Pertti Neumann

Pertti Olavi "Nipa" Neumann (originally Nieminen, born 11 October 1959 in Pori, Finland ) is a Finnish musician, the singer of the band Dingo and a songwriter. He has also appeared as the vocalist of the bands MAC, Bwana and S.E.X.. Neumann currently lives in Helsinki.

Neumann has said he did poorly at school. He advanced to oppikoulu from the fourth class of kansakoulu (this was before the peruskoulu reform in Finland in the 1970s uniting the two stages of primary school into one). Neumann has later recollected he did fairly well at school until the second class of oppikoulu when he started becoming interested in "other things" such as music instead. In 1981 Neumann joined the band MAC, which also became Neumann's first band to publish an album.

At the same time "Neumann" was established as his artist name. The name was invented by Pepe Laaksonen who was playing in MAC at the time. Before this he was also known in Pori as "Sting". Dingo made its breakthrough in 1984 and soon became one of the all-time most popular Finnish bands. Dingo caused an unprecedented teen hysteria in Finland.

The rapidly risen popularity of Dingo and the ensuing teen hysteria led to a situation where the band members no longer had private lives. The most enthusiastic fans set up camp around the homes of the band members in hopes of getting an autograph. There were also organised tours to Pori including views of the band members' homes.

The band members started getting frustrated with the side effects caused by the huge popularity of the band and the number of interviews was limited. As the band's figurehead and principal songwriter Neumann's income was higher than that of the other band members, and his swanky spending annoyed the others. Neumann is also said to have said to the rest of the band that Dingo would not exist without him.

In addition to the waning popularity and internal arguments Dingo started having growing financial difficulties. The company founded to back the band ended up going bankrupt. In an interview, Neumann said Dingo would continue despite changing members.

During Dingo's hiatus, Neumann continued performing solo and appeared on duo gigs with Dingo's former bass player Jarkko Eve. In 2002, Neumann founded a shop called "Western Rock Store" in central Pori, selling Native American clothes. In 2004, Neumann sold the store to another owner. In late 2002, Dingo performed at a concert in Tallinn, Estonia with a special line-up. The band's best known members did not agree to appear at the concert, so Neumann assembled a new line-up from other studio musicians. The other band members were insulted by this. Neumann said he was the owner of the Dingo trademark and could therefore form the band again. These disagreements broke the relationship between Neumann and the rest of the band for years and they wanted nothing to do with each other for a long time.

In 2004, Neumann started appearing again with a new Dingo line-up. As well as Neumann, the band included Dingo's original bass player Jarkko Eve and three new musicians. In 2005, the band released an album called Purppuraa.

In the 2000s, Dingo's line-up changed often. In 2008, Jarkko Eve quit the band, after which Neumann became the only remaining original member in the band. In 2008, Dingo published an album titled Humisevan harjun paluu.

2010s In the early 2010s Neumann continued performing with various line-ups under the name Dingo. As well as Dingo, he also appeared as a solo artist.

In autumn 2012 Neumann appeared at the first season of the Nelonen TV show Vain elämää, where seven Finnish artists performed songs from each other. In March 2013 Neumann published a new solo album called Oma Waterloo which he had originally planned to publish under the Dingo name. The book Dingo-kipparin lokikirja, a biographical interview of Neumann written by Salla Nazarenko and published by Into Kustannus was published in autumn 2017.

Neumann turned 60 years old in 2019. A new compilation album Greatest Hits: 60th Anniversary containing two new songs was published to celebrate this.

2020s In the 2020s Neumann has continued performing with Dingo and as a solo artist.

The film My Name Is Dingo (original Finnish name: Levoton Tuhkimo), a biographical film about Neumann and the early history of Dingo, premiered in 2024. The film is partly fictive.

Private life Neumann has been married twice. He first married his youth sweetheart "Marika". Although the couple had been dating since 1981 they were only married in 1987 after Dingo had broken up. Marika has not appeared in public.