Ari Koivunen is a Finnish heavy metal singer with a background of singing and playing drums in bands for several years. In 2005, he won the Finnish Karaoke Championships and was placed third in the Karaoke World Championships the same year. Ari is the winner of the Finnish "Idols" – competition, which was his absolute breakthrough in 2007. Both in Finland and abroad he gained a lot of attention due to the fact that he mainly chose to perform metal and rock songs in this competition.

Ari's debut album "Fuel For The Fire" was released in 2007. The album went straight to the top of the Finnish album chart and stayed there for record-breaking 12 successive weeks. So far, the album has sold over
75 000 copies and has certified double platinum. “Fuel For The Fire" was released in Japan in October 2007. The songs on this album were written by several Finnish musicians such as Janne Joutsenniemi (SubUrban Tribe, Stone), Jarkko Ahola (Teräsbetoni), Marco Hietala (Nightwish, Tarot), Timo Tolkki (Stratovarius) and Tony Kakko (Sonata Arctica), among others. Recording musicians were Tuomas Wäinölä (Kotipelto, Nylon Beat), Mikko Kosonen (Maija Vilkkumaa), Nino Laurenne (Thunderstone), Mirka Rantanen (Thunderstone), Mikko Kaakuriniemi (Kotipelto), Pasi Heikkilä (45 Degree Woman) and Janne Wirman (Children Of Bodom).

Ari's live band was put together in spring 2007 mainly from people Ari has known for a longer time. Their first concert together took place in May 2007. Since then, the group has played over 100 gigs. Ari Koivunen's band is:

Ari Koivunen (vocals)
Erkka Korhonen (guitar)
Erkki Silvennoinen (bass)
Vili Ollila (keyboards)

The band also contributed greatly to the songwriting for Ari's sophomore release "Becoming" and they naturally recorded the album together. It was produced by Nino Laurenne and Pasi Heikkilä, who already worked with the debut album. Luca Gargano (guitar) and Mauro Gargano (drums) were part of the band from the beginning until 2008 and also participated the recording session of the "Becoming"-album.

The sophomore album of Ari Koivunen was released in Finland on June 11, 2008, and it has already proven to be a success in his home country. It debuted on No 1 on the Official Finnish album chart and received gold status (over 15 000 copies sold) after only one week's sales. "Becoming" was released in Japan on June 25 and in Germany on October 10, 2008.

At the end of the year 2008 Ari joined the Finnish band Amoral, who released their new album "Show Your Colors" in May 2009. The album is the fourth official release in Amoral's history but the first one with Ari Koivunen as their vocalist. "Show Your Colors" reached Finland's chart-position No 19 in the first week.

Source : myspace.com