Ievan Polkka by Hatsune Miku but it's the original Finnish lyrics by Loituma instead of gibberish

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Description

This is my original arrangement of Ievan Polkka by Loituma using Hatsune Miku, substantially based off the Loituma version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ygdAiDxKfI) and borrowing elements like the key + time signature and the intro from the already popular Hatsune Miku version by Otomania (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjDZrReZ4EI).

Ievan Polkka was a song I heard a long time ago when I was into Hatsune Miku stuff. I always thought it was just a cool thing that some Vocaloid people made.

Recently, I was in a restaurant and heard a remixed version being played and thought about it again. I read up a little and found out that it was originally a Finnish folk song and that the Miku version only uses the gibberish sounding parts of the song as its lyrics.

I thought to myself, has anyone made a Vocaloid cover of the original song with the full Finnish lyrics? Lo and behold, I couldn't find anything. As was the case with Despacito, it was up to me to make this unholy creation.

I listened to this amazing cover by Erika Ikuta of the song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rskbVCQesKY) (where there were katakana subtitles) and was convinced that it was possible to cover the Finnish lyrics even with Hatsune Miku being limited to Japanese sounds.

I also listened to this cover by Korpiklaani (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LfT5qJH2zc), which made me sure that even such a simple melody could be made more interesting than it already was with some fancy instruments and arrangements. It was also here where I realized that Finnish sounds really really cool (See some comments on that video, "This guy straight up speaking cursive"; "Finnish is the ultimate boss of all the languages, honestly, I've never seen anything that riddiculously difficult").

So I set out to make this cover. First I had to start with the base melody and backing vocals. Thankfully, someone had already transcribed it to I would say an 80% complete level for my purposes (https://musescore.com/user/643/scores/853). Had to add a few things here and there but I basically had it. Then I added some instruments and stuff in MuseScore and I thought I was all set.

Alas, adding the lyrics to Miku in the Vocaloid editor took a really really long time because all the sounds aren't Japanese and I'm not actually fluent in the language. I constantly listened and relistened to the Loituma version that I linked above to get an estimate of the words using Japanese phonemes. I also discovered that Miku can do a lot more than just Japanese if you play around, but it's not something that Miku is built for so it takes far longer.

After a few weeks, (including procrastination), I got the Miku vocals out. I was also spurred on to continue when I saw that TheRealSullyG created an Otamatone cover (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH5gd6IT3Po), so I thought "Yeah this is probably trending now".

I then decided that this would be my first foray into using FL Studio instead of settling for the mediocre soundfonts that Musescore provides. Yesterday was spent creating the instrumental and I'm rather pleased with the results. I'm still way more used to Reaper when it comes to cleaning up the tracks and making the reverse reverb effect that's used twice here, but FL Studio was definitely a godsend with its presets and awesome built-in instruments.

While making the instrumental, I of course thought about the guy playing drums with the cat (Bilal Göregen) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUYvbT6vTPs). This kept popping up on my Facebook feed during this entire time. In terms of the actual music, I decided to add a little conga part in the middle to spice things up. I actually wanted to do something closer to the rhythm he was playing but to be honest, I have no idea how he does it and I just have mad respect for the guy to be able to pull off something like that with just his drums.

Then it was time to make the video. Had no idea what to add in but eventually I overcame my laziness and cropped in the Loituma guys into the back of Bilal's chair (and did some sloppy masking). Added in the leek spin Hatsune Michu too (https://vocaloid.fandom.com/wiki/Hachune_Miku). Also there's a random vibing cat in the middle to round out the package.

Hopefully this video's existence is justified and can distinguish itself from the other Hatsune Miku/Vocaloid cover by Otomania. Please enjoy the music!

Also check out Loituma, it seems like they're still around. Here's a video of them from 2019 performing Ievan Polkka live as great as ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smQ90OqZjo8

Arrangement, Instrumental, Producing, Mixing, Mastering, Video, Thumbnail: Wyz
Lyrics: Eino Kettunen
Software Used: FL Studio, Reaper, MuseScore, Vegas