also played the leading role in the musical Annie get your gun. In 2009 Rung received a golden record of the album "Elämänvoimaa" (Vitality). From 1961 to 2015, Marion Rung made almost 100 singles and 24 albums.

Personal life

Rung is of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

origin.

Stamp

Rung is shown on a

stamp Stamp or Stamps or Stamping may refer to: Official documents and related impressions * Postage stamp, used to indicate prepayment of fees for public mail * Ration stamp, indicating the right to rationed goods * Revenue stamp, used on documents to ...

Selected discography

Singles *

Tom Tom Tom Finland was represented by Marion Rung, with the song "Tom Tom Tom", at the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 7 April in Luxembourg. Before Eurovision National final The Finnish national final was held on February 3 at Finlandia H ...

/ My Son John 1973 * El Bimbo (

Hal Shaper Hal Shaper (Born Harold David Shaper), 18 July 1931 - 8 January 2004) was a South African songwriter. After qualifying as a lawyer in 1955, he travelled to London to begin his five-decade-long musical career during which he worked with and wrote f ...

, Morgan) / Go Your Way (Henriksson, Robson) 1975 EMI Finland * Baby Face / Totuuteen (Tu T'en Vas) 1976 * Kylähäät (Ballerino) / Leikki Kaukana On, Gino (Es War Mehr Als Ein Spiel, Gino) 1976

References

External links

Marion Rung's English-language home page: history and discography

The Cold War rival to Eurovision
Steve Rosenberg, BBC News Magazine, 13 May 2012. Retrieved 2012-05-17. 1945 births Sopot International Song Festival winners Living people 20th-century Finnish women singers Finnish Jews Jewish singers Singers from Helsinki Finnish people of Russian-Jewish descent Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Finland Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1962 Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1973 Expatriates in West Germany Finnish expatriates in Germany Swedish-speaking Finns {{Finland-singer-stub