A History of the Band Gimmel
By Christopher Paul Snyder
October 24, 2024
An album cover made by myself in Photoshop. I wasn't a huge fan of most of their album covers, so I decided to spend a few minutes making my own for one of my favorite songs by them, Roviolla.
Popstars: Finland’s American Idol
Gimmel began in 2002 as a Finnish pop rock girl group. Rather then created naturally such as bands like Indica or the Stalingrad Cowgirls, the four members of Gimmel were contestants in the first Popstars Competition held in Finland. What started as a reality show first broadcast in New Zealand, quickly expanded to over 50 countries over more then a decade. The show garnered major success across the globe and is often touted as a precursor of shows to follow including the now long running American Idol.
As one of the first reality shows of it’s kind, the cameras followed contestants as they performed solos, karaoke style in front of a panel of judges. If the judges liked their performance, singers would be sorted into groups to perform together in elimination rounds until only one group was left and declared the winners.
And Then There Were 3
The members of Gimmel were the winners of the first of only two seasons of Popstars to feature contestants from Finland. They won the 2002 competition with the boy band IndX winning in 2004.
Out of 454 contestants, 25 girls made it to the finals. Of the finalists, the four members of the winning group were Jenni Vartiainen, Susanna Korvala, Ushma Karnani, and Jonna Pirinen. Less then 30 days after they won the competition, Jonna Pirinen left the band due to disagreements and decided to start her solo career. The remaining 3 members quickly bonded and agreed to stay together. Shortly after Pirinen’s departure, the rest of the band adopted the name Gimmel.
Albums & Singles (2002 - 2004)
The first single they published was Etsit muijaa seuraavaa, released on October 25, 2002. It sold gold in a few days and platinum in 1½ weeks. The title when translated to english reads along the lines of “You're Looking for the Next One”. For some reason the video on YouTube is missing the title, description and comments information. Not sure if this is just a technical error on this video, or signs of something larger.
Gimmel's first album was released November 22, 2002 and was titled Lentoon, Finnish for the words Take Flight. Just after it was published, it rose to the number one spot in the official Finnish album chart and remained there for three weeks. In 2002, almost 85,000 copies of the album were sold, and in Finland it was the most sold album of the year.
Gimmel's second single Roviolla was released on January 27, 2003, where it quickly rose to the third position in its first week on the charts. The CD for the single also features a previously unpublished song called Tatuointi. At the 2003 Emma-Gaala awards, Finland’s equivelant to the Grammy’s, Gimmel won three awards. They won for Best Pop Rock-Newcomers, Debut Album of the Year, and highest selling album of the year.
In the summer of 2003, they released their second album Kaksi kertaa enemmän, and at the end of the year released a music video for the song Harmaata lunta.
The End of Popstars - The End of the Band
The show ran continuously from 1999 until The final season appeared in Germany in 2015. After 16 years, it was cancelled due to low ratings as well as several critics noting the lack of longevity of the groups as many bands only lasted 1-2 years at most after winning the competition. The show only aired two seasons with contestants from Finland in 2002 and 2004.
On October 16th 2004, the band officialy broke up.
Jenni Vartiainen
After leaving Gimmel, Jenni achieved quite a lucrative career as a solo artist in Finland. Having released several gold and platinum albums, and having sold over 300,000 records she gained a large following overseas in throughout the 2010’s. While she has mostly dipped out of the public spotlight, she appears to have been the most successful of the original 4 members.
Jonna Pirinen
After Jonna left to start her solo career, she released 3 original albums and charted moderate success in her home country. Although her success has mostly died down as a performing musician, she does still teach dance and music classes and continues to write music for herself.
Sources
https://www.youtube.com/@jenkkakahva/videos
https://www.last.fm/music/Gimmel/+wiki
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXGKqDwjxEQ
https://www.recordshopx.com/artist/gimmel/lentoon/#456323
