Emma Salokoski

Emma Salokoski (born 28 October 1976 in Helsinki, Finland ) is a Finnish singer. She sings in the Emma Salokoski Ensemble (a continuation of the Emma Salokoski Trio) and in Quintessence and is an active member in the funk music band Q-Continuum. She also composes and writes her own songs; all songs on the album Kiellettyjä asioita were written by Salokoski and most of them were also composed by her.

Early life and bands Salokoski was born in Helsinki in 1976. Her mother is anthropologist Märta Salokoski, who has studied the culture of the Ovambo people in Namibia based on Emil Liljeblad's collection. Märta Salokoski is Finland-Swedish and Emma Salokoski speaks Swedish as her native language. She has two brothers. When Salokoski was three years old her family moved to Moscow, Soviet Union (present-day Russia), where her father worked in a bank. Salokoski went to a Swedish-speaking school until the ninth grade, when she moved to a Finnish-speaking musical class. When studying at the Sibelius gymnasium at the age of 18 she started to concentrate on singing. The first band where she sang was her little brother's progressive rock band. She had a few singing classes in Denmark and later participated in a course in Finland for a year.

Salokoski has been a member of the band Quintessence since its founding in 1999. In autumn 2003, the Emma Salokoski Trio, including Salokoski, guitarist Mikko Kosonen and Lauri Porra who is better known as the bass player of Stratovarius, published its first EP record Puutarhassa. The EP spent seven weeks at The Official Finnish Charts, reaching place #12. The record included two Finnish songs and two Brazilian bossa nova classics.

The band was later joined by the keyboard player Tuomo Prättälä, who had appeared on the trio's EP as a guest artist, and by the percussionist and drummer Marko Timonen. At this time the band renamed itself from Emma Salokoski Trio to Emma Salokoski Ensemble. The album reached place #4 at The Official Finnish Charts, and the single "Miksi sä meet" on the album reached place #2 at the Radio Suomi charts.

Emma Salokoski Ensemble's second album Veden alla was published on 27 August 2008. The album contains the band's own production as well as songs from J. Karjalainen, Dave Lindholm and Tuomari Nurmio. The album was recorded in November and October at the Finnvox studio in Helsinki. The single "Rakkaus polttaa" published from the record went to the top place of the Radio Helsinki chart and place #2 at the Radio Suomi chart.

Other information Salokoski has had guest appearances on records of many other artists (Don Johnson Big Band, Husky Rescue, Tuomo, Sami Saari ) and performed with many famous Finnish jazz musicians and bands (such as Jukka Perko, Severi Pyysalo and Sakari Kukko). Salokoski has also made some songs for other artists such as V-Chips and Husky Rescue. Emma Salokoski also leads her own choir Emma Salokoski Voices, which has performed two musical theatre plays, Plastic Bride and Body Positive!

Salokoski played the waitress Liisa in the 2004 film Keisarikunta. She also appeared on the third season of the Finnish TV show Kuorosota from 2010 to 2011.

Salokoski's father is the cousin of the Finnish singer Pekka Streng.