The musicians Jaakko Laitinen & Väärä Raha come from the villages of Inari, Salla and the city of Rovaniemi in Lapland. The band's music is a unique specialty, with various ingredients marinated in different sauces. The main elements are forms of nostalgic and modern Roma Gypsy grooves from the Balkans, Russian romances as well as Humppa music and Gypsy Brass. The band consists of vocal, trumpet, bouzouki, accordion, double bass and drums. 99 % of the songs are own compositions, with love and it´s bitter beauty as a main theme in the lyrics, handling also other key elements of life, like mortality, the deceptive glow of memories, the swaying earthly happiness and the inexorable vanity of our ambitions. Joy and sorrow are both engaged in these rhythms and melodies, just like in life itself.

Jaakko Laitinen & Väärä Raha established ther group in 2009. Since then they have gone on to win much recognition, releasing three highly acclaimed albums. However their finast claim to fame is for being Finland's wildest live act! Performing more than 80 gigs a year, in the villages in Northern Lapland as well as on the hippest dance floors in Helsinki. The band has also played abroad in Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, Baltic States, Macedonia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Ukraine and Russia. In 2015 the band composed and performed the music of the documentary 'Kihniö', directed by the well-know Saija Mäki-Nevala, which was released in the beginning of the year. And the new album of the Bavarian band Django 3000 hit the German Top 20 with the title song 'Bonaparty' being co-composed by Jaakko Laitinen & Väärä Raha. The crazy adventures continue as the band was chosen for a Womex-showcase in October 2015 in Budapest, and at the beginning of 2017 the band released its long waited fourth album.

“Maybe it's the influence of Gypsy music that makes one understand that joy and sorrow in music don't shut each other out. At the same time, one can realize life's horrors and appreciate its sweetness. It's good to have different kinds of emotions in the same song.” Jaakko Laitinen