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  • Piia Viitanen and OLGA were the biggest winners at the Indie Awards

    30.01.2025 Mervi Vuorela
    Music released by independent labels was again honoured at the Indie Awards.

    IndieCo, Finland’s association of independent record and production companies, today presented 18 recognition awards to indie artists of 2024 at the Helsinki Tiivistämö.

    Now in its sixth year, the Indie Awards no longer pales in importance to the Emma Awards, as music released by indie labels already accounts for half of the industry’s total output in Finland.

    Indie in this context refers to music released by independent labels, not to a style of music.

    Singer-songwriter Viitasen Piia, whose eponymous folk band won the awards for Artist of the Year, Album of the Year (Ihmisen aika) and Song of the Year (Outo tyttö), won the most prizes. In a review in Soundi magazine, the album Ihmisen aika was described as a statement-making landmark with both a musical vision and a fire of message.

    The second most prizes went to OLGA, which has only released a few songs and won the Newcomer of the Year and the Pop of the Year awards. At the time of writing, Olga’s modern, banging dance-pop tracks Stadi (Alicia) and Uus Bitch have already been listened to around ten million times on Spotify.

    The Band of the Year award went to retro-indie star Litku Klemetti, who returned to joyful pop revival with last year’s Funny Girl album. The Metal of the Year award went to thrash metal/rap band Lähiöbotox, while the Hiphop/rap/r&b of the Year went to rapper MELO.

    The rock category was won by internationally acclaimed The Holy, whose latest album Ländmark features indie rock in tandem with melancholic post-punk and krautrock. Alternative of the Year went to pop rocker Rebekka Holi, and long-time hitmaker Marko Haavisto & Poutahaukat were awarded the title of ‘Schlager of the Year’.

    The Ethno of the Year award went to Wishamalii, whose songs feature Arabic music meets Nordic arrangements. Jazz/Soul of the Year went to pianist-composer Aurora Hentunen, who leads her own quartet, and Classical of the Year went to genre-defying harpist-songwriter Laura Hynninen.

    The Indie Awards also honoured the most streamed song of 2024. With almost 19 million plays, it is Tunnista tuntiin, starring Ege Zulu and BEHM.

    Radio Helsinki’s honourable mention went to Grande Mahogany, who makes funky, r&b-influenced rock. Nelonen’s music team was named Indie Friend of the Year, while Timmion Records, which releases and produces mainly 7” singles and LPs, won the Export of the Year award.

    The nominees and winners were selected by a jury assembled by the IndieCon board, including Johan Lindroos of Yle Finland, Lotta Savolainen of Radio Helsinki, Sini Tiainen of Qobuz, Iivari Nenonen of Tavastia Club and Semifinal, Janne Tamminen of Nelonen Media Live, Ella Ossi of YleX, Radio Rock’s Laura Vähähyyppä, Music Finland’s Niko Kangas, G Livelab’s Jaani Haapasalo, Jazz City Turku’s Jussi Fredriksson, Spotify’s Samuli Väänänen, Inferno and Soundi’s Aki Nuopponen, Radio Finland’s Tuuli Saksala, the Finnish Jazz Union’s Maria Silvennoinen and TAIKE’s Kaisa Rönkkö.

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