Pepe Willberg

Born in Turku, Finland in 1946 and moved as a child to Helsinki, Pepe Willberg, whose real name is Pertti Willberg, has since the early 1960s traversed a large part of the history of Finnish pop. Initially a rhythm guitarist with The Islanders, he later became one of the voices of Jormas, a group marked by vocal harmonies, pop and rhythm and blues, before leading Pepe & Paradise, a formation where pop, rock and Finnish song converge in a more ambitious writing at the turn of the 1970s. Alongside this group work, Pepe Willberg developed a solo career anchored in a repertoire that ranges from pop to iskelmä, melodic Finnish variety, with incursions into gospel and orchestrated song. His solo discography includes Sinulle (1976), Päivä tuskin päättyis kauniimmin (1979), Kaukaa kaipaan (2007), Pepe & Saimaa (2014) and Kun tuulee (2017). Composer as much as performer, Pepe Willberg has also written for other artists and participated in several collaborative projects, among them Mestarit at the end of the 1990s and then Poptenorit in the 2000s. His career thus links the beat scenes of the 1960s, the Finnish pop rock of the following decades and a tradition of a more classical song, with a voice associated with both groups and a durable solo repertoire.