Pirkko Mannola

Pirkko Mannola at the Finnish elimination for the Eurovision Song Contest in 1964

Pirkko Mannola (born December 27, 1938 in Valkeakoski , Finland ) is a Finnish actress and pop singer who became known as Pirko Manola with German-language hits in the 1960s .

Artistic career

Mannola grew up as the daughter of a vocational school teacher in Valkeakoski and later moved with her family to Tampere . After graduating from school, she worked as a model for teenage fashions and planned to become a kindergarten teacher. In 1958, her brother, who was three years her senior, secretly registered her for the Helsinki Miss contest. She won both this competition and the subsequent Miss Finland election in 1958, which paved the way for a show career. After she was fifth in the Miss Europe election , she received a film contract and then a record deal with the Finnish label Triola. There Mannola's first single with a Finnish cover version of the Paul Anka title Diana was released in January 1959 . In 1960 she was already one of the most successful interpreters in her country.

In the summer of 1960 Mannola appeared in a concert on the Waldbühne as part of the Berlin Film Festival . She aroused the interest of producer Hans Roll, who got her a record deal with the Hamburg record company Decca . In the fall of 1961, Decca released the first single with the Finn, whose name she had shortened to "Pirko Manola" for the German audience. The record with the title Because love wills it so and Bam-Schi-Bam was not a great success. In 1962 Decca Pirko Manola performed in a duet with Wyn Hoop at the German Schlager Festival . The two achieved fourth place with the title Mama will dich sehn , then the record was a sales success and reached 28th as the best rating in the evaluation of the music magazine Musikmarkt . Despite numerous appearances on television and on tours, Mannola's second solo record was unsuccessful, too the next duet title with Wyn Hoop Kisses in the Moonlight sold well again. The cover version of the Brian Hyland success Ginny Come Lately achieved 10th place at Musikmarkt and stayed in the hit lists for 13 weeks. By July 1963, Decca brought out another five singles with Pirkko Mannola, including three in a duet with Wyn Hoop. Although none of these records were successful, Decca Mannola offered a new record deal. However, she waived because she wanted to establish herself as an actress in Scandinavia in the future.

Despite her engagement in Germany, she had taken on numerous film roles in Finland at the same time. She continued to appear regularly in film and television productions until the 2000s. She also played in plays, for example in the leading role as Eliza in Pygmalion . In 1968 she married the actor and director Åke Lindman ; Their daughter Heidi was born in 1978.

Discography (Germany)

Singles

released	From page	Decca number
10/1961	Because love wants it that way / Bam-Schi-Bam	D 19 260
01/1962	Come a little closer to me / Mama wants to see you *	D 19 281
02/1962	For days - nights / Ringel Dingel Dickie from Manhattan	D 19 314
05/1962	Kisses in the moonlight / ukulele baby *	D 19 347
07/1962	Billy-Billy Boy / The Cowboy-Billy comes from Bern	D 19 367
11/1962	Serenata d'amor / Seven days a week *	D 19 389
04/1963	I don't give a damn about gold and money / The great luck *	D 19 426
04/1963	Love and moonlight / tomorrow will be our wedding	D 19 432
07/1963	In spring / endless journey *	D 19 454

* with Wyn Hoop

In 1998 Bear Family released the CD Pirko Manola and Wyn Hoop - Kisses in the Moonlight (BCD 16235 AH).

Films in Germany

• An ordinary Mr. Virtanen (1959)
• On a hot summer evening (1960)
• The Girl in the Hat (1964)
• Cold Death (1983)

literature

• Manfred and Marlene Günter: Memory. , No. 55, 1996, pp. 7-12.
• Bear Family: CD Kisses in the Moonlight. Booklet, BCD 16235 AH
• Frank Laufenberg: Rock & Pop Lexicon. Volume 2, Econ Taschenbuch Verlag, 2000, ISBN 3-612-26207-6 , p. 945.

Web links

Commons : Pirkko Mannola  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Pirkko Mannola in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Pirkko Mannola at Discogs (English)