Värttinä

One of the most internationally successful acts to emerge from the contemporary Finland music scene, Värttinä revitalized the nation's folk traditions with an aggressive and ultra-modern style that eschewed not only the costumes of their ancestors but also the long-accepted cultural notion that women should sing unaccompanied. A product of the folk music department at Helsinki's Sibelius Academy, Värttinä formed in the early '80s, its 21 original members all previously associated with an area youth group. Over time their ranks gradually slimmed down, and by the early '90s the ...