Saara Aalto
[8] In addition to her singing career, Aalto is also an actress, having starred as Dorothy and Pfannee in the Finnish production of the musical Wicked and as Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar.[11] Aalto took part on two separate occasions in the selection process in a bid to represent Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest.[16][17] In November 2012, Aalto was guest vocalist at Robert Wells's highly successful show Rhapsody in Rock[18] at Shanghai Daning theatre.[19][20] Following a successful performance in Shanghai in May 2013, opening for Spanish tenor José Carreras and singing several songs in Chinese, Aalto returned to the city to duet with tenor Han Peng at the Closing Ceremony of the Shanghai International Film Festival in June 2013, broadcast to over 800 million viewers in 10 countries.In the blind auditions, broadcast on 6 February 2012 on the Finnish commercial television channel Nelonen, she performed "Taking Chances" from Celine Dion with all four coaches, Elastinen, Lauri Tähkä, Paula Koivuniemi and Michael Monroe turning their chairs.In the semifinals with her rendition of "Over the Rainbow", she qualified for the finals held on 20 April where she sang "I'm Gonna Be Strong" from Frankie Laine and an original song titled "My Love".[23] At Bootcamp, she performed "On the Radio" by Donna Summer and was sent through as part of the over-25s category, mentored by Sharon Osbourne, who was not present at her audition.In week 1 of the live shows, Aalto finished in the bottom three alongside Freddy Parker and duo Bratavio, after performing "Let It Go".The following week, she sang "River Deep – Mountain High" and finished again in the bottom three, this time alongside Ryan Lawrie and Parker.In week 5, Aalto finished in the bottom three for the third time alongside Sam Lavery and group Four of Diamonds, after her rendition of "Sound of the Underground".In September 2020, Aalto announced the release of her single, "When the Sun Goes Down", a collaboration with British drag queen Baga Chipz.Aalto later began a relationship with a female fan, Meri Sopanen, who worked as a personal trainer and life coach;[36] she has since identified as a lesbian.[42] The couple married in April 2020,[43] with Sopanen adopting Aalto's surname, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic they were not able to hold a wedding ceremony and moved back to Finland in the spring of 2020.