At the turn of the new year, we will once again turn our gaze in the past year 2019 in order to choose a person among the Turku residents who has made the city known in the best possible way or has promoted it to its advantage. The voting for the Turku Resident of the Year 2019 will be launched today, on 7 January, and it ends on 24 January 2020.

Vote for your favourite

The vote for the Turku Resident of the Year 2019 will be organized by Kaupunkilehti Turkulainen, Radio City Turku, Yle Turku, and the City of Turku. The honored Turku Resident of the Year was first selected and awarded in 1985.

You can vote for your own favourite on the website of the city journal Kaupunkilehti Turkulainen, and on the website of the radio station Radio City Turku. The votes on each website will be added together.

the winner and the number of votes will be announced at an event organized at the Turku City Hall on 30 January. Mayor of the City of Turku, Minna Arve, will announce the winner. The winner will receive a statue made of the Kakola granite (grey granite mined from the Kakolanmäki Hill the location of the former prison Kakola) as well as an honorary certificate.

The list of candidates drawn up by the organizers contains ten candidates representing the top of their fields. As is customary, you can also vote for the candidate of your own.

A year ago, an actor and a screenwriter Miska Kaukonen was elected the Turku Resident of the Year 2018 with an overwhelming majority.

The candidates for the Turku Resident of Year 2019 are the following:

Matti & Teppo

A folk duo made of the most famous Finnish brothers coming from Turku are Matti and Teppo. They have been entertaining the Finns for 50 years already. Several of their albums have gone Gold, 8 have gone Platinum and 3 have gone Double-Platinum. They have the following awards in their trophy cabinet: Iskelmä-Finlandia, two Trophys Emma, Stipendium Olavi Virta, Award ‘Vuoden tanssittaja’, Plate ‘Turun Tähden’, Award ‘Vuoden vaikuttaja’ (Influencer of the Year) and a great number of other awards. The brothers Matti and Teppo have worked with a strong work ethic in the music business. They toured Finland last year with their ’Last Concert Tour’ celebrating their 50th Anniversary as Finnish music entertainers. In the future, they will only perform in the summer in very special occasions.

Timo Salmesmaa

Timo Salmesmaa is a jet set reporter who is familiar to the Turku residents. He knows the jet set in Turku as his own pockets. Salmesmaa was born at the former maternity hospital Heideken in Turku. He has promoted equality by organizing the men's beauty contest he founded, Mr Finland, since 1987. In contrast to the superficial lifestyle, the jet set reporter works as a volunteer helper for people with intellectual disabilities. Thanks to him, many of the persons he is assisting have had unique experiences with their assistant at various events.

Kaapo Kakko

Kaapo Kakko is a young hockey striker, who advanced from the local ice hockey team TPS to NHL rinks. Kakko reached the top reserve position among the Finnish players last year when he was booked as a second player to the New York Rangers. Soon in February 19-year-old Kakko has won the World Championships in the categories Under 18, Under 20 and Adult. The talented player who is originally from Lieto (neighboring municipality of the City of Turku) skated his way straight into the hearts of the Finnish people with the gold medal won in the World Championships with the Finland’s national ice hockey team, the ‘Lions’ (Leijonat).

Laura Satamo

A thirty-year-old blogger from Turku writes a popular maternity blog, Mamma rimpuilee. In her funny and insightful blog, Satamo describes her life as a mother and a woman of two children in a self-ironical way. Possibly the funniest maternity blog in Finland tells, for example, about trips to a restaurant in a family with children and tells about events in life with humor. Satamo was crowned the Snow Queen of Turku in 2018. Would it now be her turn to be the Turku Resident of the Year 2019?

Liisa Ketomäki

Liisa Ketomäki, Managing Director of the Turku Music Festival Foundation, has made the Turku Music Festival one of the most interesting and best classical music festivals in Finland. The festival is also widely known in other Nordic countries and Europe. In 2019, Ketomäki was awarded by the Turku division of the Finnish Critics’ Association (In Finnish arvostelijain liitto ry’, SARV) with a prize Critics Weight for her contributions to develop the music scene in Turku. The Turku Music Festival, founded in 1960, is the oldest continuously running music festival in Finland.

Taika Koilahti

Taika Koilahti is a the 20-year-old long jumper who rose like a rocket to the awareness of the Finnish sports people in 2019. This season, Taika Koilahti improved her own record by 43 centimetres to 669 centimetres. That is only 16 centimetres from the Finnish record done by Ringa Ropo in 1990. Koilahti represents Turun Weikot (a sports club from Turku). She was accepted last minute to the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 which was her first adult World Championships.

Jani Sormunen

Postdoctoral Researcher Jani Sormunen has become familiar to Turku residents and to other Finns from the castor bean tick project he has been leading at the University of Turku. Among others, Sormunen's research group found in 2019 a parasitoid wasp on the island Själö (in Finnish Seili, in the Archipelago Sea) that kills the ticks before they can reproduce. The discovery has been celebrated as a potential breakthrough in the battle against the harmful ticks. Earlier studies conducted by the research group of Sormunen have revealed, for example, that a surprisingly large proportion of Finnish ticks are taiga ticks. Sormunen defended his doctorate in the Department of Biology at the University of Turku in December 2018 on ticks – like we can assume.

Vesa Jauhiainen

Last year, Vesa Jauhiainen, who has been serving as the Regional Police Officer of Varissuo suburb of Turku since 2006, was selected as the Police Officer of the Year. Jauhiainen's safety-conscious character is familiar to the visitors of the Varissuo shopping center. Jauhiainen works as a Regional Police Officer especially among young people in co-operation with various authorities, inhabitants of the area and the third sector. During his career of almost 40 years, Senior Constable Jauhiainen has been working as a Field Officer in various positions ranging from Youth Police to Motorcycle Police. In addition to her work as a Regional Police Officer, he now works at the Turku Police Headquarters in the field surveillance squad which focuses primarily on young people under the age of 18.

Markku Jokisipilä

Assistant Professor Markku Jokisipilä is the Director of the Centre for Parliamentary Studies at the University of Turku. He has also been extensively commenting in the media on the turning points in the Finnish politics in 2019. Mr. Jokisipilä has become a regular visitor in programs handling current affairs on the television and other media, where it is needed to describe clearly and convincingly what has happened and why. When talking about Mr. Jokisipilä, it is always remembered that he comes from Turku and represents the University of Turku. Jokisipilä is a Historian and a Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science. He is a non-fiction writer and a well-known columnist for example in the local daily newspaper Turun Sanomat. In his spare time, he competes in rowing, and has won the national big boat championships several times.

Turku Artists' Association

Turku Artists' Association has put down roots in the city. In 2019, the association celebrated already its 95th anniversary. However, the distinguished association which has reached an advanced age will not retire but continues being active in the city. One of the milestones of the year 2019 were the founding of Kunsthalle Turku in February together with Photographic Centre Peri. Located at the Great Market Square, Kunsthalle Turku is the centre of visual art in Turku. There is also Turku Artotheque located in the same premises which is a lending service for the artworks of the Turku Artists' Association.