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Sonjas interest for music began when Sonja Lindh was three years old and living
with her parents and three brothers on a dairy farm that has been in the family
since 1752. It is located near the small town of Kronoby, Finland (about 500 kilometers
or 310 miles north of Helsinki near the west coast). One of Sonja's earliest memories
is pretending the back porch was her big stage and the porch light her spotlight.
Sonja's career began early. At age 10 she was performing gospel and other music
for church and school. She grew to love country music, initially, by listening
over and over to a Jim Reeves tape that her parents had.
At the age of 15 Sonja was discovered when a neighbour told the leader of a
local country band that Sonja could really sing. Borje Nylund was so impressed
with her ability that he invited her to join his Country Life Band. Sonja smiles
when she remembers how nervous she was for her very first performance with them
at a community festival, but the moment she stepped on the stage the fear disappeared
in her joy of singing. Sonja sang with Country Life for five years, mostly performing
songs written by Dolly Parton, Hank Williams, and Borje Nylund. Her fine mezzo
soprano voice allows her to sing a broad range of hits. Sonja's parents have
continually been a source of support, even allowing her to go on tour with the
all male band to Sweden when she was only 15. They later performed for dances
and concerts throughout Scandinavia. In 1990 Sonja recorded her first album,
"My Best Friends", at The Barn, Country Life's own studio.
While singing with Country Life, Sonja met another vocalist, Helene Nylund,
with whom she formed a vocal duet. They travelled and performed extensively
in Finland and Sweden for ten years. They recorded two albums together. Their
first joint album was "Straight from Our Hearts" in 1992. Their second
album was a collection of Swedish Christmas songs.
Wanting to try different styles of music like jazz and pop, Sonja contacted
the director of the Kokkola Estraadi School of Art. The first time she sang
for Alf Myllari he said that she is a real "Swing girl", meaning that
swing and jazz suit her. Sonja took jazz lessons from him for about a year and
a half. She also performed Swedish dance music in 1988 with a group called Husbandeth.
Although it was fun for the brief time she performed with them, she discovered
that her heart was more in pop, country and jazz music.
In 1989 Sonja decided to participate in the Finnish Country Music Contest.
To her delight she won first place! This honor entitled her to represent Finland
in the European Country Music Contest in Krezlingen, Switzerland. Sonja finished
an impressive seventh in Europe at age 18. She remembers the impressive stage
and huge audience, but she was not nervous. Singing is as natural as breathing
for her. She only needs an audience.
2002 proved to be another step in Sonja's career thanks to her cousin, Thelma
Mosebar, of Olympia, Washington, who happened to hear about the Colgate Country
Showdown on a local radio station, KGY. Thelma immediately emailed Sonja the
web address for this national contest with a brief note to consider the opportunity.
Sonja's dad, upon hearing about the contest, was again behind her. "You
aren't getting any younger!" he said. The decision was made to fly to the
US at least twice to perform.
In the year 2004 Sonja participated at the finnish selection for the Eurovision
song contest. Sonja came 7:th with the song "Should I run, Should I hide"
written by Peter Svanström and Tage Borgmästars.
During this year, Sonja has been working on songs Composer by the legendary
Latvian composer, Raimonds Pauls. The idéa with this project is to get
Raimonds Pauls´songs international.
Sonja recorded an English version of his most popular songs Million Roses (Davaja
Marina). The new English name of the song is Do you know. She got the honor
to performe the song at the Gada Balva music awards in Riga, Latvia 2005.
On 22 august 2005, Sonja released a new radio single in Latvia, Ylove who Ylove
music by Raimonds Pauls, and lyrics by Guntars Racs and Molly-Ann Leikin. The
song is Published by MicRec Publishing/Red Amaryllis.
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