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Leva's Polka or Levan Polkaa, (finnish for "Ieva's Polka") is a popular Finnish song written in early 1930s by Eino Kettunen in the Finnish Language. Most sources claim that the song is in Savo, a minor dialect of Finnish, but in reality the lyrics are in plain Finnish and the middle part, which was used in the Flash movie, is just phonetically inspired gibberish.

Performers

Matti Jurva (1938)
Jorma Ikävalko (1950)
Arttu Suuntala (1966)
Pauli Räsänen (1972)
Loituma (1995)
Kuplettiryhmä (1998)

Description

The song is sung in the Finnish Language and takes the point of view of a young man. It tells the story of Ieva who steals away to someone else's house where everyone is dancing to a polka, and where she meets the handsome young man. When he takes her home, her angry mother is waiting for them, but he tells her straight out to "stop that noise": No matter what she does, Ieva and he "are going to make a match".

Popularity

This song is best known from an a cappella performance by the Finnish quartet Loituma, first released in their album "Loituma" in 1995, re-released in album "Things of Beauty" in 1998.

The song, popular in Finland but previously unknown to other world, gained high popularity in the Internet since April/May 2006 because of a special Flash cartoon.

Cartoon

The cartoon consists of just four pictures and shows an anime girl which is twirling a leek to a 26-seconds-cutout from the song. Like the Llama Song it is set to loop back around, but with a smoother transition. Due to the infinity, the non-familiar sound of Finnish, the simple energizing melody, the girl's cheerful facial expression and the absurdity of spinning a leek the cartoon is considered very funny and has been spread by quite a number of users. Within a few days, ten thousands of pages directed to the possible origin or had the file uploaded on their own webspace.

The "leekspin girl" is the BLEACH character Orihime Inoue, she spins the leek because she is telling her friend what she is planning to cook (usually something weird). She bears some resemblance to Anita Lehtola, one of the Loituma-members, which can be seen in the live video clip.

The name Ieva in "Ievan Polkka" is a variant of Eeva which is a finnish version of Eva, but the false songtitle "Leva's Polka" is currently significantly more widespread.

For the cartoon the second half of the fifth stanza (four lines) and the complete sixth stanza (eight lines) have been used; apparently they have no meaning and are therefore not included in the official lyrics. This is overlooked in most cases by the users who post the lyrics, often causing confusion.

External Links

The lyrics including an English Translation
The famous "leekspin" clip
The possible origin of the flash cartoon
A live video clip with Loituma singing the complete song
Origin of phenomenon in Croatia with ringtones, remixes, Croatian translation

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-'''Ievan Polkka''' or '''Ievan Polokka''', ([[Finnish language|finnish]] for "Ieva's Polka") is a popular Finnish song written in early [[1930s]] by [[Eino Kettunen]] in the [[Finnish Language]].   Most sources claim that the song is in [[Savo]], a minor dialect of Finnish, but in reality the lyrics are in plain Finnish and the middle part, which was used in the Flash movie, is just phonetically inspired gibberish.
+'''Leva's Polka ''' or '''Levan Polkaa''', ([[Finnish language|finnish]] for "Ieva's Polka") is a popular Finnish song written in early [[1930s]] by [[Eino Kettunen]] in the [[Finnish Language]].   Most sources claim that the song is in [[Savo]], a minor dialect of Finnish, but in reality the lyrics are in plain Finnish and the middle part, which was used in the Flash movie, is just phonetically inspired gibberish.
 == Performers ==
@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 == Cartoon ==
-{{splitsection|Ievan Polkka (flash cartoon)}}
+{{splitsection|Levan Polkka (flash cartoon)}}
 The cartoon consists of just four pictures and shows an [[anime]] girl which is twirling a [[leek]] to a 26-seconds-cutout from the song. Like the [[The Llama Song|Llama Song]] it is set to loop back around, but with a smoother transition. Due to the infinity, the non-familiar sound of [[Finnish]], the simple energizing melody, the girl's cheerful facial expression and the absurdity of spinning a leek the cartoon is considered very funny and has been spread by quite a number of users. Within a few days, ten thousands of pages directed to the possible origin or had the file uploaded on their own webspace.
@@ Line 47: / Line 47: @@
 [[Category:Flash cartoons|Levan Polkka]]
-[[ru:Ievan_Polkka]]
+[[ru:Levan_Polkka]]