Finns Add Angst to Romance of Tango : Culture: The Argentine import, adopted before the war, remains popular. The Latin sensuality has been Finlandized, but couples still can dance close and whisper the lyrics in their partners’ ear.

HELSINKI —  Beneath the midnight sun of Finland’s brief but brilliant summer, thousands of couples find romance in the nation’s adopted dance--the Finnish tango.

At the annual Tango Fair in July, more than 50,000 people danced till the early hours in the small western town of Seinajoki.

Almost a quarter of Finland’s 5 million population stayed glued to their televisions as 10 top tango singers battled to be crowned tango king and queen of 1991.

“It was the first hot weekend of the summer and we had 1.2 million viewers,” said Reijo Pitkakoski, chairman of the Society for the Promotion of Tango Music.

The society was founded in 1985 with the aim of restoring dancing between couples to its former glory and to create new tango music, Pitkakoski said.

During this year’s three-day fair, couples danced in the streets, the ice hockey stadium and even at the local racetrack.

The fair was also the culmination of a six-month competition involving 900 singers from all over the country.

The sensuousness of the Latin tango has softened on the long journey from Argentina to the Arctic and the songs reflect a Finnish melancholy, but the tango, which captured the nation’s heart in the grim years of wartime, remains hugely popular.

“It’s fairly easy to dance, you can hold your partner close and whisper the words of the song,” said Pekka Gronow, head of the Finnish Broadcasting Co.’s record library and a leading Finnish tango expert.

Pitkakoski said a new audience is discovering the tango.

“Many of the outdoor dance floors which were closed have reopened. It mainly appeals to the middle-aged, but even young people are getting interested in dance-floor culture,” he said.

The tango first came to Finland from Argentina in the early years of this century. In the 1920s and 1930s, it was played in upscale restaurants but then ordinary Finns took it to heart.

“During the war or slightly before, Finnish popular composers began to write tangos which were perhaps a bit simpler than the original. The lyrics were Finnish and tango became Finlandized,” Gronow said.

The wartime lyrics reflected the national mood of melancholy, a trait Gronow believes still distinguishes the Finnish tango from the Latin original.

“There is always heartbreak. The boy has gone away or the girl has gone away and they are missing each other,” said Helena Malmio, musical producer of the Tango Fair TV show for the past six years.

One favorite heartbreaker goes:

The berries of the rowan trees are shining red like blood.

The cranes have already flown away over my head.

They did not take me with them to distant lands.

The wingless ones have to suffer the cold change of the night.

Gronow said the tango reached a peak of popularity in the 1960s, partly as a reaction against rock ‘n’ roll. It became an important part of courtship for Finns.

“If you looked at the Top 10 charts, half was rock and roll and half was tango and there wasn’t room for anything in between,” Gronow said.

“I don’t think tango has won any new audience since the 1960s but somebody has said this audience is now going through its first divorces, going back to the restaurants and back to the tango again,” he added.

Besides in its native Argentina, tango’s popularity is greatest in Finland and Japan, Pitkakoski said.

Japanese visitors were in Seinajoki for the fair and buying up music, he said.

For this year’s tango queen, 39-year-old Kaija Pohjola, winning the contest was the crowning glory of 25 years of singing tangos.

Some previous winners have gone on to fame and fortune. The queen of 1987, Arja Koriseva, has since sold thousands of records. She will make a record with this year’s tango king Jaska Makynen and another disc is planned featuring all 10 finalists, Malmio said.

“There is a kick in the tango which goes straight to the Finnish heart,” said Pohjola.