Teemu Brunila and Käärijä win at 10th Music Publishers' awards
Käärijä was triumphant at Finnish Music Publishers Association’s 10th anniversary awards gala, held on September 1st in Helsinki, winning in two categories. Other winners were i.e. composer Outi Tarkiainen and songwriter Teemu Brunila (pictured above).
Käärijä won the Finnish Music Publishers Association’s (MPA Finland) "Export award" for his unprecedented international success in the past year with his global hit “Cha Cha Cha”. The track was also awarded in the "Song of the Year" category. “Cha Cha Cha” has been number one on Spotify in six different countries, reached the top five in 18 different countries and has currently over 100 million worldwide streams on Spotify, 140 million on YouTube and 928 million on TikTok. “Cha Cha Cha” is published by HMC Publishing and Warner Chappell Music Finland. Käärijä greeted the award gala guests via a video recording.
Singer-songwriter and producer Teemu Brunila (pictured above) was awarded this year's Honorary Award. Originally known as the founder and leader of the band The Crash, Brunila has worked relentlessly on the way to becoming Finland's most internationally successful pop music producer. Songs written by Brunila have now been listened to more than 5 billion times on various streaming services. He has written songs, e.g. for Tiësto, Jason Derulo, JP Cooper, Kylie Minogue and many other leading domestic and global artists.
The "Contemporary Composer of the Year" category was divided between large-scale and small-scale works. In the large-scale works’ category, composer Outi Tarkiainen was awarded for her work “Milky Ways – Concerto for English Horn and Orchestra”, published by Edition Wilhelm Hansen. In the small-scale works’ category, Tiina Myllärinen won an award for her work “(Bad) Dreams come true for string quartet” (2022), published by Fennica Gehrman.
Singer-songwriter Johannes Brotherus, known from the band KUUMAA, was also awarded in two categories: the “Breakthrough of the Year” and “Pop Music Maker of the Year” awards. The award in the genre-free category was given to the “Kaiken takana on Bämä movement”, a collective of 11 woman artists operating in the Finnish hip hop scene.
The aim of the Finnish Music Publishers awards is to highlight individual published works and authors, and to promote the recognition and appreciation of music publishing.