"Iskelmä" has stood for many things in popular music during the years since the term' s inception in the 1920's. It was not until the 1970s that it came to define the exclusively Finnish song genre.
The term iskelmä is a Finnish rendition of the German word Schlager.
Finland's most popular singer of all time was Olavi Virta who began his career as the vocalist of Dallapé.
Five meanings of the word iskelmä.
Theme: What is this thing called iskelmä?.