Ville Valo
Finnish singer

Ville Hermanni Valo (pronounced [ˈʋilːe ˈʋɑlo] ; born 22 November 1976) is a Finnish singer, songwriter and musician. He is best known as the vocalist of the gothic rock band HIM.
Valo began his career playing bass and drums in various bands around the city. In 1991, he co-founded and became the singer and main songwriter of HIM, which would go on to become one of the most successful Finnish bands of all time and the first to receive a gold record in the United States. Outside of HIM, Valo has collaborated with various other bands and artists during his career, including Agents, The 69 Eyes, and Apocalyptica. In 2020, Valo embarked on a solo career under the moniker VV. His debut album Neon Noir was released in 2023.
He is also the creator of the heartagram emblem, HIM's trademarked symbol, which has achieved great popularity outside of the band's fanbase. Valo has received several accolades in the music industry and has been regarded as a sex symbol by several publications.
Early life
Ville Hermanni Valo was born in Helsinki, Finland, on 22 November 1976, the son of a Hungarian mother and a Finnish father. His mother Anita worked as a shoe saleswoman and later for the city of Helsinki. His father Kari worked as a taxi driver, before opening a sex shop, where Valo would later work as a teenager.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Ville Valo” as finnish singer. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as finnish singer. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q25378. VIAF identifies the subject as 6112574. The Library of Congress control number is n2015020533. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1976, 1991, 2020 and 2023.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Ville Valo”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Ville Valo primary sources, Ville Valo archive and Ville research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Ville Valo” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.