Käärijä

Finnish rapper and singer Jere Pöyhönen (born 21 October 1993 in Helsinki), known professionally as Käärijä, launched himself on the national stage as a contestant in the 67th Eurovision Song Contest. Prior to that, he picked up the drums as a teenager and began producing his first songs around the same time. In 2017 he signed with the Finnish label Monsp Records and issued his debut EP Peliä in 2018, followed in 2020 by the album Fantastista, which went to number 21 in Finland. The "Menestynyt yksilö" and "Siitä viis" singles arrived in 2021 and in 2023 he was announced as one of the seven participants in Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2023, the Finnish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. His entry "Cha Cha Cha" was co-written with Aleksi Nurmi and Johannes Naukkarinen, and was released as a single in January 2023, reaching number one in Finland. Käärijä dropped the Cha Cha Cha Mixtape in May 2023, which went to number nine in Finland.