Stone-Ideas.com 
A person can only be considered a country’s celebrity when their striking sayings are carved in stone. One such case from Finland recently landed on our desk via social media: song lyrics by pop singer Juha Vainio, which are carved into boulders in the city of Kotka.
The lines in the stones along the street named after the artist would be familiar to everyone in Finland, according to descriptions: “They make you laugh, smile wistfully, sing along, feel sad for your youth and sometimes they bring tears to your eyes.”
Vainio was born in Kotka in 1938. His fame, however, never extended beyond his homeland. So, we looked on YouTube and found a few videos of a man who, as was common in the 1980s, appears in front of the camera in an everyday sweater and sings inconspicuous songs in three- or four-four time. The reaction of the audience to some of the recordings, however, suggests that his shows touched the souls of the guests.
A PDF from the Kivi Natural Stone Association describes the geological side of the topic. Kotka, which describes itself as “City by the Sea” and has a population of around 50,000, is known for its parks and the diverse use of stone. In the case of the song lyrics on Juha Vainio Street, they are boulders that the company Vikmanin Kivi Ky split, polished the visible side, and inscribed with excerpts from the song lyrics.
By the way, “Kivi“ means stone in Finnish.
Boulders are a natural occurrence in Finland. They formed during the Ice Ages, when ice masses 1,000 meters thick (!) and more lay on the land. These masses moved southward from the poles, eroding the mountains and transporting boulders as far as present-day Poland and Germany. A similar situation occurred in North America.
Juha Vainio was extraordinarily prolific as a singer-songwriter: He wrote 2,433 lyrics and recorded 245 of them. He died in Switzerland in 1990; his urn is buried in the Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki.
By the way: In 2025, Finland was once again ranked first in the World Happiness Report. This list of countries with the luckiest inhabitants is compiled by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
Finnish Stone Association Kivi (pdf)
Photos: VisitKotka