70 years old | Carita Holmström was a pioneer in her field, but what happened then?

Finland as a Eurovisa representative was elected in February 1974 young talented pianist, singer and songwriter. He had a career ahead of him as a new-age Finnish pop musician who defies prejudices.

This side Carita from Holmström however, it was not fully realized. He left his promising future behind before it had even begun.

“Despite all the accolades, I never felt like I fully belonged among pop musicians,” says Carita Holmström now, fifty years later.

Helsinki In his twenties, Holmström was ahead of his time, a Finnish pioneer of the new Anglo-American songwriting style.

At the same time, she was the first Finnish woman who composed, wrote and arranged the songs she recorded herself and also participated closely in the making of the records. An English-language album completed in the fall of 1973 We Are What We Do was also one of the declarations of a new generation of musicians – in the same turning year when they released their first album The Moors and Musk and Hurriganes and Juice Leskinen & Coitus Int.

Why Holmström then didn't seize the opportunity, which in the early 1970s was worth a small lottery win? Few got to record and even fewer their own songs – not to mention women.

“It was a wonderful time, but I wasn't looking for fame or stardom. I just wanted to make good music well and regardless of genre,” says Holmström.

He got the spark for music at his home on Helsinki's Abrahaminkatu. The mother played almost anything by ear and soon discovered that the daughter has the same ability.

“I was already playing the piano at the age of two, I even sang something in English. English is emotionally almost as important to me as my mother tongue, Swedish.”

Eurovision qualifiers ending up was a coincidence, because the suggestion was made do not go away -song composer, saxophonist Eero Koivistoinen. However, nothing really came of Holmström's victory in the Finnish qualifier and the British final. No, even though the record company had on their hands an artist with language skills who accompanied himself effortlessly on piano or guitar.

Holmström had studied piano at the Sibelius Academy since he was nine years old and had performed with his friends during his school years by Marianne Nyman with as a contemporary folk duo of two guitarists. They a
lso sang background songs in the studios and made a single in Finnish in 1969 as early teenagers.

Holmström's second album, in Finnish Another disc was published in the fall of 1974, and after that he decided to focus on his studies and the classical music he loved since childhood. Holmström graduated from the Sibelius Academy as a pianist and gave his first concert in 1981.

“I've had several opportunities to specialize, but I've avoided productizing myself and sticking to one style,” Holmström says, and at the same time explains his flexibility as a composer above all. In addition to songs and song sets, he has composed three musicals, two ballets and one chamber opera, as well as plenty of theater music, choral music and chamber music for many different ensembles. Latest records Hidden Stories (2022) and More Hidden Stories (2022) is compiled precisely from the latter.

“Music has always been a central form of self-expression for me, but it took me a long time before I thought I was a real composer. It happened in my forties, when I was accepted as a member of the Finnish Composers as only the fifth woman.”

Carita Holmström's longest musical partner was double bassist and composer Teppo Hauta-aho (1941–2021). They performed together for almost forty years from schools to concert halls and did, among other things, two long tours in Japan. The latter was in the fall of 2001. Picture: Carita Holmström's home album

Carita Holmström (left) has composed most of her songs to the texts of others, primarily Swedish poets. But in 2012, the inspiration was the Polish Nobel laureate Wisława Szymborska, whose texts were also interpreted in a spectacular song series by Niklas Häggblom (right), Tom Salomonsen and Martina Roos. Picture: Charlotte Estman-Wennström

Birthday below, Holmström becomes sensitive to consider whether it would have been worthwhile for him to concentrate after all. His career as a performer, composer and recording artist has been so varied that he is not even mentioned in the new book From Laila to Alma – History of Finnish women's popular music.

“I don't think it would have been worth it. The world of music is so fascinating that I couldn't forcefully limit myself,” says Holmström.

And he didn't even have to. Unfettered composing and playing was made possible by a permanent job as a piano lecturer at the Sibelius Academy.

And the same goes on, sort of.

“As a pensioner, I'm a time millionaire, free to make exactly the kind of music I want at my own pace.”

Picture: Outi Pyhäranta / HS

• Born in Helsinki in 1954.

• Diploma pianist, singer, songwriter and composer, also plays guitar.

• Started studying at the youth department of the Sibelius Academy at the age of nine in 1963. Graduated as a pianist in 1979. First concert 1981.

• Sibelius Academy piano lecturer 1983–2018.

• Performed since the age of six, first “gig” at Tesvisio in 1960.

• Ten own albums. The first, produced by Mikael Wiik We Are What We Do (1973) Yle editors chose album of the year.

• Finland's Eurovision representative in 1974 with the song was do not go away / Keep Me Warm. It was composed by Eero Koivistoinen, lyrics by Heikki Harma and in English by Frank Robson.

• Own band Players Unlimited 1987–1995

• Ten own albums. Composed, among other things, theater music, choral music and chamber music, as well as three musicals and two ballets.

• Two daughters and two grandchildren.

• Turns 70 on Saturday, February 10.

What would you tell your 20-year-old self?

“You still have time! Just listen to your heart!”