Leningrad Cowboys

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Leningrad Cowboys

Background information
Origin	Finland
Genre(s)	Rock and Roll Folk Rock
Years active	1989 - present
Label(s)	Megamania Johanna Sony BMG
Associated acts	Sleepy Sleepers
Members
Tipe Johnson Sakke Järvenpää Vesa Kääpä Teijo "Twist Twist" Erkinharju Pemo Ojala Ykä Putkinen Silu Seppälä Antti Snellman Mauri Sumen

The Leningrad Cowboys is a Finnish rock band famous for its humorous songs, ludicrous hairstyles and concerts featuring the Soviet Red Army Choir.

The band was an invention of the Finnish film director Aki Kaurismäki, appearing as a fictional band in his 1989 film Leningrad Cowboys Go America. The fictional band, however, was made up of members of a real Finnish band, the Sleepy Sleepers, plus some additional people. In the film, they are joined by Nicky Tesco, former lead member of the UK punk rock band, The Members. After the film, the band took on a life of its own, recording music, making videos and giving concerts. The band appeared in two other Aki Kaurismäki films, the Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses (1994) and the Total Balalaika Show (1994), which is a film of a concert performed by the band and the full 160-member Red Army Choir in Helsinki, Finland in June 1993. Kaurismäki also wrote and directed two videos featuring the band: their cover of the 60's folk standard Those Were The Days (1992) and Thru The Wire (also featuring Tesco) (1992).

In 1994, the band appeared together with 70 members of the Red Army Choir at the 11th annual MTV Music Awards, at the Radio City Music Hall in New York, where they sang the Lynyrd Skynyrd classic Sweet Home Alabama. The show was seen by an estimated 250 million people worldwide. That same year, the band and ensemble again joined forces for the "NOKIA Balalaika Show", a concert held in Berlin.

Currently, the band has eleven Cowboys and two Leningrad Ladies. The songs, all somewhat influenced by polka and progressive rock, are performed in English and have themes such as vodka, tractors, rockets, and Genghis Khan, as well as folkloric Russian songs, rock and roll ballads and covers from bands as diverse as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Lynyrd Skynyrd, all presented with lots of humour.

10 years after "Total Balaika Show", on August 23^rd 2003, Leningrad Cowboys and Red Army Chorus returns to the Senate Square in Helsinki with UMO and various international performers for the spectacular "Global Balalaika Show", released on DVD, directed by Timo Suomi, on November 21^th 2003.