Huhhahhei Review
Before anything else is said, it must be stated: the Quest editors are enablers for letting me write this article, and I am very normal about this man.
In my corner of the internet, the Käärijä fanbase is alive and well, sharing Finnish learning tips, concert photos, and incoherent thoughts about this Finnish man with a bowl cut and his music. After the September release of “It’s Crazy It’s Party” with Estonian artist Tommy Cash, most fans expected the beloved Kärtsäri to be quiet for a bit longer. But to our surprise, on October 20, after a bit of teasing, Käärijä released his newest single, “Huhhahhei.”
At first “Huhhahhei” seemed like a long song after the first few short teasers, which is very out of character for Käärijä’s usual style of rap and metal. After a couple more came out leading up to the release of the song, it seemed that it was a mix of both singing and rapping. Up until the release of the song, though, the actual verses were unknown to the wider audience. Now that the song is out, though, it’s straight-up dirty! We all thought this was going to be a sweet song, seeing how the first line of the chorus translates to “This ship of love is loaded.”
We were sorely mistaken, but we should have known better. Most of Käärijä’s songs don’t hold back when it comes to talking about risque topics such as sex or alcohol. The verses describe Käärijä meeting someone in a club and going back to their cabin to fool around.
To switch gears a bit, this song is actually what helped me realize how much spoken Finnish is different from written Finnish. For those looking to actually learn Finnish to any degree, you may notice that the words “minä” and “sinä” appear nowhere in the song despite the references to “you” and “me.” That’s because they get shortened to “sää” and “mää.” A great many words in spoken Finnish get shortened. Another example is “en tiiä” which is short for “En tiedä.” This song might also help you recognize some simple words like “tänään” (today), “tanssi” (dance), and after a lot of struggle with declension on my part, even “tuhma[ks]” (naughty) if you’re using Duolingo as your guide. The last cool tidbit I'd like to add about the language (which was explained to me by some native Finnish speakers) is that this song includes some lyrics in the Helsinki dialect often called "slangi" (it is a dialect, though, not only slang).
To wrap this up as normally as possible, this song is really good! It feels like a mix of the Käärijä that made songs like “Mic Mac” and the Käärijä that made “It’s Crazy, It’s Party” with the singing interspersed with the hardcore rapping and deep echo-y voice. The only gripe I have with this song (which is not a real criticism) is that there’s no music video! There’s a visualizer video, but when the ferris wheel video of Käärijä and Häärijä was posted I thought we were going to get a carnival-themed music video. I really hope there’s one coming in the future, but I won’t get my hopes up too high.If you would like to discuss Käärijä or learning Finnish with me in a very normal way I would love to talk! Please feel free to reach out to me!