Vesa-Matti "Vesku" Loiri was a Finnish artist born in Helsinki, Finland, on January 4, 1945. While he was best known as an actor, he also had a long successful career as a musician. Loiri was a flutist, and represented Finland in the Eurovision song contest in 1980. On 10 August 2022 Loiri died from cancer at the age of 77.

During the past decade, Loiri's career has moved in the direction of music instead of acting. He has recorded several albums and recorded many cover versions and interpretations, such as an album series from the poems of Eino Leino. Loiri's first album took place in 1971.

In 2006 he released Ivalo, which started an acoustic cover album trilogy somewhat reminiscent of Johnny Cash's American recordings. The following albums in the series are Inari, released in November 2007, and Kasari, released in November 2008, all three recorded in Lapponian landscapes. Loiri has speculated retirement from recording after the release of Kasari.

With over 753 000 albums sold, he is the 5th most successful Finnish solo artist.

Vesa-Matti Loiri received the Finnish music industry's Emma-award for best male solo act in 2007.
Loiri is also known as an athlete and was the head of Finnish Billiards Association between 1994-1999. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.