There is a new disco star in town. Maini Sorri’s Let Me Do Your Time climbed high on Digilistan, the list of Sweden’s most downloaded songs.
– It feels great fun, I get little joy shocks now and then, says Maini Sorri.

HER MELODIES TOUCH
Maini Sorri has always had music with her in her life. In her childhood home, the Finnish parsonage, they sang lots of spiritual songs. She began to play piano and guitar, at first she played by ear and tried to teach herself. Later Maini Sorri’s mom sent her to take piano and singing lessons. Her first piano piece she wrote as an 8-year-old, and after encouragement, she wrote her first song, 20 year old.

– I have a passion for music, says Maini Sorri.

To Sweden she came from a village near Tampere in Finland when she was seventeen. A teenage love had got her interested in Sweden and she moved to Uppsala with his older sister who would start studying here in town.

– Of course mom probably thought it was a bit tough. At the same time she knew how stubborn I was and that she could not stop me, says Maini Sorri.

In Uppsala, she took music teacher certificate and later worked at various schools around the Upland including the music school in Tierp. She liked being  a music teacher, but in recent years it has been her own music that applied to her.

The music she writes she describes as pop ballades – songs with touching lyrics. She often writes both music and lyrics herself, but lately she has also written music fto other lyricswriters´poems. Maini Sorri describes that she has a small lyrics-hiding-place that she occasionally visit to pick out the best lyrics.

– When I select the lyrics which I compose music for, it is important that they convey a feeling and have something melancholy included. I could never write music to lyrics about a car for example, she says, smiling.

The creation of music seem effortless, when Maini Sorri tells about it. She describes it as the music gets to her, the inspiration is flowing, when she sits down at her piano.

A year ago, an American Music company contacted  her and wanted to promote her songs in the U.S. Through them, she released first her EP Someday in the U.S., and then Let me do your time. The song, which is about a person who wants to take an innocent’s place in prison, is quite different from her other songs. Instead of a sensitive ballad, it is a dance tune with heavy beats.

– My singing coach thought it would fit like a dance tune, says Maini Sorri.

It turned out to be a success. Suddenly Let me do your time was played on many radio stations in the U.S. and Europe, and the song found its way even into the Swedish Digilistan – list of most downloaded songs in Sweden. As highest it was in sixteenth place of the list’s 60 songs. Maini is pleased because she is now played around the world.

– There are so many artists who never get to experience this and I think I wouldn’t have come here if I haven’t worked so hard for so many years, she says.

For Maini Sorri waits exciting new projects. Recently her band that she has together with an Italian singer released new material. The band is called Sorriso, which means smile in Italian. This fall she will release new songs under her own name, it will be both pop ballades and songs with fast beat.

– I’m really excited, I get  little joy shocks now and then, says Maini Sorri.

Translated by Google translater with help from Maini.

Original article published by Uppsalatidningen 13th May 2011 by Anna-Karin Ellenius.