New Audio: Janita Shares Slinky and Anthemic “Real Deal”

Janita is a Finnish-born, New York-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She learned to sing before she could talk, began playing piano when she was three and started writing songs when she was four, before studying classical piano and ballet. As a teenager, Janita became a fixture on radio and television, while being an instrumental figure in the country’s soul music scene — with The Daily Telegraph referring to her as “Finland’s biggest pop star.”

When she was 17, the Finnish-born artist relocated to New York. She signed a record deal with Sony, with whom she released two Top 40 Billboard hits. But Janita quickly found the cookie-cutter constraints of the major label system and its thinking uncomfortable and restricting. “They actually had me work with a ‘trainer’ whose job it was to teach me how to walk, and how to sit ‘like a lady,’” she says laughing. “I was like, look, I already know how to walk, man. I’m good.”

Janita struck out on her own, releasing a string of independent hits and records that would win her a devoted audience across the States, as well as an international one on four continents.

Her forthcoming tenth album, the Blake Morgan co-produced Mad Equation is slated for a May 2025 release through ECR Music Group. The album will further cement the Finnish-born artist’s reputation for defying conventions while being commercially and critically successful — and for following her own muse wherever it takes her.

“The title Mad Equation is about trying to do the math to figure someone out. Trying to size someone up. There’s actually a mathematical formula called ‘the mad equation’ which physicists use to measure the unpredictability of something,” says Janita. “I think it’s fair to say that over the course of my career, people have been trying to figure me out too. Am I the long-haired blonde soul singer? Am I the Finnish teenage star? Am I the American alternative rock ’n’ roller? Gosh, I’m just such a problem. So, maybe I’m a mad equation for some. Well, with this new record, problem solved.”

Mad Equation‘s first single, “Real Deal” pairs a slinky, 70s AM rock-like groove with twinkling Rhodes and anthemic hooks serving as a lush bed for the Finnish-born, New York-based artist’s gorgeous delivery. Sonically bringing Denmark’s Lucky Lo and Fleetwood Mac to mind, “Real Deal,” as Janita explains was inspired by two of her favorite films, The 400 Blows and Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid.

“I identify with the rebellious nature of the characters in both those movies—living life off the grid, doing something that doesn’t make a lot of ‘traditional’ sense to most,” Janita says. “Being an artist in this world is a mad pursuit, yet it’s the work I’ve schooled myself in, and done, all my life. So I find myself living, symbolically, in a permanent shootout like Butch and Sundance and I’m alright with it. More than just ‘alright’ with it—it’s the life I’ve chosen.”