Tapio Rautavaara

Biography

Kaj Tapio (”Tapsa”) Rautavaara (8 March 1915 in Northern Pirkkala, Finland – 25 September 1979 in Helsinki, Finland) was a Finnish athlete, singer, and film actor. Rautavaara was one of the most beloved singers in Finland. Some of his famous songs include Isoisän olkihattu, Reppu ja reissumies, Korttipakka, Lapin jenkka, Juokse sinä humma, Kulkuri ja joutsen, Tuopin jäljet, Sininen uni and Anttilan keväthuumaus. After the war Rautavaara met Reino Helismaa, who composed and made the lyrics to Rei...

Kaj Tapio (”Tapsa”) Rautavaara (8 March 1915 in Northern Pirkkala, Finland – 25 September 1979 in Helsinki, Finland) was a Finnish athlete, singer, and film actor. Rautavaara was one of the most beloved singers in Finland. Some of his famous songs include Isoisän olkihattu, Reppu ja reissumies, Korttipakka, Lapin jenkka, Juokse sinä humma, Kulkuri ja joutsen, Tuopin jäljet, Sininen uni and Anttilan keväthuumaus. After the war Rautavaara met Reino Helismaa, who composed and made the lyrics to Reissumies ja kissa, which became Rautavaara’s first hit. Composer Toivo Kärki joined this team, which produced over the next ten years many popular songs.

In addition, Rautavaara composed and wrote the lyrics for many of his records. Rautavaara received gold records for the songs Isoisän olkihattu, Vain merimies voi tietää and Häävalssi. The first song was written and composed by Rautavaara, the second one was composed by him and the lyrics were written by Heikki Saari.

Rautavaara, Helismaa and Esa Pakarinen toured Finland together at the end of the 1940s and the beginning of the 1950s. The touring stopped due to personal problems, but Rautavaara continued to record songs with Helismaa's lyrics until Helismaa's death in 1965.

By the time of his death in 1979 Rautavaara had recorded 310 songs.

Rautavaara was also a very talented athlete. He became the Olympic Champion in the javelin at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London with the result of 69.77 meters and competed successfully in many international javelin competitions. Furthermore, he won a bronze medal with the result of 66.40 meters in the 1946 European Championships in Athletics in Oslo.

He also received the gold medal in the Finnish team in the archery World Championships of 1958.

Rautavaara also won the Finnish Championship in the javelin (1944—45 and 1947—49) and in the archery in 1955.

Rautavaara was cast as the protagonist in numerous Finnish films, and was also supposedly a candidate for the part of Tarzan after Johnny Weissmuller had quit his career. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.