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Artist
Pepe Willberg
12+ albums
finnishiskelmafinlandpopSchlager
about
Pepe Willberg (born in 1946) belongs to the post-war baby boom “The Beatles” generation and he is one of those few pop music performers in Finland whose successful career spans uninterruptedly from the early 1960’s all the way to the strong Back To The Sixties revival of today. Pepe received his first guitar as a 13-year old school boy in Helsinki. In 1963 a legendary group named The Islanders was founded, and Pepe became its second guitarist. Very soon he was pushed in front of the mic and the blunt request by the rest of the band was: “Now you have to sing!” .The pop singer’s career was launched in the midst of the relentless Beatlemania and a flood wave of British guitar groups, a career that was going to turn out iconic in the history of the Finnish pop and rock scene. In 1965 a new group known as The Jormas was formed and Pepe was about to make some of his very first breakthroughs as a solo pop singer: the following year he recorded the Finnish version of the international hit “To Make A Big Man Cry” (his 1998 performance can be viewed at here). In 1967, right before entering his military service, he also recorded the Finnish version of the Beatles’ legendary “ Penny Lane.” The ingeniously localized lyrics tell the original story in an amazingly precise way, culturally transferred from the original setting to a downtown-Helsinki neighborhood with a similar profile. His following ensemble was formed in 1969 and was for most parts based on the same musicians as its pred
