The new online informational channel highlights the elite of the Finnish rhythm music among different genres and local subcultures. Targeted to both professionals and music enthusiasts, Funky Finland is the first musical guide to the more funkier and soulful artists, who would have a lot of potential in the globalized music scene these days.
Launched on June 6th in 2022, Funky Finland will serve anyone interested in the Finnish rhythm music spreading loads of information on Finnish artists, who have contributed to the local subcultures here. Musically the focus will be on genres, such as funk, soul and rhythm’n’blues but also selectively on jazz, reggae, hip hop, modern r&b, afrobeat, rhythm-focused world music and the diverse fusion of them, which clearly is the standard today. Everything is published in both Finnish and English. To avoid factual errors, all the texts have been delivered to artists in advance for fact-checking.
In the very beginning, Funky Finland will introduce nearly 40 Finnish artists from the 1980’s till today. The gallery won’t include anyone, but instead the editorial staff decides in the end if the artist has played such a remarkable role in the local scene that an introduction on Funky Finland is justifiable. This is always based on overall evaluation and criterion defined by Funky Amigos. However, this does not mean that only the biggest stars and pioneers will be covered even though the focus in the beginning will be there and they will be in the biggest spotlight.
- At the start, Funky Finland is sort of an artist portal, which will help anyone to get to know the kay artists and their music better. After the consumption and promotion of music has changed so much, nowadays it’s very difficult to find all the essential information on any single source and too many fantastic musicians get shadowed by the commercial mainstream. An artist gallery curated with both expertise and passion answers this need and will also support music export and the prerequisities of artists for operation today, producer and editor Joonas Kervinen wraps it up.
A wider vision is to develop the Funky Finland information channel as the main online media of the local scene offering journalistic articles and blog writings as well as maintaining a remarkable archive of Finnish rhythm music, which has affected different subcultures either in Finland or internationally. There’s also a plan to publish unique video and audio material from the legendary Funky Elephant festivals, which were organized in Helsinki already in the 1990’s. Interaction in the project with the artists is close, and Funky Amigos intends also to offer artists workshops and training on internationalization and promotion with a low participation fee.
Several Finnish rhythm music artists would surely have a lot of international potential on the globalized music market. However, the promotion tends to focus too much in Finland, where the small and limited audience is the only one hearing it. Still more than a few Finnish artists have succesfully already showed their potential among the global audience. One of the main objectives of Funky Finland is to support them in their internationalization process.
Check more at: www.funkyfinland.fi
Photo: Noora Sandgren