Even in Finland’s topographically extremely diverse music landscape, Jesse Markin is a mountain with extraordinary charisma. The self-taught singer–songwriter emigrated from Ghana to the small Finnish town of Viljakkala with his father in the 90s and fell into an identity crisis. Music gave him support, especially the great rap artists from the USA with their genre crossbreeds and unconventional ideas. Today, Markin himself is a multi-award-winning reformer of the genre, playfully fusing indie attitude and pop appeal, rap and R’n’B, rock and African rhythms. His two albums – “Folk” (2019) and “Noir” (2021) – were showered with awards, and the artist himself was highly praised in various publications ranging from KEXP to Afropunk to Clash Magazine. As a result, this year, he took part in the Finnish preliminary round for the Eurovision Song Contest. Now, his latest work, “Pump” (2024), is nearing completion – and his first gig with us in Hamburg is just around the corner.