Marko is actually performing at the 2022 Raskasta Joulua show tonight. This is a famous Finnish Christmas song and the Finnish translation is not easily translated to English. This show is put on every year in Finland. Sometimes with several shows and many guest vocalists. Christmas and metal are a very big deal in Finland.
To me, of all the Raskasta Joulua songs, this one is in a class of its own. It's one of the most popular if not the most popular christmas song for Finns. Topelius' original poem (1859) is really melancholic. The poem echoes Topelius' own grief: his son Rafael died when he was only one year old. They made a perfect metal version of it - Marko legendary performance, really nice guitars and childrens choir.
This composition by Otto Kotilainen to the poem was first published in 1913, and it has become one of the most loved Finnish Christmas songs. The harsh conditions of the Finnish nature, and even harsher treatment from our colonizers, first the Swedes (from 1145 to 1809) and then the Russians (1809 -- 1917), contributed to the fact that child mortality during those centuries was rather high. There are many tragically beautiful folk poems and songs that deal with this subject matter. Lullabies for a dead child almost form a genre in traditional Finnish folk poetry. This resonates with our modern Christmas traditions (blended with the much older pagan midwinter traditions), because coming together with our loved ones, remembering the beloved relatives that have passed away and cherishing the childhood memories tends to be a big part of the Christmas time for many of us. Let's just say it's quite different from the noisy Coka Cola Christmas. Despite all the brightly sparkling snow, this is rather dark season in Finland, but a great time for silent contemplation. And for a good feast.
This Raskasta Joulua (Heavy Xmas) tour is a tradition already in Finland, it started about 15 years ago. The guitarist came up with the idea, Marko called him "our captain". This year the whole tour was about to be cancelled, the event arranger went bankrupt, but they were able to save 9 concerts. Marko has taken part every year I think. One year Marko and Tarja were singing side by side, first time in 12 years I think. Floor has been on tour a few times, Elize Ryd from Sweden as well. She auditioned for Nightwish with the song Nemo, but Anette got the job. Marko had a baby girl on October, but his wife said he should go on the Heavy Xmas tour. If you have not reacted to Floor singing Oi Jouluyö (O' Holy Night) on Raskasta Joulua tour, you should. She was very much pregnant. I think it was in 2016.
Yes, please check out Ave Maria with Marko and Floor😍.. There is also a video of Marko and Noora Louhimo singing Valkea Joulu (White Christmas) that somebody in audience filmed this yerar ruclips.net/video/UDHp8DcEe7Q/видео.html
The lyrics are from a 1859 poem by Zachris Topelius (14th January 1818 - 12th March 1898). He was a Finnish author, poet, journalist, historian, and the principal of the University of Helsinki, who wrote novels related to Finnish history in Swedish, which is still the 2nd official language of Finland..The poem has been translated to Finnish by Konrad Alexis Hougberg & one can feel the sorrow of Topelius in the poem as his son, Rafael, died at the age of one the spring before he wrote the poem: "I am not who you assume, as your eyes are in tears. I am your young brother, whom you in spring lost last year".
As a Finn, this song is almost encoded to my DNA. Words just cant describe the emotions this songs awakens in me every time I hear this song. It touches some very deep parts of my soul i cannot even begin to try to describe.
The lyrics are based on the belief of Soul Birds. How a person's soul was a bird-like and could fly outside person's body while he slept and how it flew away to afterlife when the person died. The belief was also that the soul could return to the living in a form of a bird. There's still a tradition in Finland to feed the birds during the winter and especially during the Christmas. In the cemeteries you can spot bird carvings and sculptures of little birds on children's gravestones.
I'm a finn and even I didn't know that. I thought we fed birds because it's a nice thing to do hahah. I've heard people coming back to visit as animals but I didn't know 'soul birds' were a thing! Interesting.
This Christmas poem is about the poet (Topelius) trying to provide solace to her daughter because her brother had just died. Maybe some solace to himself, too.
Joulu or joulua means Christmas in Finnish. This is one of the most popular Christmas song in Finland you hear it everywhere by every artist. This year Raskasta Joulua tour was almost cancelled but they could save I think 9 shows, not any in Helsinki though. They play all over Finland in big arenas, it's very very popular and a new CD was just released a few weeks ago. There are usually different artist every year, Floor has been there, Tarja was a few years ago, she sang with Marko the first time ever since she left Nightwish. Sadly I will miss it this year.
Christmas is coming and the group of metal heroes go together again to perform these heavy versions of the classical Christmas songs. Marco can sing these too so well.
Raskasta Joulua is the name of the show. "Varpunen jouluaamuna" (Sparrow on a Christmas morning) is the name of this song. There are many other Raskasta Joulua songs worth reacting to. If you want ones with translated English lyrics, just look for other vids from the same channel that you got this one.
That's what we try to do is bring music here to the US that no one here has heard because radio sux in the US. Thank you so much Clear Channel! They own about 90% of all the radio stations here in the US. They say what gets airtime and what doesn't. It's time they stand up and take notice instead of taking orders from corporate idiots that can't jam their way out of a wet paper bag.
If you keep this up, we all need to learn Finnish. Well, I sort of learned Russian, I guess Finnish can't be that much worse. Now if I could just master English. Damn, can Marko sing or what. Great reaction. For the Christmas spirit, you need to glance at Tommy Johansson (Sabaton) channel for his daily Christmas song. Stay safe, God Bless, and keep rocking
Hey Souls, Thanks for the Nightwish reactions!! Another great Christmas song from Raskasta Joulua (Heavy Christmas) Is Floor singing O Holy Night in Finnish, and of course she makes a difficult song look easy to sing. Would love to see you react to this one, nothing stops this woman from singing!! Raskasta Joulua - Oi Jouluyo -ruclips.net/video/ym1Wc5dmUYc/видео.html
I don't think Floor has ever looked more beautiful then when she was carrying her daughter. She must have been proud that the two of them were on stage together
Marko has a very special way of singing and I love it❤️ Plaese check out Tommy Johansson’s (Sabaton) own channel. Besides being an awesome guitarplayer he’s a hell of a vocalist as well. This month he’s doing a Christmas song every day🎄
Such a great reaction again 🙂 Finnish is very difficult, I've heard that it is the most difficult language. I've also heard, few decades ago, that there have been a competition about thr most beautiful language and that the winner would have been finnish. Is that true or not , or is there ever been such competition that i don't know.
It depends. Finnish has it's own tricky things. Unlike most european languages finnish is not an indo-european language, so the vocabulary is very different. For an english speaker it's certainly easier to learn for example swedish or german. You see it quite clearly if you take a basic english word like father and compare it to other languages: german: vater, swedish: far, finnish: isä. Same with the word mother (german: mutter, swedish: mor, finnish: äiti.) Dr Riitta-Liisa Välijärvi who teaches finnish at University College London says that her students "tend to like heavy metal music and fantasy fiction." 😄Fantasy nerds like finnish because J.R.R Tolkien was fascinated by the language and the elven language quenya was inspired by it.
I know I shouldn't do this as a true blue DVTCHIE, since it's still considered a form of blasphemy over here to prematurely jump on the Christmas train while we're still anxiously awaiting the Eve (Dec 5th) of our national Saint and his pitch black helper(s): Sinterklaas (Ggl that!) & Zwarte Piet.. So it's not without some trepidation that I recommend you souls check out "Ave Maria", sung by Floor & Marko. There's two performances, the "black dress" (2017) and the "white dress" (2019) version and either one is fine. White dress is the most endearing (bcz Marko), black dress the "better" one, for lack of a better term ;) Cheers from Amsterdam! 🤘
I love all the Marco/Floor Raskasta Joulua I have heard. I don't know why but the Finnish language (reputedly very difficult) sounds beautiful to me. Am I weird? By the way, look out for the Christmas Song for a Lonely Documentaries, written for the documentary maker who was with them for the Imaginaerum tour and included on the Showtime, Storytime DVD/BluRay. Also available on YT
I'm certainly biased but funny little thing: JRR Tolkien thought the same way and even learned Finnish. The Finnish language was an important source of inspiration for his Quenya language. I think Finnish is a very poetic language and when all the dialects are included, even more so.
I think you should name this video 'Marko Hietala - Sparrow on Christmas Morning'. Raskasta Joulua is just the name of the show/tour. We appreciate everyone trying to say Raskasta Joulua but we understand that it's really hard and we don't mind if someone just says "Heavy Christmas tour" 😀
This is one of my favourite christmas songs😁 So yes, they do this every year and Marko is usually in it. Also Tarja and Floor have sung in it too. I recommend that you do more from Raskasta Joulua since Christmas is coming. I recommend a song called Tulkoon Joulu and it means Let Christmas Come. The version I am recommending is the one where Tarja and Marco sing together for the first time after Tarja's dismissal from Nightwish. This performance is from 2017. It is filmed from the audience but I think that it still has a rather good quality. m.ruclips.net/video/iLdDjG1XAvw/видео.html At the end of the video Tarja and Marko are talking about how long it has been since they have sung together. Later on the show they also sang an emotional and beautiful duet.
Hullo, once again from Finland. If you want to further listen metal songs sang in Finnish, either by your own time or by reacting, then I would recommend the band called Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus. Here's one of their song "Rajaton rakkaus" which translates something like "Unlimited love". Unfortunately there's no English translation for the lyrics. ruclips.net/video/IQ82fGZjUls/видео.html
Hello and greetings from Finland, nice reaction. Can you listen/react to Raskasta Joulua Antti Railio - Enkelikello ruclips.net/video/EPQtyALf724/видео.html 🙂
Marko is actually performing at the 2022 Raskasta Joulua show tonight. This is a famous Finnish Christmas song and the Finnish translation is not easily translated to English. This show is put on every year in Finland. Sometimes with several shows and many guest vocalists. Christmas and metal are a very big deal in Finland.
Oh wow.
Love that.
To me, of all the Raskasta Joulua songs, this one is in a class of its own. It's one of the most popular if not the most popular christmas song for Finns. Topelius' original poem (1859) is really melancholic. The poem echoes Topelius' own grief: his son Rafael died when he was only one year old. They made a perfect metal version of it - Marko legendary performance, really nice guitars and childrens choir.
This composition by Otto Kotilainen to the poem was first published in 1913, and it has become one of the most loved Finnish Christmas songs. The harsh conditions of the Finnish nature, and even harsher treatment from our colonizers, first the Swedes (from 1145 to 1809) and then the Russians (1809 -- 1917), contributed to the fact that child mortality during those centuries was rather high. There are many tragically beautiful folk poems and songs that deal with this subject matter. Lullabies for a dead child almost form a genre in traditional Finnish folk poetry.
This resonates with our modern Christmas traditions (blended with the much older pagan midwinter traditions), because coming together with our loved ones, remembering the beloved relatives that have passed away and cherishing the childhood memories tends to be a big part of the Christmas time for many of us. Let's just say it's quite different from the noisy Coka Cola Christmas. Despite all the brightly sparkling snow, this is rather dark season in Finland, but a great time for silent contemplation. And for a good feast.
This Raskasta Joulua (Heavy Xmas) tour is a tradition already in Finland, it started about 15 years ago. The guitarist came up with the idea, Marko called him "our captain". This year the whole tour was about to be cancelled, the event arranger went bankrupt, but they were able to save 9 concerts.
Marko has taken part every year I think. One year Marko and Tarja were singing side by side, first time in 12 years I think. Floor has been on tour a few times, Elize Ryd from Sweden as well. She auditioned for Nightwish with the song Nemo, but Anette got the job.
Marko had a baby girl on October, but his wife said he should go on the Heavy Xmas tour.
If you have not reacted to Floor singing Oi Jouluyö (O' Holy Night) on Raskasta Joulua tour, you should. She was very much pregnant. I think it was in 2016.
Yes, it was in 2016, remastered video on Nightwish Arena channel.
Thank you for the info on that. It must have been before the little one was born. Amazing!
I concur to floor 👍
It's Christmas time: Floor and Marco singing 'Ave Maria" : ruclips.net/video/cMtKG8hRNL4/видео.html&start_radio=1
I concur.
I concur
I concor
Raskasta Joulua translates to Heavy Christmas.
Also from the 2019 tour, Marko and Floor sang Ave Maria together.
Cool
Ave Maria from the same show 2017 is better👍🇫🇮
Yes, please check out Ave Maria with Marko and Floor😍.. There is also a video of Marko and Noora Louhimo singing Valkea Joulu (White Christmas) that somebody in audience filmed this yerar ruclips.net/video/UDHp8DcEe7Q/видео.html
Raskasta joulua translates to "Have a Heavy Christmas!"
The lyrics are from a 1859 poem by Zachris Topelius (14th January 1818 - 12th March 1898). He was a Finnish author, poet, journalist, historian, and the principal of the University of Helsinki, who wrote novels related to Finnish history in Swedish, which is still the 2nd official language of Finland..The poem has been translated to Finnish by Konrad Alexis Hougberg & one can feel the sorrow of Topelius in the poem as his son, Rafael, died at the age of one the spring before he wrote the poem: "I am not who you assume, as your eyes are in tears. I am your young brother, whom you in spring lost last year".
As a Finn, this song is almost encoded to my DNA. Words just cant describe the emotions this songs awakens in me every time I hear this song. It touches some very deep parts of my soul i cannot even begin to try to describe.
The lyrics are based on the belief of Soul Birds. How a person's soul was a bird-like and could fly outside person's body while he slept and how it flew away to afterlife when the person died. The belief was also that the soul could return to the living in a form of a bird. There's still a tradition in Finland to feed the birds during the winter and especially during the Christmas. In the cemeteries you can spot bird carvings and sculptures of little birds on children's gravestones.
I'm a finn and even I didn't know that. I thought we fed birds because it's a nice thing to do hahah. I've heard people coming back to visit as animals but I didn't know 'soul birds' were a thing! Interesting.
❤❤❤
Marko is such a talented musician, I love everything he does. Enjoy your Sunday. 🫶🤘
The DIGGIN ITE again 🤘🤘❤️❤️🤘🤘
This Christmas poem is about the poet (Topelius) trying to provide solace to her daughter because her brother had just died. Maybe some solace to himself, too.
Joulu or joulua means Christmas in Finnish. This is one of the most popular Christmas song in Finland you hear it everywhere by every artist.
This year Raskasta Joulua tour was almost cancelled but they could save I think 9 shows, not any in Helsinki though. They play all over Finland in big arenas, it's very very popular and a new CD was just released a few weeks ago. There are usually different artist every year, Floor has been there, Tarja was a few years ago, she sang with Marko the first time ever since she left Nightwish. Sadly I will miss it this year.
Heavy Christmas!🤘
Beautiful! Love Marko! I hadn't heard this one yet! Thank you!!
You're welcome.
This was a great performance and a metal version of a traditional Finnish Christmas carol. Thanks for the reaction!
Christmas is coming and the group of metal heroes go together again to perform these heavy versions of the classical Christmas songs. Marco can sing these too so well.
Love it !
have a great night
You too brother.
Hi Megadog555, thanks for the cool 😎 pics brother 💙
I mean this in the best way possible, you look like the coolest older people ever.
Thank you so much. Very sweet of you to say.
yall did this nice!!!
Raskasta Joulua is the name of the show. "Varpunen jouluaamuna" (Sparrow on a Christmas morning) is the name of this song. There are many other Raskasta Joulua songs worth reacting to. If you want ones with translated English lyrics, just look for other vids from the same channel that you got this one.
Floor preformed O Holy Night at this show
Nightwish doesn't have many songs in finnish but try Kuolema tekee taiteilijan from End of an era concert, it's very pretty.
Thanks Anna
You might enjoy Marko and Floor singing Ava Maria together, it's beautiful.
During the same time frame Marco was on the Finnish masked singer. And I think he won.
Heavy christmas!
Nice, I hadn't heard this one yet. Thanks for reacting to it.
That's what we try to do is bring music here to the US that no one here has heard because radio sux in the US. Thank you so much Clear Channel! They own about 90% of all the radio stations here in the US. They say what gets airtime and what doesn't. It's time they stand up and take notice instead of taking orders from corporate idiots that can't jam their way out of a wet paper bag.
@@2ndhandsoulsmusic
😂😂
If you keep this up, we all need to learn Finnish. Well, I sort of learned Russian, I guess Finnish can't be that much worse. Now if I could just master English. Damn, can Marko sing or what. Great reaction. For the Christmas spirit, you need to glance at Tommy Johansson (Sabaton) channel for his daily Christmas song. Stay safe, God Bless, and keep rocking
Cool. Will do.
I concur, you’ll love Tommy
Old poem 1859 writted by Zakarius Topelius.Wroten a poem fro a one year old son who has died.
Hey Souls, Thanks for the Nightwish reactions!! Another great Christmas song from Raskasta Joulua (Heavy Christmas) Is Floor singing O Holy Night in Finnish, and of course she makes a difficult song look easy to sing. Would love to see you react to this one, nothing stops this woman from singing!! Raskasta Joulua - Oi Jouluyo -ruclips.net/video/ym1Wc5dmUYc/видео.html
While well into pregnancy! Lol
Thanks
It's beautiful :)
I concur
I don't think Floor has ever looked more beautiful then when she was carrying her daughter. She must have been proud that the two of them were on stage together
Marko has a very special way of singing and I love it❤️ Plaese check out Tommy Johansson’s (Sabaton) own channel. Besides being an awesome guitarplayer he’s a hell of a vocalist as well. This month he’s doing a Christmas song every day🎄
Wow, thanks for the information
Such a great reaction again 🙂
Finnish is very difficult, I've heard that it is the most difficult language.
I've also heard, few decades ago, that there have been a competition about thr most beautiful language and that the winner would have been finnish. Is that true or not , or is there ever been such competition that i don't know.
We have no idea, but it sounds good to us. We're learning.
I think Icelandic is meant to be the hardest.
It depends. Finnish has it's own tricky things. Unlike most european languages finnish is not an indo-european language, so the vocabulary is very different. For an english speaker it's certainly easier to learn for example swedish or german. You see it quite clearly if you take a basic english word like father and compare it to other languages: german: vater, swedish: far, finnish: isä. Same with the word mother (german: mutter, swedish: mor, finnish: äiti.) Dr Riitta-Liisa Välijärvi who teaches finnish at University College London says that her students "tend to like heavy metal music and fantasy fiction." 😄Fantasy nerds like finnish because J.R.R Tolkien was fascinated by the language and the elven language quenya was inspired by it.
I know I shouldn't do this as a true blue DVTCHIE, since it's still considered a form of blasphemy over here to prematurely jump on the Christmas train while we're still anxiously awaiting the Eve (Dec 5th) of our national Saint and his pitch black helper(s): Sinterklaas (Ggl that!) & Zwarte Piet..
So it's not without some trepidation that I recommend you souls check out "Ave Maria", sung by Floor & Marko. There's two performances, the "black dress" (2017) and the "white dress" (2019) version and either one is fine. White dress is the most endearing (bcz Marko), black dress the "better" one, for lack of a better term ;)
Cheers from Amsterdam! 🤘
I concur
I love all the Marco/Floor Raskasta Joulua I have heard.
I don't know why but the Finnish language (reputedly very difficult) sounds beautiful to me.
Am I weird?
By the way, look out for the Christmas Song for a Lonely Documentaries, written for the documentary maker who was with them for the Imaginaerum tour and included on the Showtime, Storytime DVD/BluRay. Also available on YT
I'm certainly biased but funny little thing: JRR Tolkien thought the same way and even learned Finnish. The Finnish language was an important source of inspiration for his Quenya language. I think Finnish is a very poetic language and when all the dialects are included, even more so.
Good 1 guys
Hi Lyn , 😊 Thank you
Please listen to this from the same concerts. ruclips.net/video/q1UJHpyFQn0/видео.html. Floor and Marco singing Ave Maria.
Hie-ta-la
Thank You
I think you should name this video 'Marko Hietala - Sparrow on Christmas Morning'. Raskasta Joulua is just the name of the show/tour. We appreciate everyone trying to say Raskasta Joulua but we understand that it's really hard and we don't mind if someone just says "Heavy Christmas tour" 😀
You sould listen that traditional version of that christms song it’s bit different😁
Great reaction! You must also react to Floor at this same festival when she was 6 months pregnant. ruclips.net/video/ym1Wc5dmUYc/видео.html
Unfortunately the translation is off a bit. For example, Christmas is not miserable, the lyrics go: "It is Christmas, but my sparrow is homeless."
Right. It's the sparrow that's both homeless (koditon) and unhappy/miserable (onneton).
This is one of my favourite christmas songs😁
So yes, they do this every year and Marko is usually in it. Also Tarja and Floor have sung in it too.
I recommend that you do more from Raskasta Joulua since Christmas is coming.
I recommend a song called Tulkoon Joulu and it means Let Christmas Come. The version I am recommending is the one where Tarja and Marco sing together for the first time after Tarja's dismissal from Nightwish. This performance is from 2017. It is filmed from the audience but I think that it still has a rather good quality.
m.ruclips.net/video/iLdDjG1XAvw/видео.html
At the end of the video Tarja and Marko are talking about how long it has been since they have sung together.
Later on the show they also sang an emotional and beautiful duet.
Hullo, once again from Finland.
If you want to further listen metal songs sang in Finnish, either by your own time or by reacting, then I would recommend the band called Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus.
Here's one of their song "Rajaton rakkaus" which translates something like "Unlimited love". Unfortunately there's no English translation for the lyrics.
ruclips.net/video/IQ82fGZjUls/видео.html
Hello and greetings from Finland, nice reaction. Can you listen/react to Raskasta Joulua
Antti Railio - Enkelikello
ruclips.net/video/EPQtyALf724/видео.html 🙂
Little brother, not small brother. Or in this case baby brother.