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What does a modern Japanese anime and a Finnish folk song have in common? Apparently they have both sprung a leek.

1930 – Ievan Polkka
In Finland around 1930 a folk song was written called Ievan Polkka. Commonly misspelled as Levan Polkka and correctly translated as Eva’s Polka or Loituma’s Polka, this song has been covered repeatedly almost every decade since it’s writing. The song contains several gibberish filled intermezzos which is almost indiscernible from the main lyrics to those who don’t speak Finnish.

1995 – Loituma
One of the Finnish groups to perform this song was Loituma. In 1995 their rendition of this folk song was released on their first album. Little did they know that a decade later this release would go from moderate local acclaim to a Internet phenomenon.
Loituma performing ievan Polkka

2006 – Loituma Girl aka Leekspin
Originally airing in Japan in 2004, Bleach was released in the United States in 2006. The second episode featured the airhead character spinnig a negi, or leek, as a comedic reference to her lack of cooking ability. This clip was already being used as a message board avatar when it became the basis for Leekspin, the Internet meme combining Finnish polka and Japanese Anime. It lives up to it’s fame lives up to other similar meme like Hamster Dance and Badger. The compilation video below includes most versions of this meme I have seen to date with the exception of another live version, a ytmnd technoleekspin version and a nsfw Dead or Alive version.
Leekspin compilation video

2007 – Vocaloid
Bear with me, this is the culmination of so much pop culture. Synthesized vocals has always been a great challenge, computers don’t do a very good job of recreating the human voice, until recently. Yamaha, a company infamous for world class pianos, both handmade and synthesized licenses their Vocaloid software. Companies like Crypton take the software and create a voice that is unique and resell it, like they have done with Hatsune Miku. Think of Hatsune Miku as a virtual pop music idol whose synthesized voice is used to sing theme songs for TV soundtracks, however you can buy her voice for $150 on amazon.jp one of the top selling items there for weeks in a row. There is, of course, a Vocaloid2 Leekspin release by a Miku fan who took the Vocaloid 2 software and fed it the Finnish lyrics, an amazing feat in itself. However the video below really impressed me, there are references to Leekspin, Evangelion, the song and animation are user created.
初音ミク