2 posts tagged “viral”

No one is as surprised about the resurgence of this 1995 song Loituma's "Ievan Polkka" than the band themselves. The song was used for the now-famous Loituma Leekspin Girl in 2006, a simple, but hypnotic, flash animation of Beach character Orihime Inoue. Inoue is seen here spinning a giant welsh onion called the Negi, however the English interpretor mis-translated the episode as a Leek - hence why the Loituma girl is often called the Leekspin girl.

The band's been long in retirement when the phenomenon hit and were soon asked for tour reunion, as well as in talks of re-releasing and remixing "Ievan Polkka". All this fuss for one song ?

So let's take a look at the song and why it's so popular.

First of all, the song isn't an original, it's based on an old 17th century Russian folk song, "Savitaipaleen polkka". The traditional song was then translated to Finnish in the 1930s by Eino Kettunen, which are the lyrics and melodies are based on on the Loituma's version.

As the internet have demonstrated, there are many different recording of this song, what I think I liked about Loituma's version is that there are actually no music in their recording. It should also be noted that they often would make up new/different lyrics, ala a cappella scat-style. Combined that with the harmonies and you can see why people just love this song.

While this is not an end-all to all things "Ievan Polka", I have compiled some recording and videos and variance of this song:

Pauli Räsänen - Ievan polkka 1 comment	Sukellusvene - Savitaipaleen Polkka	Recall Project - Як Цуп Цоп (Loituma Polkka)	Loituma - "Ievan Polkka" (Eva's Polka)1996	Loituma - Ievan Polkka
Holly Dolly - The Dolly Song	Loituma - Levan Polka (the official video)	Loituma Girl	Miljah - Ievan Polkka	Arttu Suuntala - Ievan Polkka aka Ieva's Polka

Some notes: I'll have to admit that the "official" new video is pretty awful. It looks like it was based on those wacky hips-gyrating/thrusting Saturday Night Live guys (they later appeared in that stupid movie A Night at the Roxbury (1998)).  Apparently the song got so massive that it was remixed into a a ringtone-selling song called "Holly Dolly", which was later featured as a full music video.  Holly Dolly seems to me like a novelty thing, like that stupid Crazy Frog.

The Russian rap song is quite interesting, mixing hardcore rap-style with an old Russian folk song, while the Sukellusvene has no lyrics and sounds pretty loungey.

My favorite on here is a brief singing by Miljah, who looks surprisingly cute waving her leek.

Bonus: You can download a free Loituma Girl application for your iPhone.

Update 3/15/09 4pm: There's not just one, but two iPhone application!  The second one is Miku Miku, a 3-D demo of Hatsune Miku singing Ievan Polkka.  What's interesting about this version is that it's completely computer-generated (all the vocals are synthesized Vocaloid by Yamaha Corporation). Plus Miku is seen in the demo holding a giant onion.

PS I was going to do a podcast on this song, but based on all the variations, I've decided to just keep it as an article. It's okay, I have a ton of other songs I can talk about :)