Background
Koop Arponen was born in Lappeenranta, Eastern Finland to a Finnish father and a Dutch mother.
Koop Arponen was born in Lappeenranta, Eastern Finland to a Finnish father and a Dutch mother.
When he was two, his family moved to Belgium and to England a few years later where he attended Cheam High School in Cheam, Surrey, between 1995 and 2002. In England he studied at the University of Hull Scarborough Campus and graduated with a Bachelor degree in Creative Music Technology with Business Management.
He was elected as Head Boy of the School in 2001. At the age of five he started to play the piano, but quit 6 years later. At the age of 16 he started to play it again and also started to compose music
While doing his national service at the Finnish Army, he learnt to play the guitar.
He also used to play in local pubs and clubs. In August 2008 Arponen took part in the Finnish version of People’s Idol, (Finland).
He convinced the judges and the audience with his performances. Nevertheless, he wasn"t actually the main choice candidate, as the 18-year-old Pete Parkkonen was the favourite until he was dropped in the penultimate competition.
In the final, Arponen got 70,3% of the votes.
Anna Puustjärvi was second. After the victory he received media"s interest in his mother"s home country the Netherlands and his former place of residence, England. In the spring of 2009 Arponen toured Finland with the semifinalists of that -season.
His debut album New Town was released on 18 March 2009, and entered the Official Finnish Album Chart at number one.
In the spring and summer 2009 Arponen toured Finland extensively, and in October 2009 he released I Love lieutenant When I See You Smile, a song he wrote for the breast cancer charity foundation Pink Ribbon. He donated his royalties from the song to the charity and Samsung also donated a percentage of the purchase price to the foundation.
Arponen"s second album Bright Lights was released on 24 March 2010. In early 2010 Arponen and two other musicians, James Lascelles and Dane Stefaniuk formed an acoustic three piece band called.
The group have already toured extensively in Finland and parts of Spain and Britain.
They are currently working on their second European Parliament, having released their first European Parliament "Coming Home" on 2 July 2012.