"Ievan Polkka" or "Ievan Polokka" (Savo Finnish for "Eva's Polka") is a popular Finnish song with lyrics written in the early 1930s by Eino Kettunen to a traditional Finnish polka tune. The name is commonly misspelled Levan Polkka, due to the similarity of lower-case L and upper-case i in sans-serif fonts. It is also known as "Loituma's Polka" (or "Loituma's Polkka").
Contents
Origin
The melody of "Ievan Polkka" is very similar to Savitaipaleen polkka, and in South Karelia the Ievan Polkka is also known as "Savitaipaleen polkka". The melody is also very similar to a folk dance from the area of Smolensk in Western Russia, which is known as Smolenskij gusačok ("смоленский гусачок"/"Small Gander of Smolensk").
The melody can be traced back to the Viipuri Province in the 18th century when the border with the Kingdom of Sweden ran west of the province. The number of Russian soldiers stationed in the border area outnumbered the locals for many decades. At the beginning of the 19th century collectors of Finnish folk dances and folk songs all mention that the dances in the area of Luumäki-Savitaipale were Russian dances only and didn't write them down. Locals who are well-versed in folk music agree the melody is very old and likely to have been known back in the early 19th century and therefore probably of even older origin. However, the polka genre is of much later date. Polka was introduced in northern Europe during the late 19th century, which implies that the actual tune as it is known today originates from this era.
Language
The song is sung in very heavy Eastern Savonian dialects spoken in North Karelia. It is fully understandable in a Finnish dialect.
The Loituma version of the song includes an intermezzo of phonetically inspired gibberish containing only a few Finnish words; it is not part of the original song written by Eino Kettunen. The content of the intermezzo varies from one performance to another and is not listed on most lyrics. It is similar to scat in jazz.
Description
The song takes the point of view of a young man and Ieva/Eva/Eeva in Finnish, who sneak away to where everyone is dancing to a polka, and dance all night.
Popularity
Owing to its viral exposure in popular culture, Ievan Polkka has become one of the most famous Finnish songs in the world.
Very popular after World War II, the song was almost forgotten during the late 1970s and 1980s. The song resurfaced after an a cappella performance by the Finnish quartet Loituma, which was first released on their debut album, Loituma, in 1995. The album was released in the United States as Things of Beauty in 1998.
The a cappella version of the song acquired greater international popularity as part of an Internet phenomenon in the spring of 2006 when the Loituma Girl (also known as Leekspin), a looped Flash animation of an anime girl Orihime Inoue from the Bleach series twirling a leek, set to a scat singing section of Ievan Polkka sung by Loituma was posted in Russian LiveJournal. For the animation, only the second half of the fifth stanza (four lines) and the complete sixth stanza (eight lines) are used. It instantly became a global hit and the song soon enjoyed overwhelming popularity as a ringtone. Since then the song has been circulating and known under several misspelled variations of its original name or references to the animation, including "Ievas Polkka", "Levan Polkka" and "Leekspin Song". After the animation was posted, Ievan Polkka become widely known worldwide, with a significant rise of interest and recognition demonstrated by the search terms popularity.
The Finnish folk song was also given popular covers by several Japanese Vocaloid singers. Even though several Vocaloid singers such as Megurine Luka and Rin and Len Kagamine had also covered the aforementioned song, the most famous cover perhaps is that of Hatsune Miku, with the most viewed video of her cover of the folk song garnering up to 19,000,000 views on YouTube as of February 2016. Its popularity has lent itself to being used in the Vocaloid rhythm game Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA 2nd as the tutorial music. It has also been used in the commercial to promote the LG G5 smartphone.
In 2012, Korpiklaani have recorded a cover on the album Manala.
Furthermore, mobile ringtones based on various mixes of "Ievan Polkka" gained a wide popularity among Russian and Commonwealth of Independent States mobile subscribers in late 2006. The tune is also the theme song to the Internet sitcom Break a Leg.; it was remixed by DJ Basshunter of Sweden, DJ Sharpnel of Japan, and Beatnick of Poland; and a version of the song performed by Anne Kulonen was part of a Ready Brek television advert aired in the United Kingdom. Also, some videos show a Farfetch'd spinning a leek.
In 2016, Erika Ikuta, a member of Japanese idol group, Nogizaka46, sang Ievan Polkka as a part of her private segment on a web TV Show titled "Nogizaka46 4th Anniversary Nogizaka 46 Hour TV". This song then became well known among Nogizaka46's fans. She later sang it on several occasions such as "JUNK Bananaman no Bananamoon GOLD" radio show, "Nogizaka Under Construction" TV show which aired on TV Aichi & "Banana Zero Music" music program which aired on NHK.