Welcome to the Walk of Fame Finland – 11 stars shine on the street

Finland’s first international Walk of Fame for music has been inaugurated in Tampere. The street route on Åkerlundinkatu, nex to Tampere Hall, is a tribute to Finnish music, artists, musicians and producers. In the first phase, eleven star plates were embedded in the walk of fame street route, located on Åkerlundinkatu in the Tulli region of Tampere. Seven of the star plates honour Finland’s biggest national and international artists and professionals in the music industry. The public’s suggestions for the names to be immortalised on Finland’s Walk of Fame were collected last spring. The music industry professionals that received their own star on the street were:

• rap artist Cheek
• Manserock pioneer and musician Juice Leskinen
• Manserock band Popeda
• singer Katri Helena
• Finland’s internationally most successful contemporary composer Kaija Saariaho
• Finland’s national composer Jean Sibelius
• music entrepreneur, pioneer in the music industry Epe Helenius.

The other four stars to be embedded in the street were announced last spring when the public was asked to submit their suggestions for the rest of the stars of Walk of Fame Finland. These stars are well-known and internationally operating persons in the music industry that have been awarded by Music & Media Finland with a Tampere Music Award recognition between the years 2010 and 2018. Two names are immortalised on each of the four stars on Walk of Fame Finland:

• Anna Hildur (2018), promoter of Nordic music export and Rein Lang (2010), Estonian cultural influencer
• Pelle Lidell (2017), successful Swedish music publisher and Onta Shiroh Kawaguchi (2016) who has a history of exporting Finnish music groups to the Japanese market
• Holger Tiefenbach (2015), messenger of Finnish metal music and Helen Sildna (2014), founder of Tallinn Music Week
• Jonas Sjöström (2013), advocate for indie music groups and Jan Sneum (2012), music photographer and journalist.

Walk of Fame Finland recognises Tampere’s legacy as a music city, and further reinforces the city’s reputation as a cultural destination for tourists – both Finnish and international visitors. According to the Mayor of Tampere Lauri Lyly, who inaugurated Walk of Fame Finland, Tampere’s musical and cultural field is exceptional, active and versatile in many different ways. – The club culture, the Manserock phenomenon, Tampere Hall with its Philharmonic Orchestra and the Finnish Music Theater are all well-known assets of our city, not to mention the local literature and other fields of the cultural spectrum. Walk of Fame Finland is a special tribute to professionals in the music industry. At the same time, it combines urban street culture with the long tradition of the Tampere music culture. This collaboration is an example of the kind of new and surprising initiatives we need as we apply to become a European Capital of Culture. The application process is currently on-going, and anyone can suggest their ideas, says the Mayor of Tampere Lauri Lyly.

The street broadly represents the music industry

Last spring, members of the public submitted over 6,600 suggestions for artists, bands and music industry figures to have their names on Walk of Fame Finland. Based on these suggestions, a music industry jury, the board of Music & Media Finland, whittled down the proposals and the city’s Education and Culture Board made the final decisions. Walk of Fame Finland is a collaboration between the City of Tampere, the culture and congress center Tampere Hall and Music & Media Finland, the biggest professional event of the music industry. – Walk of Fame Finland pays a tribute to a broad group of music industry professionals. The stars nominated by the public have not been chosen only based on the number of nominations, but they broadly represent the different sectors and genres of the music industry. It is also important that the street is, and remains, diverse and equal, for example, from the gender point of view, says the chairperson of the board of Music & Media Finland Riku Salomaa. The stars of Walk of Fame Finland are placed on the street in a formation that follows Dave Lindholm’s song Pieni ja hento ote. The song was recorded at Headlines Recording Studio in the Tulli region of Tampere. The public’s opinion will continue to matter in the future, too. In the coming years, the stars to be embedded on Walk of Fame Finland will continue to be selected based on the public’s suggestions. Likewise, the names of the people receiving the Tampere Music Award recognition will be immortalised in the street in the future as well.