Mirja Mäkelä is one of the leading Finnish jazz vocalists of the young generation. Four times she has been voted the female vocalist of the year by the critics of the magazine Jazzrytmit ( in 1994, 1999, 2000 and 2001), and in 1994 she was the winner of the Lady Summertime jazz singing competition in Kuopio.

The first jazz singer to obtain a Master's degree from the Sibelius Academy, in February 1999, Mirja Mäkelä had spent the autumn semester 1996 studying at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles with Michele Weir (voice) and Vince Mendoza (composition).

Her own Mirja Mäkelä Band formed in 1992 has performed at most of the Finnish jazz festivals and clubs and went on tour to Germany in 1997. It released its debut album, Secret Playground , of works by Mäkelä in English in 2000.

Mirja Mäkelä is also a founder of JimJamMurMur, an a cappella group of four female singers that performes its members' own compositions and was the winner of the international competition for ensemble singing held in Tampere in 2003. In February 2005 the group released its first disc, Lauluhilloa lapsenmielisille , of music for children, and last year also included a tour to Mexico.

Since 2000 Mirja Mäkelä has been collaborating with the Swedish BergerKnutssonSpering Trio and has appeared as its soloist in Morocco, Sweden and Finland. Their joint record Arco Íris (2003) consists mainly of songs by her in Finnish. She also sings in the Muumilauluja ensemble (disc Muumilauluja of Moomin Songs, 2004) led by Mika Pohjola, and has been its soloist in New York and elsewhere. Mäkelä is also chairman of the Jazzsiskot (Jazzsisters) society founded in 2003. She has starred as the guest soloist with UMO Jazz Orchestra, the Espoo Big Band and many small line-ups, and with the Estonian Dream Big Band in Tallinn and Poland. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.