Loituma's initial incarnation was in the autumn of 1989 as a septet called Jäykkä Leipä ("Stiff Bread"), born in the Sibelius Academy's Folk music department.
The original lineup included singers Sanna Kurki-Suonio and Tellu Paulasto, who later left for Sweden to join Hedningarna.
Another cornerstone of Loituma's art is a Finnish folk instrument called the kantele, which is featured in varied ways in their recordings.
Loituma gained great popularity[1] in 2006 when the Loituma Girl (also known as Leekspin), a looped flash animation of an anime girl Orihime Inoue from the Bleach series twirling a leek, set to a scat singing section of "Ievan polkka" from Loituma's 1995 debut album Things of Beauty,[2] was posted in Russian LiveJournal.
The animation instantly became an Internet phenomenon and the song clip soon enjoyed overwhelming popularity as a ringtone.