Jaska Mäkynen struggled to become a star in the middle of poverty

On the seventh day of June, 1952, he was born in Ranta-Töysä, Alavus, to the Mäkuste family. Jaakko Kaarlo that is, better known as Jaska Mäkynen.

“Childhood was extremely poor, living, getting along and everything. Although poor, life was very happy, Jaska notes.

The family included six children as well Small-mother and Viljo-father. Jaska was the youngest child in the family. Cancer has taken both parents and two of Jaska’s siblings out of the family. Today, there are only two siblings still alive.

– At first I was terribly bitter to the creator, why are my loved ones taken away from me all the time and I am not allowed to enjoy them. Dad died when I was 10 and I didn’t have his support and security in my life.

Jaska’s father had gone through two wars and returned from there as a war invalid. Jaska remembers her father as a harsh but fair man. The parents did work, but Jaska says the family was so poor from time to time that there was not even any butter on the bread. When lunch was brought out at school, Jaska was ashamed.

– Others had cheese and ham in between, I only had two loaves of bread facing each other. The breads had to be kept hidden in the palms so that other students would not see and bully.

– Hunger was a constant guest in our family, Jaska continues.

The family had a wide variety of hobbies. Under school age, Jaska went to the game forest with her father Viljo and went fishing, but later the music took Jaska away.

Singing child at the table

Viljo’s father used to drink alcohol with his friends in the living room of Mäkyste’s house on public holidays. The men were playing cards and 4-year-old Jaska watched him go around the corner.

– They smoked tobacco and the smoke was like a blacksmith’s workshop. Suddenly the men picked me up on the table and said, “The little one told us,” says Jaska.

Jaska sang to the men the beatings and wartime songs she heard on the radio like Life in the trenches and The waves of sound. He recalls that he also sang a few tangos from the productions of Reino Helismaa and Toivo Kärje, for example.

Jaska went to school and got a rip off in 1968. She says she took part in “spiritual competitions” during school hours, where schoolchildren from different counties competed against each other in poetry and singing.

– Yes, I always won those competitions and the song number remained in the test at ten, Jaska says with a laugh.

He says he listened to a lot of rock-inspired music like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones when he was young. However, the style of music never felt his own in the sense that he wanted to make a career out of it. When Jaska was 14 years old, her sister entered her for a percussion competition. There, Jaska realized she wanted to be a touring singer.

When Jaska turned 16 in 1968, her career opened in a carpenter’s workshop a few years before the Army. He studied mechanics at a workshop. However, the degree was insufficient.

– At the age of 18, I went into the army and after returning from there, I returned to the workshop, from where I left the Rauma Repola shipyard quite quickly to learn how to become a record smoker.

Family dreams

In 1982, Jaska decided to study sewing machine mechanics in Seinäjoki, in addition to which she became a sales representative for sewing machines. However, Jaska says he did overlapping three professions in the 80s, as in addition to selling sewing machines, he occasionally did singing gigs and work as a welder.

– I started touring already in -73 when I was 21 years old. For my first gig, I got paid 78 marks and 50 pence and I found out that this is a week’s salary. That’s when I decided I needed to train more singing, Jaska recalls.

Around the same time, Jaska had found a woman with whom she had been on-off for a long time. Finally, in 1978, they ended up getting married.

– We decided we wanted a common child, but it didn’t start to sound. We often went to the doctor. It was stated there that there is nothing physically wrong with either, but I do too much work, Jaska says.

Since starting a family was a big dream, Jaska stopped touring for eight months altogether. Soon the child announced his result. Jaskan’s firstborn Hanna-Kaisa was born in June 1979. However, the first union ended in divorce. Today, Jaska has four children. She says she is happy to have a good life for her children, even though the children have grown up for the most part without the physical presence of the father.

– Although the money has been tight, I think I have been able to provide them with everything they need. They have received love and they have not lacked anything that I lacked as a child, he states.

Jaska has a very good time with her three children. She’s not dealing with one child, but Jaska doesn’t want to open up the situation to protect the privacy of others.

From the hospital to the stage

Jaska says she attended about 15 singing competitions before her tango king. He placed second in the Seinäjoki Tango Market twice in 1985 and 1987, but knew that he could make a profit. Jaska says she has always set goals high and worked towards them.

Already as a tango pro, Jaska did more than 15 gigs a month. In addition, he continued to work as a sewing machine mechanic and sales representative. However, on a sales trip, Jaska decided to once again participate in the Tango Market.

In May 1991, just seven weeks before the Tango Market finals, Jaska was near death. He was involved in a car crash, which resulted in him spending days in the hospital.

– The organizers of the tango market and other competitors were on a sea tango cruise and from there they put me in the hospital a booklet that read, among other things, the conductor Ari Oinosen post: Jaska the devil will show you how to sing!

Like a miracle trade, he tokens from the hospital to the race stage. In July 1991, Jaska was finally crowned Tango Royal together with Kaija Pohjola. The judges noticed Jaska’s development in both voice and performance.

– I told the audience at Seinäjoki Sports Hall, in the heat of luck, that this is a bigger thing for me than winning the lottery! Now I get to do what I’ve always loved, Jaska recalls.

34 gigs per month

During the busiest months of the first royal year, Jaska did up to 34 gigs a month.

– There weren’t enough days in the month when there were so many gigs. There was a gig in the morning in the hospitals, a few birthday parties during the day and in the evening we only went to the right stage dance gig. In the first year, 165,000 miles came to the car’s meter, driving more than taxi drivers, Jaska laughs.

Soon, Jaska’s body bounced off and was found to have nodules on his vocal cords.

– I was afraid of throat cancer because I have lost so many people to cancer. He had to not sing for a year and a half, he recalls dramatic times in his career.

Jaska returned to the stage with healthy vocal cords and still performs to this day. At no point are the gigs completely over, even though there have been quieter moments. Jaska says she’s happy with how many appearances there are.

– Most grateful to all my fans who follow me on social media. They encourage me tremendously forward, Jaska rejoices.

Again a victory home

Engaged to 70-year-old Jaskan Teija Kankaanpää announced the tango king to the stage again this year. Jaska turned all three chairs in The Voice of Finland: Senior’s Voice Decides phase. Tango King chose singer Tarja Turunen as her star coach, who was completely ecstatic about Jaska’s singing.

Through Turunen’s mentoring, Jaska was also crowned the winner of The Voice of Finland: Senior in the episode seen on Friday, June 10th. He says the win was the best possible birthday present for him.

– It feels unbelievable that at this age you can win someone’s race and make new winds blow their lives. There is even a euphoric feeling, the fresh winner glows.

Although star coach Turunen has had an international career and Jaska says that he has learned a lot from him, he will continue to sing in Finnish.

– The Finnish language is my thing. Music itself is an international language, I believe in its power, Jaskaa says.

In the future, Jaska wants to record more music and achieve a third album alongside her two gold records.

– I feel exactly like in my forties! The humor of life and the fact that I enjoy life healthy, he decides.