Hanna Pakarinen

Hanna Pakarinen (born April 17, 1981 in Lappeenranta, Finland) is a Finnish rock singer and the first winner of Finland's Idols.

Before winning the Finnish Idols, Pakarinen worked as a forklift driver. She also had previous musical experience in a band called Rained. In the finale of Idols, held on January 9th, 2004, Pakarinen got 431,000 (60 per cent) of the total of 713,000 votes. Jani Wickholm got the remaining 40%, or 282,000 votes. For winning the Idols, Pakarinen got a check of 30,000 euros and a recording contract with BMG Finland. In the finale Pakarinen performed Tina Turner's "Simply the best", The Bangles' "Eternal Flame" and a song made for the Idols' winner, "Tulin Voittamaan" ("I came to win").

Pakarinen's debut single was an English version of the song "Tulin voittamaan", titled "Love Is Like a Song".
It was released in the February of 2004 and rose to #1 on the Finnish single charts.

Pakarinen's de...