Yle

In the Spring of 2020, Finland was dragged into a state of emergency by the coronavirus pandemic. While some struggled with the combination of working from home and supervising their children’s distance learning and home care, others carried on living and working like usual. All of a sudden, there were lots of people who had more time on their hands than before. How did the COVID-19 blight effect the consumption of music and what kind of music did Finns turn to in these trying times?

Finland’s national public service broadcasting company YLE has gone through some major changes lately. The new tax might be argued about, but at the same time the company receives kudos for promoting Finnish music abroad.

On September 26, 1972 the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) lifted the ban it had imposed over the years on individual records. It also decreed that the same principles as those for other material should be observed in choosing records for radio programmes.

Children’s music underwent a huge transition in Finland in the 1960s and 1970s. Composer Pekka Jalkanen witnessed and contributed to this development. In this article from 2011 he discusses the history of Finnish children's music.