10 Norwegian Artists to Know Before Øya Festival 2024

PJ Harvey, Pulp, Queens of the Stone Age, The National, The Kills, and more are set to perform at the 2024 Øya Festival in Oslo, Norway. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the festival, which has become the largest music festival in Oslo, Norway.

Janelle Monáe, André 3000, IDLES, Big Thief, and Slowdive, along with Norwegian artists, including Fay Wildhagen, Delara, Faye, Oscar Blesson, 9 grader nord, Andreas Røysum Ensemble, are some of the other artists set to perform across six stages during the four-day festival at Tøyen Park, August 6-10.

The festival kicks off on Tuesday, August, 6, with a “club night” series of shows at venues across Oslo before moving to the four-day lineups at Tøyen.

This year, Øya will also continue highlighting Sámi artists with the addition of Emil Kárlsen and Ella Marie. Since its inception, the Øya Festival has focused on showcasing more Sámi artists, including indigenous peoples from the northernmost parts of Norway. In 2006 and 2011, Mari Boine and Adjagas performed at the festival, along with Katharina Barruk in 2023.

Øya Festival, translated as the “island festival,” had more modest beginnings on the island of Kalvøya, on the outskirts of the capital in the late ’90s.

“We started Øya on an island outside Oslo in 1999 with the ambition of showcasing local talent, who played the tiny small venues (100-300 capacity) we were running 24-7 at the time,” Claes Olsen, Øya founder and booker tells American Songwriter. “When we moved the festival to a medieval park in Oslo after two years, we increased the international focus.”

Olsen adds, “In 2003, we started employing ourselves, with an aim of being frontrunners on sustainability at festivals, and the festival grew step by step.” In 2014, the festival moved to Tøyenparken, where it has remained for the past decade and welcomes 60,000 attendees each year.

[Get Tickets to the 2024 Øya Festival at StubHub]

“A beautiful park with lush hills and massive trees—not the typical flat field festival site,” says Olsen. “It’s hard to believe it’s been 25 years, but we’re still going strong, and we’re especially excited about this year’s lineup, as always, mixing international and local talent, and new and established acts.”

After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, Øya Festival returned in 2022 with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Gorillaz, Florence + The Machine, girl in red, H.E.R., Norwegian artists AURORA and Sondre Lerche, and more, while Devo, Blur, Lorde, Caroline Polachek, Snail Mail, boygenius, and more filled in the 2023 lineup.

Whether you’re headed to Oslo for the 2024 Øya Festival or not, here are 10 Norwegian artists worth checking out.

1. Astrid S

Nearly a decade after placing fifth on the British singing competition Pop Idol in 2013, pop singer and songwriter Astrid Smeplass, known as Astrid S, released her debut Leave It Beautiful in 2020, followed by Joyride four years later. “This album is inspired by all the road trips I’ve had with my dad growing up and the music we listened to,” said Astrid S of Joyride. “And my never-ending failing love life. And friends who part ways. And falling in love. And everything in between.”

2. Moyka

The self-proclaimed “Norwegian Pop Witch,” Moyka, née Monika Engeseth, released her debut EP Circles in 2019, followed by her first full-length The Revelations of Love in 2021. An extended version of her The Revelations of Love track “As Long as You’re Here” was also featured in the season three finale of the Netflix series Young Royals.

In 2023, Moyka released her second album, Movies, Cars, & Heartbreak. If only love could be like the movies, but it’s never like it seems, laments Moyka in the single “Perfect Movie Scene.”

“It took some time to get back to feeling like myself so I could make this record, and I’m so glad I was able to,” said Moyka of the new album. “I’m so proud of what me and my collaborators have created together. ‘Movies, Cars & Heartbreak’ is me in my best element, lyrical snapshots of my worst times and a result of my restless heart on a mission.”

3. Fay Wildhagen

In 2015, Fay Wildhagen released her debut album Snow, and was nominated for Norwegian Grammys. Wildhagen released her 2018 follow-up Borders and her third album, Let’s Keep it in the Family, in 2024. In 2018, Wildhagen also scored the film Harajuku that same year along with Aksel in 2021.

“My compass is to make things that stir my soul,” said Wildhagen. “It resonates with me, supports me, and soothes me; and it is just a bonus if it resonates with others.”

[RELATED: Fay Wildhagen Reinterprets Her Music, Life on ‘Leave Me to the Moon’]

4. Ella Marie

Ella Marie was already booked to play at the Øya Festival in 2024 before she released any singles. The Sámi artist, also known for her work fronting the band ISÁK, played her first concert as a solo artist at the Riddu Riđđu festival in Sápmi in July 2024; Øya will mark her second. Marie released her debut single “Sániid” in March 2024, followed by “Gie Gielista.”

An environmentalist and activist, Marie is outspoken about the struggles facing the Sámi, indigenous people who inhabit the region of Sápmi, the northernmost parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. “We have resisted so many hardships and oppressors in different forms and different states, during different times,” said Marie. “I just think it’s a necessity that we honor our ancestors by continuing that fight, by continuing standing up for who we are, for our language, and for our claims to the land.”

5. Das Body

Led by vocalist Ellie Linden, Das Body released their debut Peregrine in 2020, followed by True Vulture in 2024, and have registered their sound in synth-pop and electronica.

“Creating pop music that doesn’t necessarily fit the commercial mold, like pop music is supposed to, well, that’s challenging in itself,” said Linden. “It’s exhausting trying to convince industry folks and collaborators that most commercial choices aren’t always right for us.”

6. Sivert Høyem

Best known as the frontman of the Norwegian alt-rock band Madrugada, Sivert Høyem has also built an extensive solo catalog throughout the past 20 years, from his 2004 debut Ladies and Gentlemen of the Opposition through On an Island from 2024 along with his band the Volunteers.

7. Hammok

Singer-guitarist Tobias Osland and drummer Ferdinand Aasheim are childhood friends who formed the hardcore band Hammok during the lockdown in 2020 with Ole Benjamin. The first iteration of the band began back in 2011 with Osland and Aasheim before it was shelved and revisited in 2017. The trio released their debut Jumping/Dancing/Fighting in 2022 and their second release Look How Long Lasting Everything Is Moving Forward For Once from 2024.

8. Emil Kárlsen

Sámi artist Emil Kárlsen wrote his first song at the age of 9 and was playing in bands not long after. Today, Sámi is Kárlsen’s second language and remains rooted in the art he continues to create as a solo artist and in bands like Resirkulert as well as in film. In early 2024, Kárlsen released the EP Binnat and is working on a new album for release in 2025.

Kárlsen is currently starring in the Disney+ series To Cook a Bear. The crime drama follows a community of villagers searching for a killer bear and is the first Scandinavian production for Disney.

9. Louien

Inspired by country, roots, British folk, and Americana, Louien, known for her work with the band Silver Lining, released her solo debut None of My Words in 2019, followed by No Tomorrow/Figure Me Out in 2022. In February 2024, the Norwegian singer and songwriter released her third album Every Dream I Ever Had.

“‘Every Dream I Ever Had’ exhibits all the facets of Louien, from the naked and sensitive to the noisy and glorious,” reads a descriptor of the album. “It contains tender verses, big melodies, delicate guitar picking, and thundering drums, all in one.”

10. Orions Belte

Guitarist Øyvind Blomstrøm, bassist Chris Holm, and drummer Kim Åge Furuhaug formed a very likely trio with Orions Belte. Bonded over a love of instrumental music, the Bergen-based trio released their debut album Mint in 2018, followed by their live debut as a band at Øyafestivalen that year. In 2019, they released their more funk-bent EP Slim, which paid homage to the late rapper Mac Miller and the 1960s Norwegian beat group The Pussycats.

Orions Belte released two more EPs, two live albums with accompanying films, and a triage of albums under each band member’s name from 2022 before releasing their album Women in 2023.

Main Photo: Norwegian artist Moyka by Ida Fiskaa

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