Pihasoittajat were a folk music

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 band with modern popular music

Popular music

Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...

 influences.

In 1975 they represented Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 in the Eurovision song contest

Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...

 placing 7th in a field of 19. Members of the band for the contest were Arja Karlsson, Hannu Karlsson, Seppo Sillanpää, Harry Lindahl, Kim Kuusi

Kim Kuusi

Kim Kuusi is a Finnish composer best known for his advertising jingles.Kuusi studied at the Helsinki School of Economics, also teaching there in 1975. Studying alongside the six had been involved in the creation of Ryhmäteatteri a composer and musician, he worked as 1969-73...

 and Hendrik Bergendahl.

Pihasoittajat reformed after a 20 years break in 1995. After several concerts the second revival for the band ended with Hannu Karlsson's death in December 2000.

In 2009 Pihasoittajat reformed again featuring all original band members (including Kyösti Pärssinen who did not appear in the Eurovision song contest, but excluding Hannu Karlsson and Seppo Sillanpää who had formed his own group with his daughters). Tommi Bergendahl, the son of Henrik, joined the group and contributes now with his guitar and vocal bass.
Homepage
Pihasoittajat in Finnish.