Rock, rap, metal and folk music from Sápmi

December 25, 2009 9:42 AM

SomBy were the winners of the Liet International 2009 song contest for minority european languages and cultures. Sámi rock, you say? But wait, there's more! There's Alit Boazu from the Norwegian side, and Tiina Sanila, a Skolt Sámi singer from Finland. And yes, there is Sámi metal, from the band Intrigue. There are plenty other Sámi musicians across Sápmi and outside of the genre of rock, of course. There's Amoc, an Inari Sámi rapper from Finland; Adjágas who are folky and bluegrassy at times; Niko Valkeapää, who is more ambient and electronic; and of course, Mari Boine, recently knighted for her long career of artistic work (translation). [Sound, MySpace warnings]

Some more musicians from Sápmi that are possible starting points to discovering more on YouTube: Angelit/Angelin Tytöt - Who worked with Nobuo Uematsu of Final Fantasy fame on at least one song, Ulla Pirttijärvi, Sofia Jannok.

posted by taursir (5 comments total)

In the lighter category are 14-15 year-olds The Blacksheeps, who won Melodi Grand Prix Nordic 2008 with Oro Jaska, Beana with part Sami, part Norwegian, lyrics. Here's a video of lead singer Agnete Johnsen and guitarist Emilie Nilsen doing a cover of Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Gold Lion.
posted by Harald74 at 10:21 AM on December 25, 2009

Here's a short piece by Amoc about his life and art.
posted by Kattullus at 11:45 AM on December 25, 2009

SomBy looks great (love the blonde girl drummer and intelligent-looking lead singer). But they're just as horrible as any random U.S. band. Adjagas has a nice Fairport Convention thing going on. What's Mari Boine whispering about? Oh: the historic oppression of her people by the Norwegians. Stinkin' Norwegian bastards! Now the Blacksheeps are worth hearing, especially the Yeah Yeah Yeah cover. The Disney Channel should get out there and sign them pronto.
posted by Faze at 12:32 PM on December 25, 2009

Adjagas is one of my favorite bands - I just got their self-titled debut off of US iTunes last week.

I've been listening to a fair bit of Sami music, on Last.fm - put in 'yoik' or 'joik' in the 'Tag' section, and it calls up a wide variety of music. My current favorites not mentioned above:

Berit M. Oskal - yoiker with a mellow R&B feel to her music. From Kautokeino, Norway.

rOlfFa - poppy rap with yoiking, in Sami, to an 8 bit synth. PartyJoik is a great, fun song of theirs.

And, last but certainly not least, there's Wimme Saari, a traditional yoiker from Kelottijärvi, Finland. He has done CDs of acapella yoiking, as well as works of experimental electronic music with yoik.
posted by spinifex23 at 8:51 PM on December 25, 2009

There's also Max Mackhé, who is Swedish, but (if I remember correctly) moved to Kautokeino and learned Northern Sámi. That video is filmed completely on mobile telephones.
posted by taursir at 4:08 AM on December 26, 2009