Ievan Polkka

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This article is about the song. For the band, see Loituma. For the animation, see Loituma Girl.

"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").

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[edit] Origin

The melody of "Ievan Polkka" is very similar with Savitaipaleen polkka and in South-Karjala it is also known as Savitaipaleen polkka. The melody also has a connection to Western Russia, at the area of Smolensk, where folk dance is known as Smolenski gusatšok ("смоленский гусачок"/"Small Gander in Smolensk").

Traces of the polka can be followed at the time of Viipuri's government late 17th century. At the beginning of 18th century, a collector of Finnish folk dance and folk songs mentioned that all the dances at the area of Luumäki-Savitaipale are just Russian dances and didn't record them. The origin of the song is not clear, but at the Savitaipale, all people who are familiar with the traditional folk music agree that the song is very old.

[edit] Description

The song takes the point of view of a young man. He wants to dance with Ieva (Eva or Eeva in Savo), but her mother won't let him. They sneak away to someone else's house, where everyone is dancing to a polka, and dance all night. When he follows her home, her angry mother is waiting for them, but he tells her straight out that Ieva and he will be together no matter what.

[edit] Language

The song is sung in Eastern Savonian dialects spoken in North Karelia (see Savonian dialects).

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.

[edit] Popularity

This song is best known from an a cappella performance by the Finnish quartet Loituma, first released in their debut album, Loituma in 1995. The album was released in the United States as Things of Beauty in 1998.

The song, popular in Finland but previously unknown to the rest of the world, became better-known on the Internet in spring of 2006 because of the flash animation Loituma Girl. The animation starred the character Orihime Inoue from the popular Japanese anime, Bleach. For the cartoon, the second half of the fifth stanza (four lines) and the complete sixth stanza (eight lines) are used; they have no meaning and are therefore not included in the official lyrics. This is overlooked in most cases by the users who post the lyrics, often causing confusion.

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.[citation needed]

It is also the theme song to the Internet sitcom, Break a Leg.[citation needed]

The song also has been remixed by DJ Basshunter of Sweden, DJ Sharpnel of Japan, and Beatnick of Poland.[citation needed]

A version of the song is also in a recent Ready Brek television advert being aired in the United Kingdom

[edit] Performers

  • Matti Jurva (1937)
  • Onni Laihanen (1947)
  • Jorma Ikävalko (1950)
  • Nummi Kvartetti (1953)
  • Arttu Suuntala (1966)
  • Jaakko Salo (1972)
  • Pauli Räsänen (1972)
  • Loituma (1995)
  • Six B Rothers (1995)
  • Kuplettiryhmä (1998)
  • DJ Sharpnel (as "PRETTY GREEN ONIONS") (2006)
  • DJ Slon - Финская Полька (Finnish Polka), sung in Russian (2006)
  • Recall Project - "Як Цуп Цоп (Loituma Polkka)" (Yak Tsup Tsop) (2006)
  • Holly Dolly (as "Dolly Song [Ieva's Polka]") (2006)
  • Lena & Laurin - Der Kleine Eskimo, sung in German(2006)
  • Delin (as "Dilidala (Eva's Polka") (2006)
  • Basshunter (2007)
  • Hatsune Miku (2007) - A speech synthesizer software
  • Kagamine Len/Rin (2008) - A speech synthesizer software
  • The Vienna Boys Choir (2008)

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ievan_Polkka"
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