Tony Kakko

Tony Kakko
Toni Kristian "Tony" Kakko (born 16 May 1975) is a Finnish musician, composer and vocalist. He is known as the vocalist, primary songwriter, and creative lead of the band Sonata Arctica since 1996.
Biography
Kakko was born in Kemi, Finland and joined Sonata Arctica in 1996, after studying keyboards for two years and singing informally in local festivals. He initially performed both the keyboards and the vocals, but after the release of the band's first album, decided to concentrate on singing with the joining of Mikko Härkin. The bands Queen, Stratovarius, Children of Bodom and Nightwish are amongst his biggest musical influences. Kakko also states the season of winter as one of his influences. His singing style is clean and generally high-pitched. He sings in the tenors range, and has begun to scream on later releases with Sonata, especially The Days of Grays, but also some screams in the background on Unia.
Kakko appeared as a guest male vocalist in Nightwish's 2001 remake of their song "Astral Romance", which appeared on the EP Over the Hills and Far Away. He also sang backing vocals on the song "Over the Hills and Far Away" and sang a duet with Tarja Turunen on the live version of "Beauty and the Beast." Kakko appears on stage with Tarja performing "Beauty and the Beast," on Nightwish's live DVD From Wishes to Eternity. He performed guest vocals in the song "Wasted Time" from Heavenly's album Virus and backing vocals for Before the Bleeding Sun, the fifth album of the Finnish band Eternal Tears of Sorrow, and Epica's song White Waters from the album Design Your Universe. More recently, he has been involved with a project Northern Kings, in which he, along with Juha-Pekka Leppäluoto (Charon), Marko Hietala (Tarot, Nightwish) and Jarkko Ahola (Teräsbetoni) sings covers of classics from decades past.
In July 2015, it was announced that Kakko would replace Jukka Nevalainen as Nightwish's special guest at the 2015 edition of Rock in Rio.
In December 2018, Kakko was awarded with the title of Knight of The Order of The Lion of Finland.
Selected discography
Sonata Arctica
Ecliptica – 1999
Silence – 2001
Winterheart's Guild – 2003
Reckoning Night – 2004
Unia – 2007
The Days of Grays – 2009
Stones Grow Her Name – 2012
Pariah's Child – 2014
The Ninth Hour - 2016
Talviyö - 2019
Northern Kings
Reborn – 2007
Rethroned – 2008
Guest appearances
Nightwish – Over the Hills and Far Away – 2001
Nightwish – From Wishes to Eternity (DVD) – 2001
Heavenly – Virus – 2006
Eternal Tears of Sorrow – Before the Bleeding Sun – 2006
Nuclear Blast All-Stars: Into the Light – 2007
Apocalyptica – Live Vocalist (Finland and Japan) – 2008, 2009
Elias Viljanen – Fire-Hearted – 2009
Stratovarius – Polaris – 2009
Epica – Design Your Universe – 2009
Van Canto – "Hearted", on Tribe of Force – 2010
Powerglove – Saturday Morning Apocalypse – 2010
Avalon – "We Will Find a Way", on The Land of New Hope – 2013
Tuomas Holopainen – Music Inspired by the Life and Times of Scrooge – 2014
Dark Sarah – "Light in You" on Behind The Black Veil – 2015
Hevisaurus – "100" – 2019
Lordi – "Rollercoaster" on Lordiversity'' – 2021
Jani Liimatainen - "All Dreams Are Born to Die " on "My Father’s Son" - 2022
References
External links
Sonata Arctica's official website
1975 births
Finnish heavy metal singers
21st-century Finnish male singers
Finnish male singer-songwriters
Finnish singer-songwriters
Finnish tenors
Finnish heavy metal keyboardists
Sonata Arctica members
Living people
People from Kemi
English-language singers from Finland
Northern Kings members
20th-century Finnish male singers