Northern Exposure

As winter creeps up to darken their cities each year in October, Oslo World and Tromsø World put paid to potential glumness. The two festivals pool their resources to share some acts, ensuring that artists from all over can get this far north, and that audiences from one end of Norway to the other can experience them.

In Oslo World, the line-up this year ranges from Uruguay’s Jorge Drexler and South Africa’s The Joy to Spain’s Israel Fernández and Mongolia’s NaraBara. Marisa Monte opens the week’s proceedings at Oslo Konserthus. A Brazilian diaspora are out in force for the occasion and sing, word-perfect, along to most, if not all, of her songs. Marisa’s smoky voice delivers songs of love, heartbreak and joy. To the crowd’s near overwhelming delight, her friend, Drexler, joins for a rendition of ‘Vento Sardo’, which they wrote on holiday together. They beam as they sing to each other on stage, both performing in Oslo for the first time. The final few numbers see audience members rush down the aisles to dance and declare their love for Marisa.

Two hours further north, in the Arctic Circle, Tromsø World also boasts a wide-ranging line-up. Artists have come from Morocco, Portugal, Senegal and beyond to this magical snow-covered, mountainous city. The ultimate highlight is the DRC’s Kin’gongolo Kiniata, brought over in tandem with Oslo World. On a variety of homemade instruments (made from water bottles, pipes and other discarded items), the group mix Congolese rhythms with industrial sounds and, importantly, simple choruses that are impossible not to sing along with.

Momi Maiga deserves mention too. His charming kora performance takes on a new joy when his cousin, Ibou Cissokho, who had performed with him in Oslo a few days earlier, joins him on stage. The two played together often in childhood, but have not had the chance in recent years. The grins shared between them spread rapidly through the audience and leave a lightness of heart after the music finishes. Aïta Mon Amour (another Oslo and Tromsø act) offers electric oud crossed with synths and gruff, soaring singing, while the Portuguese Soul concert brings the soul of fado – with masterful Portuguese guitarra player Pedro De Castro (who runs a fado club) – to Norway.

There is a long history of Norwegian solidarity with Palestine that runs through the festivals. Both events make a point of platforming Palestinians and protesting the ongoing onslaught of Gaza. In Tromsø, Palestinian flags are seen at most venues and organisers worked with Palestina Committee Tromsø to platform Palestinian pop artist Bashar Murad. Dr Mads Gilbert, an emergency physician who has worked extensively in Palestine, was asked by Oslo World’s festival director, Alexandra Archetti, to speak at Oslo Konserthus before Monte’s performance. His emotional speech called on the Norwegian government and its banks to break ties with Israel before championing Oslo World and the “mobilising [and] empowering” music it platforms.

Oslo World and Tromsø World’s commitments to wide-ranging, far-reaching, good music and political responsibility are indisputable. Indisputable, too, is the joy of being a part of it.