MUMBAI: Singer Saara Aalto says when she was in Finland, music labels were not willing to help her international career and so she felt very lonely.

The Queens hitmaker, however, is now more positive about the future, reports thesun.co.uk.

On a radio show, Aalto said: "It has been a very long and tough journey for me. I came second in The Voice of Finland in 2012 and my career really exploded at home. I had 300 gigs a year. I talked with labels and they wouldn't help with my international career. They said, 'Saara, if you're in Finland you just have to sing in Finnish'.

"That led to this situation where I felt very lonely. I was really sad and still I was doing gigs all the time. I'd go onstage crying but I was still trying to sing. This is the first time ever in my life that I've actually cancelled some things. I was supposed to fly to Israel this evening to perform at the Eurovision pre-party and I was like, 'I can't, I can't.'"

Back in October 2017, Aalto revealed she cut ties with Sony Music a year after finishing as a runner-up on The X Factor and moved to Warner Music.

"I was honoured I was signed to Sony. But later I felt like they weren't the right team. When I met the people at Warner, they were very excited about my style and making me into this big theatrical artist... He (Simon Cowell) knows. I'm doing X Factor Finland, so I'm still part of the Sony family," he said.

(Source: IANS)