Last night a Mixtape saved my life

Lands with an enormous pop tradition, a thriving scene in metal exploration and an incredibly rich vein of experimentation in jazz and beyond, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland are countries that have also allowed female songwriting voices to flourish - often hugely popular, almost always devoted to the search for a unique, distinctive language, instantly recognizable as their own.

Roaming across decades, languages (though English remains dominant) and styles, this selection of twenty tracks draws on the best that female singer-songwriters from the Far North have offered and continue to offer. Obviously with no claim to completeness (the list could easily be expanded to another thirty or forty names, even without considering artists who already belong to the firmament, such as Björk and Neneh Cherry), the playlist offers a generous sampling of twenty unforgettable voices, spanning mainstream and avant-garde, past, present and glimpses of the future.

From the searing elegy of Stina Nordenstam's "Dynamite", the title track of her murky masterpiece, to the deep bond with tradition in "Vuoi vuoi me" by the extraordinary Sami songwriter Mari Boine, by way of the punk effervescence of Ida Maria and Anna Ternheim's flair for elegy: different moods and refined sensibilities take turns on stage while keeping their own distinct personality, their true essence, intact.

Alongside genuine celebrities in their homeland such as Laleh (also a songwriter for globally famous pop stars) and Amanda Jenssen, Ane Brun and of course Emilíana Torrini (captured here on the album that launched her into the pantheon of global alternative pop), we also find some of the most fascinating voices from Finland's dense avant-folk squadron (Islaja, Lau Nau).

Above all of them stands the name of Norway's own Joni Mitchell, a songwriter of extraordinary experience and maturity: Kari Bremnes, captured here at the close of her golden decade, on a track of refined rock tension.

Ride the wave of great music

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07/12/2025