LeekSpin
I’m now addicted to a new flash video/song: LEEKSPIN DOT COM (from Decathanerd). The song is mesmerizing and has a light joyous hint to it. I’ve set up a mirror in my gallery.
Click to start the animation or view it in the gallery.
The character you see spinning the leek is a female character from Bleach (the anime) named Orihime. She’s a bit of a klutz, but pretty cute:
After searching online for awhile, it turns out this song is called Ievan Polkka. This version was performed by Loituma in 1995. Both Wikipedia entries were started after this flash animation started spreading around (5/8/2006 and 4/27/2006 respectively). From Wikipedia:
The song is sung in Savo, the eastern dialect of the Finnish language, making it even more comical for Finns.
The intermezzo, which was used in the Flash movie, is just phonetically inspired gibberish with some Finnish words in it. It is not the part of the original song by Eino Kettunen, but rather is introduced by Loituma.
—This song is best known from an a cappella performance by the Finnish quartet Loituma, first released in their album “Loituma” in 1995, re-released in album “Things of Beauty” in 1998.
The song, popular in Finland but previously unknown to the rest of the world, became better-known on the Internet since April/May 2006 because of a Flash cartoon.
—
A flash animation including this song has gained popularity on the internet. The cartoon consists of a 4-frame animation of an anime character twirling a leek to a 26-second loop from the song. Like many other such cartoons, it is set to loop continuously. Due to the infinity, the nonsensical sound of the singing, the simple energizing melody, the girl’s cheerful facial expression and the absurdity of spinning a leek the cartoon is considered very funny and has been spread by quite a number of people. Within a few days, tens of thousands of pages directed to the possible origin or had the file uploaded on their own webspace.
The “leekspin girl” is the BLEACH character Orihime Inoue, she spins the leek because she is telling her friend what she is planning to cook (usually something weird).
For the cartoon the second half of the fifth stanza (four lines) and the complete sixth stanza (eight lines) have been used; apparently they have no meaning and are therefore not included in the official lyrics. This is overlooked in most cases by the users who post the lyrics, often causing confusion.
It was originally made by an anonymous user of the image board 4chan and posted on the site’s flash board.
By now there are multiple videos and remixes of the song which have been inspired by the flash cartoon.
You can get the song in Loituma’s Things of Beauty album. You can listen to a preview of Ievan Polkka/Ieva’s Polka at Amazon.com.
Here you can view a video of Loituma Live (from Decathanerd) performing Ievan Polkka (Ieva’s Polka). An awesome thing about this group is they perform as a capella which always has this cool aspect to it. Here’s a mirror in case the original ever goes down.
Lyrics and translations (from Sherdog/Giochi):
As you can see, the 4th stanza is the lyrics being sung. However there are 7 stanzas in the original Finnish lyrics and only 6 stanzas in the English lyrics, which indeed points to the fact the 4th stanza is gibberish.
//krunk (^_^x)
They are cool and the song – damn, I am addicted
I am listening for it like…umm…half of the day, but that’s only the beginning!
holy shit… i could listen to this all day and never get tired of it!
im hopelessly addicted
As a finn I can say that it is indeed gibberish. At some points she sings the words “tikkari” (a lollipop) and “kurikan kukka ja kivikan kuu”, which is only half gibberish. I have no idea what a kurikka or a kivikka are though. “kurikka’s flower and kivikka’s moon” is what it would say.
You can hear similiar random intermezzo in other a cappella songs as well. Take a listen to Da Vinci’s Notebook or something.
This whole cartoon was extremely confusing to me though :p At first it sounded like an Esperanto song, but then I hear a few finnish words and similiar pronounciation, and finally it is an anime girl. With a leek in hand D: Odd.
*** NOT WORK SAFE ***
Loituma Hentai
http://www.osijek031.com/portal.php?page=6
i love this song!!!!!!!!
im a poka adic:(
here’s a funny spoof!
http://benderspun.ytmnd.com
lovin it.
They was even a radio show on it on BBC World / PRI (Public Radio International) : http://seattlefrancophone.info/viewtopic.php?p=1062#1062
Apparently someone redid this completely and made a clock out of it: Loituma Clock (from Robert). Since the image was redrawn, it actually looks a lot nicer and the clock is a fully functional one based on your computer time.
//krunk (^_^x)
i’ve been listening to it for hours… ouch its addictive
i like the clock
and lol this is all good
i can’t lissin the holday its so boring
Ievan polkka is all about sex.
It’s also a lovestory. A young man makes love to an old woman’s daughter who is singing religious songs in the next room. Old woman is in denial about the fact that her daughter is now becoming a woman, who is having several men “laskempa vieraan laiasta laitaa” and tries to not to hear her daughters noises in the other room.
BTW Nice translation
woooo this is wicked meh
Kurikka is a small town at Southern Ostrobothnia, http://www.kurikka.fi/
Kivikka apparently is a rare surename. It’s easy to imagine Kivikka as a name since “Kivikko” is a Finnish name meaning a stony area.
As a Finn I have to say that the written lyrics of the gibberish-part seem very odd. Even though most of it means absolutely nothig, I’d say that it would be very hard for a Finn to sing the gibberish from those lyrics. I guess that whoever wrote those lyrics isn’t a Finn and different people speaking different languages would probably write the gibberish in a different way, according to the writing customs of his/hers own language.
I wrote some lyrics according to the Finnish system of writing, even though there are sounds that have no letters in Finnish. (Finnish is written roughly the same as it is spoken.) I’d guess that the lyrics are clearer for Finns to understand this way.
This:
Eàtsa Tsa Parelì Parelà Landì Parelì Landì Standù La
rì Pidapilà Larù Padirù Pirà Anguricangù Caeachiridangù!
Aràtsa tsa Earibidabidì Laberìt Standìl Landèl Landò
Abarì Pattà Parì Parì Paripiripiripiri Standèl Landò!
Would be something like this for Finns:
Ejätsu tsabbari tikkari lallan tittari tillan titsdandulla
dibidabidallaa ruppatirupiran Kurikan kukka ja Kivikan kuu
är tsä tsää ja ribidabidillaa ba ridsan dillan dirlanduu
aba ribbaddaa da ribbaribaa ribiribirisden dirlanduu
Super-thanks!
Now I can sing along.
And on another note…now that I know it’s written like it’s spoken (unlike French or Japa-freaking-nese) I think I -will- start learning a little Finnish.
wow… You’ve been spinning for 5:38:07.
one word… addictive
OMG I COULD LISTEN TO IT FOREVER SAVE ME
yeah ok we all loved it, my brother kept it on for hours (crazy)
I love this song…. if you go to you tube you’ll see the actual people sing the whole song
http://rapidshare.com/files/15046399/Things_of_Beauty.rar
just so everyone can have love
This is the new craze at my school. We just sit in lessons using the IT rooms around one computer and play it all through the lesson. Wicked.
I LOVE THIS THING…..its the seedyest thing iv eva witnessed……..AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH im goin sico but i love it……..im listening to it really loud in class….and the lyriks r the koolest thing eva
…..LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this is VERRRRRY scary
listen 2 the song
4 a WHILLLLLLE
and you can hear it TOTALLY sez
“atleast i’m in london”
and
“Yellow London”
i cant get this shit 2 SHUT UP xxx
I liked the song until I heard the translation, this girl is having a one-nighter and the guy threatens to hurt her mom if the mom doesn’t leave them alone. Disgusting!
IS 28 HOURS NONSTOP OBBSESVIE nooooooooooooooooooo it isnt ^^
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WOW. ADDICTIVE. I need help, I’ve recorded it and put it on my mp3 player. I can’t stop playing it.
oh.
My batteries have run out ¬¬
_