Music of Norway

Along with the classical music of romantic composer Edvard Grieg and the modern music of Arne Nordheim, Norwegian black metal has become something of an export article in recent years.

Norway's classical performers include Leif Ove Andsnes, one of the world's more famous pianists, Truls Mørk, an outstanding cellist, and the great Wagnerian soprano Kirsten Flagstad.

The jazz scene in Norway is also thriving. Jan Garbarek, Terje Rypdal, Mari Boine, Arild Andersen, and Bugge Wesseltoft are internationally recognized while Paal Nilssen-Love, Supersilent, Jaga Jazzist and Wibutee are becoming world-class artists of the younger generation.

Norway has a strong folk music tradition which remains popular to this day. Among the most prominent folk musicians are Hardanger fiddlers Andrea Een, Olav Jørgen Hegge and Annbjørg Lien, vocalists Agnes Buen Garnås, Kirsten Bråten Berg and Odd Nordstoga.

Since the 1990s, Norway's biggest cultural export is black metal. The lo-fi, dark and raw form of heavy metal exploded in Norway during the 90s and launched the careers of bands such as Gorgoroth, Mayhem, Burzum, Emperor, Darkthrone and Immortal, as well as later bands such as Dimmu Borgir. This development has since become an important part of extreme metal, but many events that took place in the early 1990s related to the black metal movement such as several church burnings and a prominent murder case caused some concern amongst the Norwegian citizens at large. Another internationally recognized band is the band a-ha. The group initially rose to fame during the mid 1980s after being discovered by musician and producer John Ratcliff and has had continued global success in the 1990s and 2000s.

Norway enjoys many music festivals throughout the year, all over the country. Norway is the host of one of the world's biggest Extreme sport festivals with music; Ekstremsportveko - a festival held annually in Voss. Oslo is the host of many festivals, such as: Øyafestivalen and by:Larm. Oslo used to have a summerparade similar to the German Love Parade. In 1992 the city of Oslo wanted to adopt the French music festival “Fête de la Musique”. Fredrik Carl Størmer established the festival. Even in its first year, “Musikkens Dag” gathered thousands of people and artists in the streets of Oslo. "Musikkens Dag" is now renamed "Musikkfest Oslo.