The son of Paula Koivuniemi, who disappeared from the public, rarely talks about his mother – Saw the signs before retirement

Paula Koivuniemi78, retired from the public eye after retiring from his music career in 2024. Before that, he entertained people with an iron grip for decades. About the one who started the career of Iskelmätähti Butterfly-song will be 60 years old this year.

– And that’s a reason to celebrate, says Koivuniemi’s son, a musician Toni Lehti.

– Mother is retired and enjoying her retirement days in Helsinki, the son continues.

Lehti says that he helps his mother and maintains her musical legacy.

It includes as an essential part the beloved songs, which Paula Koivuniemi interpreted with her hoarse voice. Now the songs are sung by other artists.

– That’s the purpose, so that people can still hear that music, says Lehti.

With thanks and respect – Snare Birch cape – is currently underway and will culminate in Helsinki on May 20. In addition, a story about the singer’s life A grown woman – musical play will continue in June in Heinävedi on the Kermankoski stage and in July at the Jaala arena. Lehti is the musical director of these productions.

– These are done with the mother’s consent. Of course, he adds.

Koivuniemi went to see for himself in June 2025 A grown woman -premiere in Ränssin Kievari and enjoyed the play according to the boy.

According to the son, before her retirement, Paula’s mother saw signs that she longed for freedom from gig life and constant touring.

– Mother reduced her gigs and considered more carefully what she joined. He went on vacation. But maybe towards the end, age started to weigh on me, says Lehti.

– He could have continued even longer, but when the corona came, he was at home for a long time. It started to feel good, and he didn’t want to go to gigs anymore when he didn’t have to. Mom got used to her freedom.

Connection of musical families

If Toni Lehte’s love for the entertainment industry and music came from her childhood home, then the same can also be said Kari Tapion about the boy Joona from Jalkanes. His company J. Jalkanen Oy organizes the tour of Koivuniemi and the successful musical play.

The relationship between Lehti and Jalkanen has warmed properly in adulthood, but the men have known each other since their youth.

The magazine was originally owned by Jalkanen’s older brother Jiri Jalkanen guy. He remembers going to Kari Tapio’s house to play the bass.

According to Joona Jalkanen, the meeting place for the kunds was often at the corners of Espoo’s Tapiola, where he cycled to the place wearing a strawberry beanie and went to get cigarettes from the older boys.

– I was able to hang around these corners quite freely, and I didn’t get my turn so easily. Everyone knew that my brother and Toni were close, and I had a certain kind of protection on me, explains Jalkanen.

Both have toured with their famous parents and have grown into the lifestyle of an entertainer since they were young. Lehti’s first contact with the concert life came as a three-month-old baby, when he slept in a guitar case at his mother’s concert venue.

The famous parents were away from home a lot because of their work. However, the children of the legends have not been left with traumas from their own growing years.

– After all, Paula meant to quit at one point and stay a housewife. But when there were super hits, the work took its toll, says Lehti.

– In the beginning, I was a pawn of the mutts at the gigs, so that the faija stayed in rutu, and the gig trips didn’t drag on so long, explains Jalkanen.

Jalkanen remembers Kari Tapio picking him up from school on his American iron with Lehti riding him. Lehti, who is studying the tricks of a bassist, accompanied Kari Tapio at his mother’s sixties and received praise. The families were familiar with each other and visited each other.

Lehti ended up playing in his mother’s and later also Kari Tapio’s bands at the age of 15, and he has also accompanied big names in the music scene From Lea Laven I met Kansa. The last mentioned sometimes started to teach his players to play, and other great personalities had their own colorful features.

– Yes, everything has been seen, he says.

Lehti says that he comes from a musical family. His father was a late musician Harri Lehtiand grandfather a successful accordionist Mauri Koivuniemi and mother’s brother Martti was a drummer. He praises his mother for the fact that Koivuniemi kept his band strong and invested in visuals, clothes and shoes.

– I have come to know my mother as a good person, kind and fair. When Dark eyes, brown hair and A grown woman started playing everywhere, I understood that the mother is quite famous.

The newspaper did not make the parent’s publicity a problem, and Jalkanen says the same. For him, Kari Tapio was a straight guy, a humorist and a great story teller.

Thanks to Paula Koivuniemi, Jalkanen moved from Polar production to becoming an entrepreneur selling his father’s and Koivuniemi’s gigs. At first, Kari Tapio resisted, but eventually the father’s head turned. Next year, the company will be 20 years old and behind them are a large number of concerts and various productions.

The trademarks of legends speak volumes

Recently, there has been a debate in the entertainment industry about who has the right to make money from the memorial concerts and plays of the stars loved by the people. Joona Jalkanen got in Helsingin Sanomat to some criticism from industry influencers because he has trademarked his father’s life’s work and helped relatives of other legends do the same. It has led to the stalling of some projects.

Paula Koivuniemi’s son, Toni Lehti, says that this is how to prevent money-making with his mother’s memory. He owns the Koivuniemi trademark and manages matters related to it. Jalkanen helped him apply for a trademark.

– That someone from the outside doesn’t do what they like, says Lehti.

– I think that it is quite important that a family that really knows about things is involved in projects that tell about artists, so that false information is not spread. Some disagree with this, but I think it’s good for the family to be involved.

The newspaper says that he visited, for example A grown woman -with the scriptwriter of the play, through his mother’s life, which, according to him, made the whole thing truthful. Neither of the men swallows the idea that the family would deliberately try to control and sweep the more unpleasant life events of the star artists under the carpet.

– Hasn’t everything already been told about the lives of Paula Koivuniemi and Kari Tapio? At the time, all sorrows were discussed in the newspapers, there are not many hidden sorrows there, the men point out.

– Of course, it must be understood that you can’t fit your whole life into a two-hour play, and you can’t fit all the songs into concerts. Even now, it was quite a selection, when Paula has so many hits, Koivuniemi’s son says.

Joona Jalkanen says that Finland has been waking up to trademarks late. The situation in the entertainment industry has been like the wild west, where anyone has been free to use the legend’s name and make money with it.

– It’s only right that the artists’ affairs remain in the family’s own hands. This is a completely natural thing. You can’t Neither does Elvis use the name without permission. After all, a few funny concerts were held under Paula’s name without asking anything, I wouldn’t have the guts to do that, she laughs.