The winner of the Finnish national TV talent competition "Idols", 23-year-old heavy metal singer Ari Koivunen, has set "Becoming" as the title of his second solo album, which is scheduled for release in Finland on June 11 via Sony BMG (June 9 via digital music outlets). Check out the cover artwork by Thomas Ewerhard at this location.

"Give Me A Reason", the first single from "Becoming", entered the Finnish chart at position No. 3. The song, which is currently available for streaming on Ari's MySpace page, was written by Nino Laurenne of THUNDERSTONE and Pasi Heikkilä, who were also in charge of producing Ari's sophomore album at Sonic Pump Studios.

Commented Laurenne: "Ari's album was mastered last Wednesday at Chartmakers with Svante Forsbäck and I have to tell that this was maybe the hardest session I've ever done. The amount of working hours were countless! We worked eight weeks in the row with my friend and colleague Pasi Heikkilä and we had around four days off during the whole session. Every day 8-14 hours, which is too much when you need your ears all the time. It's hard to say why it was that hard, but sometimes things just don't go that easily and the very tight deadline doesn't help you at all. But I'm very happy with the result and it seems that there's something we did right since the first single 'Give Me A Reason' went straight to the Finnish single chart in the position 3 and the song is the most second downloaded song in Finland at the moment!!! Looking forward to see how the album will go."

"Fuel for the Fire" was certified double-platinum in Finland, where it has sold more than 75,000 copies to date.

A special edition of "Fuel for the Fire" was issued in Finland on November 21, featuring a live DVD and acoustic versions of two album songs ("Hear My Call" and "Angels Are Calling") as a bonus. The live DVD contains material from Ari's concerts in Helsinki last summer and as well as interview footage.

Koivunen performed a "medley" of his songs "Fuel For The Fire" and "Hear My Call" at the Emma Gaala (Finnish Grammy equivalent) on March 8 at Kulttuuritalo in Helsinki.

(Thanks: Siria / www.konzi-tip.de)