Jari Sillanpää

Jari Sillanpää (born 16 August 1965, Ludvika, Sweden) a Finnish singer. With over 820,000 records sold, he is the fifth-best-selling music artist and second-best-selling solo artist in Finland.   He became famous after winning the Seinäjoki Tangomarkkinat tango contest in 1995, receiving full points from all judges.   Sillanpää's 1995 debut album Jari Sillanpää is the best-selling album of all time in Finland, with over 270,000 copies sold. He has since represented Finland in Romania's Golden Stag festival in 1997, where his song, "Remember Me", earned him the special award for the best performance of a Romanian song.   In 1998, Sillanpää was awarded the Male Soloist of the Year Emma award.   Sillanpää represented Finland in Eurovision Song Contest 2004 and his song ”Takes 2 To Tango” (which he wrote the lyrics for) received 51 points in the semi-final, taking the 14th place and not qualifying for the final. Sillanpää participated in the Finnish National Final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song "Kirkas kipinä" (Bright spark), making it to the final show, but finishing out of the final three. Since 2006 Sillanpää has publicly identified himself as homosexual.