Last 12 months’s twenty fifth anniversary of The island pageant was a giant one, however this 12 months’s version was a stormer. Headliners included Charli xcx, Chappell Roan and Queens Of The Stone Age (returning after final 12 months’s look was cancelled on account of an sickness within the band), besides, the locals had been a formidable presence on the island pageant final month.
woman in pink, the alias of singer-songwriter and producer Marie Ulven Ringheim, for instance, was inescapable; her music could possibly be heard blasting out of automobiles, golf equipment and bars throughout Oslo, and she or he pulled one of many greatest crowds on the pageant.
Each 12 months, the group behind Øya Festival has made a degree of stacking the lineup with Norwegian artists. It’s an opportunity to rejoice native heroes like woman in pink and GiddyGang, and remind the crowds her to see Charli and Chappell that Norway has loads to supply. As it turned out, most of the time, it was the locals who drew the most important crowds.
Festival-goers had been handled to a well-rounded and eclectic exhibiting from the Norwegians who proved their various music scene is late its flowers.
From Afrobeats to alt-rock, listed here are 5 acts that stole the present at this 12 months’s Øya Festival.
It’s to Øya Festival’s credit score that regardless of reserving line-up titans like Chappell Roan, Charli xcx, and Queens Of The Stone Age on the invoice, they’ve made it a coverage to at all times shut the pageant with a homegrown act. This 12 months, it was the flip of Norwegian singer-songwriter Marie Ulven, aka woman in pink.
Ulven final performed on the pageant again in 2018 so this was a homecoming present of kinds, and for the locals who’ve been tapped into her journey in that point, it was clearly a poignant method to finish Øya 2025. Everywhere we went, you could possibly hear her music enjoying out of automobiles or in cafes, and listening to a complete crowd getting behind an artist like that’s actually one thing.
It didn’t matter that a lot for those who didn’t know her music, her super-charming folks pop wants no context or clarification. If you’re unfamiliar, final 12 months’s If I Could Make It Go Quiet is completely heaving with impossibly likeable songwriting and completely your finest entry level. Other notable mentions embrace “Dead Girl In The Pool”, “Bad Idea!”, and her cowl of Maggie Rogers’ “Say It”. They’re not strictly dancey, however a tragic banger continues to be a banger.
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Another favorite among the many locals was jazz-hip hop collective GiddyGang who stuffed out the Park Theatre shortly and will most likely have warranted a bit extra room.
Marked out by their smoky, soulful, jazz-rap sound, GiddyGang are one other act with a giant following in Norway. Over the years, they’ve collaborated with Robert Glasper, Mac Ayres and Jazzy Jeff, they usually’re always booked up for pageant season.
This 12 months’s set at Øya Festival noticed them join with common collaborator Vuyo and several other different artists for a free, improvisational set, which is actually after they’re at their finest. Tracks like low-slung funk gem “Believe It” and “Head Over Heels” give a reasonably good snapshot of that unhurried, free-flowing type, however it’s actually in stay settings that they excel.
(*5*)Tolou
Tolou’s brilliant and breezy combo of Afrobeats, pop and R&B delivered a welcome mood-boost within the Circus tent. Born in Tromsø, one of many northernmost cities in Norway, to a Nigerian father and Norwegian mom, Tolou’s first foray into music, surprisingly, was because the singer in her brother’s steel band. One or two very sharp left turns later and she or he’s now finetuned a sound that marries Scandi-pop and West African influences.
Flanked by dancers and bolstered by a enjoyable and vibrant stage set, Tolou took to the stage with a shredded, sunshine-yellow skirt and loads of vocal energy to fill the cavernous Circus stage. “Coco” is by far her greatest jam, melding funk-heavy Afro-R&B rhythms with upbeat Scandi-pop cheer. Elsewhere, “Dem Boyz” was one other large crowd pleaser, summoning sufficient 2000s pop nostalgia to usher in the uninitiated.
If it was sluggish jams you had been on the lookout for at this 12 months’s Øya Festival, then Haugesund-hailing Mabira was your man. One of the important thing proponents of Scandinavia’s modest however rising R&B scene, Mabira’s signature sound ties in jazzy grooves and swinging Afro rhythms. Taking to the Garden Stage on the Saturday afternoon, Mabira and his stay band gave us a calming, however warming showcase of his eclectic sound.
If it’s that Afrobeats edge you’re after, tracks just like the smouldering “Denial” with Norwegian rhymer Dutty Dior and the bumping “Rendezvous” are most likely your two finest beginning factors if you’d like probably the most consultant style of Mabira’s sound. Arguably much more common amongst followers, although, is “Aldri igjen”, a way more straight-down-the-line R&B monitor he made with Norwegian pop singer Nessi and manufacturing trio FRAM.
Another barn-stormer of an act, Brenn proved that Norway’s rep for stay music is well-earned. On a invoice that additionally included Kneecap, leaving your mark isn’t any imply feat.
As quickly as they opened with the enduring theme from 2001: A Space Odysseythey’d the group rapt. After that, it was a volley of shoegaze riffs and hazy vocals hit even tougher in a stay setting. Edvard Smith Save and Rémy Malchère Pettersen had been the right ringleaders, whipping up circle pits and partitions of demise in a crowd that knew each phrase from their trio of albums.
This wasn’t simply pure noise, although, theirs was a well-oiled machine. They made full use of their sludgy Drop D tuning, however there was no scarcity of heat and groove to counter the dramatic clouds and patchy downpours. There’s an argument to be made for Save and the boys to take a headline slot (as they did for his or her mid-pandemic 2021 set), however truly this was the right jolt of power to see us by the night.