Fredi (singer), Date of Birth, Place of Birth

    

Fredi (singer)

Finnish singer

Date of Birth: 23-Jul-1942

Place of Birth: Mikkeli, Eastern Finland Regional State Administrative Agency, Finland

Profession: actor, singer, musician

Nationality: Finland

Zodiac Sign: Leo


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About Fredi (singer)

  • Fredi, born as Matti Kalevi Siitonen (23 July 1942 in Mikkeli, Finland), is a Finnish comedic actor, musician, singer/songwriter and television presenter.
  • Domestically he is best known as a founding member of the comedic variety ensemble Kivikasvot.
  • Siitonen chose his stage name, Fredi, after a TV cartoon character, Fred Flintstone from "The Flintstones".
  • In 1965 he recorded his first song, "Roskisdyykkarin Balladi" as Folk Fredi.
  • A year later he dropped the Folk name and was simply known as Fredi.
  • Internationally he represented his country at the Eurovision Song Contest 1967 in Vienna, Austria with the song "Varjoon - suojaan" ("To the Shadow – To the Safety"), which received three points and finished 12th of 17 entries.
  • He is also the husband of the former mayor of Helsinki, Eva-Riitta Siitonen.
  • They were married in 1969 and on November 13, 1970, Eva-Riitta gave birth to the late Hanna-Riikka Siitonen, who was a singer and actress.
  • Fredi is also the stepfather of Petri, Eva-Riitta's son from a previous relationship. Fredi returned to Eurovision in 1976 in The Hague, Netherlands, with the group Fredi & The Friends.
  • Their song "Pump-Pump" received 44 points, finishing 11th out of 18.
  • Coincidentally, both contests in which Fredi took part were won by the United Kingdom representatives - Sandie Shaw in 1967 and Brotherhood of Man in 1976. In Finland Fredi has had more than 20 Top-10 Hit singles, and achieved Diamond status with many studio albums like Avaa sydämesi mulle (Open Your Heart to Me) and Rakkauslauluja (Lovesongs).
  • In 1968, he did a Finnish cover of Tom Jones's "Delilah" as well as a beautiful cover of Procol Harum's "Whiter Shade of Pale", and 5 years later, did a cover of David Bowie's "Starman" and Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road".
  • In 1977, he released his first Christmas album, which contains covers of "Silent Night" and "White Christmas".
  • In 1978 he released one of his most critically acclaimed albums Tänään Fredi (Today Fredi).
  • It contained hit singles "Syntinen yö" ("Night of Sin"), "Elää mä sain" ("Stayin' Alive") a Finnish version of the Bee Gees song and Space cover "Magic Fly" with the Finnish title "Se outoa on" ("It's Weird").
  • The album reached over Gold status peaking # 5 in the Finnish Albums Chart.
  • Fredi has sold over 177,000 certified records, which places him among the 50 best-selling male soloists in Finland.In 2010, Fredi started presenting his own talk show, "Fredin Vieraana" or Fredi Visits.
  • His shows included songs at the opening and closing of each episode, as well as Fredi interviewing Finnish musicians and singers such as Katri Helena and Titta Jokinen.
  • Today he is still presenting his shows live in Finland.

Read more at Wikipedia

See Also