Column | Pedro Hietanen’s biography gets a lump in the throat from pure admiration: this is what the nagging Finland needs

Somehow the Finns have had the honor of getting a word derived from their name into the mouths of the people.

Paavo from Väyryse is born to rock. From Jörn Donner jorni. Spede from Pasase on speds. Jussi and Jaakko from Muilu to mule.

And so on.

A much rarer word is pedro sand content, which is presented extensively Janne Flinkkilän in a recent biography he is writing Pedro (Like, 2024). The most intelligent readers of the main character of the book can guess.

Musician, conductor, producer and media personality Pedro Hietanen.

Songwriter Jarkko Martikainen Hietanen became known in 1994, when he helped the marginal band YUP get to a major label. A new concept arose in Martikainen’s head: pedro sand content.

“Pedro sands is multidisciplinary, child-friendly and at the same time high professional quality competence. It is adventurous, lush and supportive of others. It’s a loving, appreciative attitude that strives for solidarity and genuine world improvement – really to everything that is alive at Telluspallo”, he describes.

Also others interviewed for the book recognize Pedro Hietanen’s irrepressibility pedro sand allowance. Having done radio and TV sketches with Hietanen Pirkka-Pekka Petelius by pedro sand content radiates the entire spectrum of being.

“Pedro has opened many ways for me to hear and understand things, but his influence has been so wide-ranging that it is impossible to measure it. We’ve known each other for so long that it’s hard for me to imagine what I would be like as a person if Pedro and I hadn’t been together so much. At least not the same as I am now. I dare to say that all Pedro’s contribution has been really positive, constructive, expanding and refining. In terms of music – and as a person.”

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“Pedro’s being has an enormously strong unselfish agelessness”, Esa Saarinen analyzed.

At work pedro sand content is intemperance done with professionalism and pride. A good example of this is Blanketsfor which Hietanen asked a Scanian to sing Peps Persson. Hietanen had fallen in love with her jagged dialect and gurgling r letters.

As a result, a man from Skåne sings a Russian folk song played as reggae in Finnish. It’s original to hear.

At home oil sand content again there is family love, saunas, playing chess and hanging out.

Main feature in pedro sand plain seems to be its depth: the lack of cynicism rises from trust in life, and pierces its wearer completely.

In practical life, it appears as fundamental benevolence.

Perhaps the characteristic could also be described as the opposite of the snarling rampant especially on social media, where one looks for the opponent’s weak points and attacks them with as much misunderstanding as possible.

Philosopher Esa Saarinen describes a feature bearing the name of a friend, for example, like this:

“Pedro is one of the most well-known and, in my opinion, most influential figures in the Finnish music scene. He creates effects that slip from his character into the actions of others and move things forward in other people even without them noticing. This is because in Pedro’s being there is such an enormously strong unselfish agelessness and a certain kind of gentleness, compassion towards the deeper and longer waves of life.”

In a less flighty passage, Saarinen says that Hietanen looked at people the way he looks at life.

“Many others structure the world on the basis of what a person is, through status, education, or another formally defined compartment. Pedro has the ability and the desire – and almost, really forced – to look at a person only as a person”, Saarinen analyzed.

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Pedro Hietanen did not have time to see the publication of his biography.

One the anecdote in the book best describes Hietanen’s attitude to life. During his decades-long career, Hietanen got to know a huge number of artists, and many of them wanted his opinion on their music.

So Hietanen decided to close his Spotify account because he didn’t want to offend his friends.

“Normally, you could say that I don’t have time to listen, but that would be a bad explanation from a pensioner. And now I couldn’t directly say that I don’t have any desire listen. If those messages had not been answered at all, people would be offended by that too. I quit all of Spotify because of it. Now I can honestly answer that whatever Spotify is, I don’t have one,” he explains in the book.

“Peace, love and freedom”, he summarizes his ideology elsewhere.

Pedro Hietanen did not have time to see the publication of his biography. He died on Independence Day 2023. According to the author, the work became like its object.

“The fact that you didn’t want to talk about private matters or talk bad about anyone proves your tact. Whatever it is pedro sand allowance in the core”, Flinkkilä writes.

So: You didn’t want to talk bad about anyone.

That attitude would make Finland a better place to live.