Singer-songwriter Emilia Sisco (real name Emilia Heinonen), dedicated to retro styled soul, blues and jazz, has been considered as one of the greatest prospects of Finnish rhythm music scene for years already. The expectations have been steadily rising through the years, while she has been constantly developing more and more during her career. Until the internationally distinguished Timmion Records from Helsinki signed her in 2018, she had already been showing promise for years as a vocalist of Emilia & The Soulmates and Half Past Never Band, which you might had seen live on the Funky Elephant festivals of the period. The long-awaited Timmion debut Introducing Emilia Sisco (2025) lifted her finally to be fully recognized on the international level along with the impressive production by Cold Diamond & Mink, the band behind another globally acknowledged Finnish soul comet Bobby Oroza.
When Emilia Sisco grew up, her parents’ record shelves were full of blues, jazz and soul vinyls, so it’s not such a surprise that she eventually ended up creating a career in the Finnish blues scene, which is probably much bigger than you could imagine considering where we are. She has performed all over Europe on the traditional Blues Caravan organized by the acknowledged German blues label Ruf Records, and she was selected as the The Best Newcomer of 2017 at the Finnish Blues Awards. A couple of years earlier she had joined forces with the local Helge Tallqvist Band. Together they released a self-titled EP in 2015 and their critically acclaimed album You Ain’t Heard in 2018 via the Finnish label Q-Records. She also collaborated with The Siberian Blues Huskies, one of the local blues bands, prior to that.
After the years focusing on blues music, the world-famous Timmion Records took Emilia Sisco under their wings and released the single “Don’t Believe You Like That” composed together with the prestiged production team Cold, Diamond & Mink. This eventually led the long-awaited album issued by Timmion Records. Emilia Sisco performs nowadays together with her live band The Northern Lights or the more compact line-up of it excluding trombonist Jay Kortehisto (Ricky-Tick Big Band, Jimi Tenor, Nu Spirit Helsinki), saxophonist Joose Kyyrö (The Funky Sound Foundation, Frankosun and The Family) and keyboard player Antti Ikola (The Regals). The standard line-up includes guitarist Tuomas Metsberg (Jussi & The Boys, Luxury Liner), bass player Lasse Sirkko (Jussi & The Boys, Heartworn), drummer Thomas Rönnholm (Saimaa, DDT Jazzband) and background singers Fatima Kortesoja (Half Past Never Band) and Unna Kortehisto.
As a singer Emilia Sisco has also collaborated lately with several artists from Dub Vallila to guitarist and singer Erja Lyytinen, who shared the stage with her and rapper Paleface on their Blue Christmas 2022 tour in Finland. She aims fro an international career through Timmion Records. In early 2023, Emilia Sisco visited California, where she featured as a vocalist on the track “Sixth St” by the local underground rapper 3rd WRLD.
Text: Joonas Kervinen / Funky Finland
Photos: Kai Kuusisto
