Aarno Raninen (born 27. April, 1944 - died 3. September, 2014) was a Finnish singer, songmaker and musician. His main instrument was piano but he also mastered violin, cello and accordion. Raninen was born in Kotka, Finland and began his musical studies at a young age. After he moved to Helsinki in 1966 he got a job as a studio conductor at Musiikki-Fazer. While working there he made a lot of cooperative work with the likes of songwriter Juha Vainio. Later on Raninen went to work in Discophon where he wrote lyrics for many finnish musicians, such as Seija Simola, Carola, Tauno Palo, Vesa-Matti Loiri, Monica Aspelund, Heikki Kinnunen, Arja Koriseva, Erkki Liikanen and the Soitinmenot-ensemble. An important acquaintance for Raninen was the songwriter and moviewriter Pertti "Pertsa" Reponen. Raninen set the music for at least the following Reponen's tv-series: Älyvapaa palokunta 1983-85, Soitinmenot 1985-87, Kolmannen korvapuusti 1994-95, Paha yskä 1990-92 and Jäitä hattuun. He also set the music for feature films such as Pölhölä, Vääpeli Körmy ja vetenalaiset vehkeet, Auvo ja Kultsi - Kliffaa Hei, Liian iso keikka, Vääpeli Körmy ja marsalkan sauva and Rampe ja Naukkis. Raninen and his work have gotten several awards during the year, including the win at Syksyn sävel 1968 ("Näin on" performed by Kristian), 10th place at Eurovision 1977 ("Lapponia" performed by Monica Aspelund) and the main prize at Menchen und Meer competition in 1978 ("Silver and gold" performed by Monica Aspelund) <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Aarno+Raninen">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.