A Finn with the X Factor
She came second on Cowell’s show and second last in Eurovision – but Saara Aalto is...
Saara Aalto is a star in her native Finland and is working Europe territory by territory to ensure the success in that corner of Scandinavia translates to the rest of the world. She has headlined 15,000 capacity arenas in Helsinki, but you can see her in the intimate confines of The Academy in Dublin this week.
Aalto came runner-up in the 2016 series of X Factor to Matt Terry and represented Finland in the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest. She finished second last, but a setback such as that didn’t dim the ambition of the 31-year-old from the small town of Oulunsalo.
‘I think I’ve literally been singing before I could talk,’ she says. ‘My parents are both musicians, my mum was a classically-trained singer. I think it is probably the first thing I heard; them singing. You mimic what you hear. ’
She claims to have written her first song at the age of five and has been a fixture on TV and stage in Finland since she was a teenager. She now possesses a voice that has the power of Kelly Clarkson, with a performance style that is reminiscent of Katy Perry but when she began she was dubbed ‘the Finnish Charlotte Church’.
‘She was my first heroine. I wanted to be just like her,’ she says ‘I went to singhumble ing lessons, learning classical and then pop songs. But I’ve always kept that classical side with me. A few years ago, I sang with Andrea Bocelli. I’ve also sung with Jose Carreras. However, I decided didn’t want to be an opera singer because you can’t sing your own songs.’
She has written or co-written all the songs on her current album, Wild Wild Wonderland. Monsters, an electropop banger opens the album and was the song with which she represented her country at this year’s Eurovision. It deserved much better than its lowly placing. ‘I had entered our national song contest twice before, but I always wanted to sing in English and that wasn’t really appreciated at home I think,’ she says. ‘There is a thing in Finnish culture that you should be really and not think too much of yourself. I had big ambitions and they thought I was a bit crazy [singing in English] and that I was never going to make it. But when I came second in the X Factor in 2016, the Finnish people really changed their minds about me. They picked me singing Monsters this year but, hey it didn’t work out in the Eurovision.’
She also raised eyebrows with the folks at home when she announced that she was splitting up with much-loved Finnish singer Teemu Roivainen. She then revealed that she was in a lesbian relationship with a former fan, Meri. ‘It was Meri who encouraged me to enter the X Factor. I didn’t think I would be allowed to because I wasn’t British,’ she says. ‘I went online and found out that I could. I flew to Manchester a couple of days after that. I had no time to prepare and maybe no time to be nervous. I did my best, never worried about how far I would go. I ended up finishing second... It was so great to do so well.’
She became a judge and mentor on the Finnish X Factor in 2017 and mentored one of her charges Tika Liljegren to victory. She then moved to London from where she is plotting her path to stardom.
‘You know, I was actually happier about finishing in second place in the X Factor,’ she says. ‘The winner always has so many obligations and has to sign more contracts. I’m an independent woman and it might not have been so good for me if I’d won the show. I was able to do my own thing. I am very happy in my relationship too [they are engaged] and people in Finland didn’t freak out about it. I knew I could never be happy if I allowed myself to be put in a situation where I was doing things that weren’t me. ’
Saara Aalto - Wild Wild Wonderland is on Warner Music. Saara plays The Green Room in the Academy on Thursday.
‘She split up with her boyfriend and then announced she was in a lesbian relationship’