R&A x Yle Teema: PMMP keikalla: Ei enää ikinä
The cinematic fall gets a flashy start with the world premiere of a brand new PMMP documentary on Helsinki’s Citizen Square.
Please note the film does not have English dialogue nor subtitles!
”But thank God it is no longer the case that when a twenty-something female artist is making her way, that everybody just tells her all the time that you’re just a pussy without brains,” says Paula Vesala while watching a clip from 2003. At the time, PMMP was rising to the very top of the Finnish music industry – but the attitudes of the time still visibly defined artists’ status. Being a woman defined an artist often more than their music: how they were seen, what was expected of them, and how they were treated.
The documentary PMMP keikalla: Ei enää ikinä is not only about the group’s comeback year 2024, but also about what it was like being a young female artist in Finland in the early 2000s – and what kind of marks it left on the artists themselves. Paula Vesala and Mira Luoti speak openly about painful experiences as well, not all of which stayed private, but became woven into PMMP’s music, lyrics, and performances.
This documentary offers a broad picture of how gender and power have shaped the rules of Finnish music industry – and who has been allowed or capable of breaking those rules.
Yle (translated by Herman Tikkanen)