Birth name Saara Aalto Years active 2004–present Labels Yume Records | Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter Name Saara Aalto Siblings Suvi Aalto Instruments Vocals, piano Role Singer | |
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Albums Enkeleita - Angels, You Had My Heart, Blessed With Love Similar People Suvi Aalto, Teemu Roivainen, Linda Brava, Suvi Terasniska, Tomi Metsaketo | ||
Saara aalto je suis malade kanneltalo
Saara Sofia Aalto (born 2 May 1987) is a Finnish singer, songwriter, and voice actress. She placed second in the first season of The Voice of Finland in 2012. Aalto also competed in the Finnish national selection to represent Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest twice, with self-penned songs; first in 2011 with "Blessed with Love" and then in 2016 with "No Fear", placing second both times. She has taken part in musicals on stage and has done a great number of dubbings for feature films and foreign television series. Saara Aalto is the voice of Princess Anna in the Finnish version of Disney's animated movie Frozen. She has dueted with Adam Lambert, and had concerts together with Andrea Bocelli, José Carreras and pianist Robert Wells. She has published 5 albums with her own record label Yume Records.
Contents
- Saara aalto je suis malade kanneltalo
- Rovio presents reach the stars by saara aalto hd
- Early life
- Music career
- Finnish Eurovision Song Contest selections 2011 2016
- Success in China
- The Voice of Finland 2012
- The X Factor UK 2016 and international recording deal
- Personal life
- References
In 2016, Aalto came runner-up in the thirteenth series of The X Factor UK, which gained her worldwide recognition. Every fourth Finn watched The X Factor final. Aalto was the most googled person in Finland in 2016. Tabloid newspaper Iltalehti readers voted Saara Aalto as Finnish person of the year 2016. Following the show, she was signed to both Sony Music UK and Finland. In June 2017, Aalto announced via social media that she will be a judge on season two of X Factor Suomi.
Rovio presents reach the stars by saara aalto hd
Early life
Born in Oulunsalo, Finland, Aalto grew up in a musical family and focused on music already as a child and her piano teacher was pianist and pedagog Olga Maslak, born in Odessa, Ukraine. Saara wrote her first song at the age of five. Her close relatives include painter and documentary director Eeli Aalto and magician Simo Aalto. In 1998, at the age of 11, she won the Kotka Maritime Festival song contest for children with one of her own compositions. Aalto also won the Charlotte Church international singing competition, organized in US, in 2003 with her own composition. Aalto represented Finland in the Golden Stag International Song Contest in Romania in 2004. She went to the Madetoja secondary school for music, where she graduated in 2005. After graduation, she moved to Helsinki to study music at the Sibelius Academy, and at the same time also studied singing in the Helsinki Pop & Jazz Conservatory.
Music career
In the past few years Saara has been a sought after performer in concerts, galas, TV-shows and musicals. She has worked with several top orchestras and military bands and toured across Finland with her own band. However, becoming an international singer, and singing in English, has always been Aalto's dream, and that is why she auditioned for The X Factor UK.
Singing in many languages has been Aalto's passion since childhood and she has performed to many international groups visiting Finland. One popular example is "Let it go" in 15 languages that she made for one group of 20 different nationalities. Aalto can sing in many languages, but she has studied English, Swedish, French, Japanese and Chinese.
In 2007, she participated in Talent Suomi ("Talent Finland"), finishing in the top three.
In addition to her singing career, Saara is also an accomplished actress, having starred as Dorothy and Phannee in the Finnish production of Wicked - The Musical and as Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar. From 2008 to 2011 she appeared in the Helsinki City Theatre musicals, first as Kelsi in High School Musical on Stage! and its second installment, and then in Wicked.
Finnish Eurovision Song Contest selections (2011, 2016)
Saara Aalto took part on two separate occasions in the selection process in a bid to represent Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest. She participated in the qualifying rounds in Finland for Eurovision 2011 with her self-penned song "Blessed with Love", placing second to Paradise Oskar who went on to represent Finland with his song "Da Da Dam". She received 40.7% of the public televotes, compared to 46.7% for Oskar. Aalto's recording was released as a single by Yume Records, a self-release record label she founded together with Teemu Roivainen in 2011.
Her second bid to represent Finland was for Eurovision Song Contest 2016 through the competition Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu where she sang another of her own compositions titled "No Fear", again placing second. Although winning the public vote, she was disadvantaged with the judging vote going to the eventual winner Sandhja who went on to represent Finland with the song "Sing It Away".
In an interview Aalto described her music.
I call my music Epic Love Pop! I love dramatic and emotional music with a show feeling. I also want to bring love, joy and encouragement for everybody; be yourself and inspire others! I’ve studied piano since I was a little kid and through music schools, singing competitions, my career and concerts (in Finland and all over the world) I’ve gotten lots of experience and confidence to be who I am as an artist. (...) I’ve performed in musicals and big shows in Finland. (...) I’m happy to be versatile performer.
Success in China
Following her performance of "Blessed with Love" for qualification in Eurovision 2011, in December of the same year, she was involved in the Santa Claus Season's Greetings Song Contest, where she sang a Chinese (Mandarin) version of her Eurovision song "Blessed with Love" as "Ai De Zhu Fu".
In November 2012 Aalto was guest vocalist at Robert Wells's highly successful show Rhapsody in Rock at Shanghai Daning theatre. And following a successful performance in Shanghai in May 2013, opening for Spanish tenor José Carreras and singing several songs in Chinese, Saara Aalto returned to the city to duet with tenor Han Peng at the Closing Ceremony of the Shanghai International Film Festival in June 2013 broadcast to over 800 million viewers in 10 countries.
Finding great reception from Chinese audiences, in July 2013 Aalto went on to release a full album destined for Mainland China and other Chinese markets also titled Ai De Zhu Fu. On the album she performed nine of the album's 13 tracks in Mandarin language.
The Voice of Finland (2012)
Aalto participated in season one of The Voice of Finland. In the blind auditions, broadcast on 6 February 2012 on the Finnish commercial television channel Nelonen, she performed "Taking Chances" from Celine Dion with all four coaches, Elastinen, Lauri Tähkä, Paula Koivuniemi and Michael Monroe turning their chairs. She opted to be part of Team Monroe.
In the Battle Round on 17 February, she was confronted with team competitor Anna Inginmaa, both singing "True Colors". Coach Monroe opted for Aalto to go to the next round. In the live show on 23 March, she sang "Barracuda" and was saved by Monroe after failing to get enough votes from the public. She followed it up with the French language "Je suis malade" from Serge Lama and was safe after the public vote. In the semifinals with her rendition of "Over the Rainbow", she qualified for the finals held on 20 April where she sang "I'm Gonna Be Strong" from Frankie Laine and an original song titled "My Love". She placed second to winner Mikko Sipola.
The X Factor UK (2016) and international recording deal
In 2016, Aalto competed in the thirteenth series of The X Factor UK,. The journey was exceptional as Aalto was dropped out and brought back and she was three times in the bottom two. Aalto auditioned with "Chandelier" from Sia. After singing "On The Radio" in bootcamp and "I See Fire" during the Six Chair Challenge Aalto was dropped out, but she was qualified to Judges' House stage as a wild card with mentor Sharon Osbourne performing "The Winner Takes It All" and eventually selected by her as a finalist for the live shows in the "Over 25" category mentored by Osbourne.
In week 1 of the live shows, she sang "Let It Go", finishing in the "bottom three" but saved in a 3-1 vote by the judges. In her followup rendition "River Deep – Mountain High", she again finished in the bottom three. With the judges deadlocked at 2-2, Aalto was saved as she had the greater public vote. For week 3 she performed "It's Oh So Quiet" coming 2nd in the public vote, and for week 4 "Bad Romance", placing 3rd in the public vote. For week 5 she again fell into the bottom 3 after her rendition of "Sound of the Underground", but was saved after performing "Who You Are", with the group Four of Diamonds being eliminated 3-1. Her following performances were "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" for week 6 placing 2nd, "My Heart Will Go On" for week 7 again placing 2nd, singing "The Winner Takes It All" and a medley of "Diamonds Are Forever" and "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" for week 8, topping the vote for the first time.
In the semifinals on 3 December, she sang a medley of "White Christmas" and "All I Want for Christmas Is You", and as 2nd song again "Chandelier", topping the vote again reaching the Final 3, where on 10 December she performed "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" and "Bohemian Rhapsody", the latter as a duet with Adam Lambert, again topping the public vote. With the elimination of the act 5 After Midnight, she was in the Final 2 facing Matt Terry. In the Final on 11 December, she performed "It's Oh So Quiet" and "I Didn't Know My Own Strength". In the ensuing public vote, she placed as the runner-up to eventual winner Matt Terry with 40.4% of the votes.
In her press-conference on 20 December 2016, Aalto revealed that she works with the joint effort of ROAR Global and Global career management companies, and that she has signed a 5 album recording deal with Sony Music UK and Sony Music Finland.
Personal life
Aalto had a nine-year relationship with singer Teemu Roivainen, but the couple broke up in 2013. Aalto and Roivainen continued collaborating in music. Aalto later began a relationship with a female fan, personal trainer and life coach, Meri Sopanen. They became engaged on their two-year anniversary in August 2016. Aalto now identifies as a lesbian.
Aalto and Sopanen moved to London in January 2017. The idea to audition for The X Factor came from Sopanen.