Here is the sixth song of UMK25
The sixth song of this year’s Uuden musiikin kilpailu (UMK) is out now. You can listen to the song ”Made Of” by Goldielocks here:
Ella Mäntynen, professionally known as Goldielocks, is a 23-year-old singer-songwriter. She grew up in Joensuu, and according to YLE, she decribes herself as ”an ordinary girl from North Karelia”.
In April 2024 Goldielocks told Klangi.fi, that there are especially two people who inspired her in making music: her older brother and her music teacher. The music teacher encouraged her to focus on singing after she noticed her student’s unique voice:
”My music teacher in primary school noticed that my singing voice is really distinctive and said that it would be a good idea to examine it. I’ve always enjoyed performing very much and before singing I acted. My music teacher also found me my first producer, with who I started to record my own voice. I remember that this interested me a lot, since before that I hadn’t heard how I sounded.”
The singer’s older brother has always played guitar, and the most of Goldielocks’ music has been made in collaboration with her brother:
”I’m the youngest of four siblings. My brother has always played guitar, and through that also I got interested and inspired in this. When I was a child, on second grade, I also got my own little acoustic guitar, with which I still play and write songs to myself and others. We do almost all of my songs together with my brother, it’s wonderful that in the family there’s someone who understands”, told the artist to Klangi.fi last April.
At the beginning of 2020 Goldielocks signed her first publishing agreement with M-Eazy Music, in 2021 manager contract with Comusic Management, and in 2022 a recording deal was signed between Goldielocks and Sony Music Finland. The artist’s first single ”Electrifying” was released in the spring of 2023, and she went to a tour in the fall the same year. The debut EP of Goldielocks, ”East to South” came out in November 2023.
The music of Goldielocks is a combination of classic band elements and modern day’s indiepop. Her first singles ”Electrifying” and ”Angeline” made it to the international Spotify playlists and got a lot of radio playing time in Finland and Baltic Countries.
According to YLE, Goldielocks is a character created by the artist herself, ”a rock star inside the shell of a pop star”. The alter-ego was insprired by the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana, in which artist and actor Miley Cyrus transforms into a fictional pop star by wearing a wig.
The career has taken Goldielocks from Joensuu to Helsinki and later to Berlin, where the artist currently lives. Before her own solo career Goldielocks wrote songs for some of Finland’s biggest pop stars, including Gasellit, Isac Elliot, Abreu and last year’s UMK runner-up Sara Siipola.
Goldielocks’ career development has been dizzying. She has already performed at all major stages in Finland, and at the moment she’s on the verge of an international breakthrough, supported by her own record company. According to Goldielocks, the attitude and atmosphere around the English language pop music is changing in Finland, towards the same direction than it has been in Sweden for a long time already:
”In Sweden internationalization is supported and thought that hey, here is our star and hopefully they will become internationally big thing. To this direction are things luckily going also in Finland, but there’s still work to do”, Goldielocks tells to YLE.
The catchy and pure pop UMK song ”Made Of” was born in a studio in Berlin, in collaboration with Goldielocks, her producer-brother Lauri Mäntynen, and producer Topi Kilpinen. The song can be seen as the artist’s own reflection of herself or another person.
This is what the expert jury of UMK25 said about Goldielocks and her song ”Made Of”:
”Goldielocks’ cool and original singing voice gives the song a unique touch. Made Of has a bunch of catchy international-level pop hooks, strong lyrics, good danceability and a bit of production-based alt-pop roughness and individuality. Goldielocks performed on the main stage at Flow Festival last summer and showed that she is ready for grand stages. This song will be her biggest yet, working flawlessly on the dancefloor, streams, and radio.”
What is YOUR opinion of ”Made Of” by Goldielocks? Do you think it has a chance to win UMK and win the ticket to Basel? Let us know in comments or our social media channels!