Paula Hagert (Coconut Girl )

was a Finnish pop group and music project formed by Paula Hagert, who performed under the name Coconut Girl, and two background dancers. In the late 1990s, music promoters Kari Hynninen and Pequ Nieminen got the idea to create an artist similar to Dr. Bombay or Aqua for the Finnish market. They found a young Roma girl, Paula Hagert, who could sing and dance, and named her Coconut Girl. A backstory was created for Coconut Girl, according to which she was born in Hawaii as a result of a holiday romance between a Finnish nurse and a Hawaiian DJ. Hagert was taught a few Hawaiian phrases and gave interviews to the press. Seitsemän Päivää magazine wanted to pay for the girl's trip to Hawaii to meet her father. Promoter Nieminen said the girl was busy and the trip was postponed. The plot of the promoters was revealed when Hagert's relatives started contacting the magazine and revealed the truth about the girl's background. The revelation caused some uproar in the media.[1] Coconut Girl released one album in 1999. The songs on the album were written and produced by, among others, the Swedish producer duo Twin and the Englishman James Black.