Born November 8th, 1943 in Ylivieska, Finland. Heikki Laitinen has performed folk music since 1970s, and been a major figure in folk music research, including studies of kantele, runo-song and Sámi joik. He was director of the Folk Music Institute for ten years, and since 1983 has taught folk music at Finland's national music University, the Sibelius Academy, at which he now holds the first chair of Professor of Folk Music.
He was a member of band called 'Primo'.