It’s that time of the year again, Nordic Music Central’s Songs of the Year for 2025. We’ve cut the list down a bit this year, last year’s 40 songs was a lot to get through so this time it’s reduced to 30 (actually 31 – I can’t count!) from the several hundred that were reviewed.
But as ever, non-inclusion doesn’t mean a song wasn’t so good. Any song that finds its way into NMC is good.
The fundamental mantra remains: You have to be on top of your game to be in NMC in the first place.
Other than the Top 5 there is no formal countdown of the other 26; they are merely listed alphabetically.
We try to embrace as many styles as possible here, as well as a geographical spread.
So here we go with the Top 26, the final five to follow at the end in reverse order, #5 to #1.
Please feel free to read the full original reviews in NMC! (Where you will also find social media links)
Artists and bands in this article (Top 5 in Bold, winner in Bold/Italic)
| Bellefolie (NO) | INKI (IS) | Iris Caltwait (NO) | Kira Skov (DE) | Last Plane Out (SE) |
| Marte Eberson/Paal Flaata (NO) | Nayah (DE) | Nicholas Sillitoe (NO) | Nicolay Løvvold (NO) | Oak Now Willow (DE) |
| Raging Lines (NO) | Sans Parade (FI) | Sara Lina (DE) | Sol Heilo (NO) | Sophie Lou (DE) |
| Soffía (IS) | Spotless Souls (FI) | Stephanie Meincke (DE) | Tara (SE) | Tarja (FI) |
| Terje Gravdal (NO) | Theresa Rex (DE) | Tulle (NO) | THE RIVER (SE) | The Victim (DE) |
| Valerie Melina (SE) | #5 Sordal (NO) | #4 Lights of Skadi (SE) | #3 Remedies (NO) | #2 RABO (NO) |
| #1 AURI (FI) | ||||
For the stattos amongst you the country breakdown is:
Denmark: 8
Finland: 4
Iceland: 2
Norway: 11
Sweden: 6
Bellefolie (Norway) – Your Gates
Bellefolie (‘Beautiful Madness’ en francais, naturellement)have released a number of songs this year on their way to their debut album. The first one we came across, their third single, ‘Your Gates’, instantly stuck in my mind. I was taken aback by the quality of it.
‘Your Gates’ (not Bill), is about being in the process of losing someone, and how far you are willing to go to reach them. In this case it is by “cracking open your gates” and “taking on all your pain”, as if exorcising a malign spirit.
It switches back and forward between a sultry ballad and a tremendous synth and cello-led cinematic anthem and drips with emotion from beginning to end.
Isabell Engelsen is a terrific vocalist and equally adept at handling the softer parts and the spine tingling ones, along with the transition between them.
Bellefolie set down a marker with their early singles, and especially this one, which tells me we will be hearing much more of her and them in the future.
West coast Norwegian rawness + French elegance is a rare combination but both gel perfectly here.
INKI (Iceland) – Islander
Both of the two singles from Iceland’s erudite and gifted INKI that we featured this year could have made it into this annual review. Eventually I opted for ‘Islander’.
The story behind the song is that earlier this year she took a trip with some visiting travel journalists as part of her ‘other’ job, marketing for a resort in South Iceland.
Talking to the journalists, they concurred that people from islands often feel the need to return home after moving abroad. Statistics for Iceland prove the point – Icelanders who emigrate have a very high return rate, around 80%.
Or perhaps it is just the magic of a place that does it.
And hence the song title, ‘Islander’, which literally translates as Icelander.
Her music is inventive and defies stylisation, her voice is rich and silky and her words read like poetry.
Is this one of the leading songwriters in Iceland I hear you say? Was Humpty Dumpty fat? Does the Pope wear a funny hat? Is wrestling fixed?
Iris Caltwait (Norway) – these are hard times (say the word)
Yes, I read it as Iris Can’t Wait at first. A lady on a mission.
She bucked the trend by lengthening her artist name from the previous, simple first name into Iris Caltwait and I’m usually drawn to artists that do something unexpected and seemingly pointless.
She tells us that “This song (‘these are hard times’) is about the tension of wanting to rip off the bandage but being stuck in the moment where no one dares to make the first move. It’s about the loneliness that grows in that silence.”
Put your own interpretation on that cryptic message but I assume she refers to having the balls to move to end a relationship painfully instead of letting it drag on even more painfully because the other person in the relationship simply hasn’t got the balls to do that. Well, metaphorically speaking.
It concludes with the metaphor of her “laughing with a broken heart” like a clown, wishing that she could just “say the words.”
It’s a deep song that will quite probably vary in its meaning with every listen. It is dark without being bleak, but also without even a hint of light at the end of the tunnel.
Happy listening!
I like the way that it builds from a ballad to an anthem, sacrificing acoustic simplicity on the altar of synthesised orchestration, a washboard being replaced by a full kit and then just fades away with the realisation that those words just won’t come.
Kira Skov (Denmark) – Only the Dream
In the UK if a singer gets to be described as “legendary” that usually means they are past it, over the hill, good only for the ‘legends’ spot at Glastonbury on Sunday afternoon when everyone is still paralytic and half asleep from Saturday.
It’s the equivalent of the Chairman’s ‘Vote of Confidence’ in the Football Manager, 48 hours before he is sacked.
Fortunately, none of this applies in Denmark where legends are exactly what it says on the tin. And one of them is Kira Skov.
Kira has been a member of several bands, and has racked up 17 albums along the way, both solo and in bands.
She explains ‘Only the Dream’ as “a celebration of the mystery of life and all that we will never know for sure.” It appears to be to do with identifying the difference between reality and dreams, given that these days everyone is urged to ‘fulfill their dream’ almost as if you can have it, even entitled to it, on demand like Instagram or TikTok, which of course most people cannot.
Musically, it’s like poetry set to music, the sort of thing Melanie Safka used to do back in the day, complete with that sudden rush of urgency she would suddenly find in her songs.
And she has a voice with the power of The Seekers’ Judith Durham.
Last Plane Out (Sweden) – The Butterfly Effect
Last Plane Out is a duo, of Nils Erikson (Malmö), and Anders Lundquist (Stockholm). They made it into last year’s Top Songs compilation with ‘All Fools’ Day’, which like the two singles we featured this year are on the recently released album ‘Cautionary Tales’, a very prog-like title for a band that has taken influences from the 1970s-80s prog rock era and specifically Genesis and Peter Gabriel.
Indeed, Nils has a ‘Genesis connection’ in that he spent many years as the pianist and co-lead singer of the progressive rock band Karmakanic, led by longtime Steve Hackett band bassist, Jonas Reingold.
It was literally a toss-up between two excellent songs for this year’s compilation, ‘Break the Chain’ and the more recent ‘The Butterfly Effect’, which I eventually opted for, on account of them tackling the complex subject of Chaos Theory in a way that doesn’t leave you rubbing your head and rueing your lack of education.
Instead, what they do is rather clever, personalising the concept into one of friendship and love.
The way the song is constructed and hung together is impressive, featuring a strong alto saxophone contribution from Klara Schmidtz – the only outsider to feature on this album, otherwise they play everything else themselves – and an equally forceful guitar input from Anders Lundqist, both of which gel perfectly with Nils Erikson’s gentle, restrained piano and which cumulatively are as effective in their own way as Hazel O’Connor’s and Wesley Magoogan’s ‘Will You’.
And that’s not a claim for the faint-hearted.
Marte Eberson/Paal Flaata (Norway) – Hold you again
Marte Eberson is a regular in NMC as she forges ahead with her solo career in tandem with other interests which include a recently released album of covers, ‘Forgetful’ with her father, the renowned guitarist Jon Eberson.
In the run up to the release of another solo album in 2026 she has been engaging in a number of duets with various people, and in this particular one, ‘Hold you again’, for the first time that I am aware of in her solo career she has teamed up with a male vocalist, Paal Flaata, best known as front man of Midnight Choir, and whose sweet, soulful, dulcet tenor tones not only add much to the song but also encourage Marte to raise her own game even higher.
The result is a sumptuous heart wrencher of a duet that bears comparison with the leading male/female ballads of the last 50 years – your Diana Ross & Lionel Richie/Peaches & Herb/Elton John & Kiki Dee/Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton/Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell.
There is a certain sensuality that she not only sings but lives and breathes in all of her work.
Nayah (Denmark) – Lifeline
We all need a ‘Lifeline’ from time to time when we’re drowning in the global maelstrom, and NAYAH discovered the need for hers when she found herself engulfed by her own thoughts and insecurities, mindful of reaching out for a lifebelt called love.
Finding relief that comes with admitting you can’t always stand strong on your own when it ain’t exactly raining men, hallelujah.
‘Lifeline’ was written on an autumn evening at a remote farmhouse, with nothing but a keyboard. Since then it has taken on a life of its own, burgeoning into a cinematic blockbuster in a mere three minutes.
She’s known for her ability to write songs that balance attitude with emotion, such as her seminal 2015 single ‘Bad Bitches’ but with ‘Lifeline’ she’s put the attitude to bed, preferring to showcase fragility, vulnerability and intimacy.
‘Lifeline’ is the third single from NAYAH’s forthcoming debut album set for release in 2026. Perhaps she’ll find that the lifebelt comes from a ship called Dignity.
Nicholas Sillitoe (Norway) – Majesty (single/future album track)
Originally from London, Nicholas Sillitoe now lives in Kristiansand in southern Norway, one of a clutch of artists from the part of the world that we have featured this year.
He was originally a boy soprano but has the sort of Bryn Terfel look now that goes naturally with ‘baritone’. However, you wouldn’t know from this track, ‘Majesty’, which is the second single from the album ‘Let the wall of sound come down’ and which is an instrumental piece, in line with his accomplishments as a film composer.
Nicholas comes at the world’s problems from a different angle, arguing that “Post-classical music is the soundtrack to our troubled times.”
This second single from Nicholas’ album ‘Let the wall of sound come down’ features Dutch harp virtuoso Remy Van Kesteren.
‘Majesty’ is about the quest to be present together, in the moment. Another of those carpe diem allusions that we have also heard plenty of recently, and from a variety of artists and countries.
More specifically, he says, “In these polarised times, we need to reconnect with silence and peace. I hope the music can create a space for calm, reflection and belonging “.
Forget your problems and just let it wash over you.
Think of Eno’s ‘Music for Airports’ and then extrapolate it into the cosmos as if you’re in a planetarium, each note a fiery, shimmering sun hanging in the firmament.
Tiny glittering spaceships like flies flitting between huge circular cities.
And the harp interlude (by Remy Van Kesteren) could be an interjection by a fleeting meteor shower.
It will be six minutes better spent than you will ever do with your doctor or shrink.
Majestic by name; majestic by nature.
Nicolay Løvvold (Norway) – Rebel Hearts
Nicolay Løvvold’s songs always push the envelope, whether they concern a man who covets a girl he can’t have and embarrasses himself in the process; the interactions between a predator and its prey; or his concerns that you simply have to adhere today to whatever’s trending or you’ll be cancelled.
I’ve wondered in the past if he might push the boat out too far one day, but he’s always just about managed to stay onside.
This song, ‘Rebel Hearts’ was released in February and it embraces an exploration of themes such as the passage of time, personal freedom, and the complexities of human desires.
Stripped back, what that means is that he is urging listeners to embrace life passionately instead of idly letting fleeting moments pass by, to live fully, desire deeply, and love as if every day could be their last.
Well there have been numerous songs urging listeners to do just that, but not like this.
The best way I can place him and it in the genre maelstrom that is the music business is 2025 is to ask you to think of a cross between Noddy Holder of Slade singing ‘Cum on feel the Noize’ or ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’; a symphonic metal band and a prog group (think Genesis and Jethro Tull in collaboration).
Yes, ‘Rebel Hearts’ really is that good. It’s an anthem for the struggling downtrodden masses that the likes of governments, the World Economic Forum and BlackRock seem intent on grinding into the floor but there’s little animosity – political or otherwise – in it. Just that assertion to get on with your life, because it’s later than you think.
He says he worked hard on the riff and the chorus and it shows. It flows seamlessly and is arranged in an agreeable way that might even attract Taylor Swift fans.
Lyrically it is lined up as an argument between two polarised factions, or two sides of the same brain, one propagating the safe, sensible approach, the other outright irresponsibility if it gets you what you want without hurting someone else and sod the consequences anyway.
Nicolay has said previously that he’s in to fusing rock and metal music with classical elements and synths and ‘Rebel Hearts’ is an excellent example of it.
And as far as I know he does most of this himself. That’s class.
Oak Now Willow (Denmark) – Unanswered
Some songs are written – inadvertently, I’m sure – for certain times of the day or week. ‘Unanswered’ by Oak Now Willow is one of those that have ‘chill out’ written right through it like ‘Blackpool’ through a stick of rock.
It’s a perfect time to check out this relaxing country ballad that honours daydreamers, absent minded people and unanswered questions; and I fall into all those categories.
The band comprises four friends from in and around Århus and is led by songwriter and lead singer Katrine Hald who lives in an eco-community called Friland, an international cooperation where people experiment with alternative ways of living, focusing on sustainability.
Their collaboration began in 2020 when they convened in a remote corner of Denmark to record her songs.
She gets her inspiration from nature and the community ‘vibe’ and they are so committed to the cause that they released their debut album, ‘Rescue Kit’ made out of second hand vinyl and reused cardboard, possibly a world first .
She honed her songwriting skills in a tour of the western US and other places in which she sought to combine making music with a nomadic lifestyle. The band’s name came from a line from a Buffy Sainte Marie song, “I was an oak, now I’m a willow, now I can bend”
‘Unanswered’ was their first single release this year. Funnily enough I was thinking about Buffy Sainte Marie when listening to the song; there is the same depth of introspection in the lyrics.
They read like a piece of poetry and I recommend you turn them on if you, so you don’t miss a word.
The song channels Dylan’s ‘Blowin’ in the wind’ in that it also seems to conclude that there are more questions than answers (“light a candle for the unanswered questions on your bookshelf”) and that for all the times the Moon goes through its third phase all the reflection in the world will do no more than create more reflection.
And that final line, “like an untattooed skin, unanswered in the wind” is brilliant for its ambiguity.
Musically they deftly combine traditional instruments like pedal steel guitar (which seems to my ears to be played as if it is out of tune in the bridge even though it isn’t – is that deliberate?) with synthesisers to create a sound that while not unique is distinctly detached from the mainstream.
Raging Lines (Norway) – Everything
Raging Lines (Sondre Thomassen Thorvik) is a postgraduate music student in Oslo with a background in production but now focused more academically on musicology (the academic study of music).
He has a unique musical persona about him.
While he has previously been mentioned in the company of the likes of Depeche Mode, Joy Division and Massive Attack, ‘Everything’ descends to a deeper level still, and I don’t just mean his baritone singing voice which could easily do the voiceover for War of the Worlds.
It is a dark and mysterious creation, lying, as best I can judge, somewhere between metal, grunge and A-ha on 33rpm with occasional glimpses of Bryan Ferry and Gary Numan.
Mean, moody and magnificent, it’s the music of the dark back alley (are there any of those in Oslo, I haven’t seen them?) the furtive deal, the secret sign with the fingers, the plain brown envelope, the hurried glance of recognition in the shadows of Berghain, the escape plan scribbled on the back of an envelope.
A scenario in which it is simply a case of ‘Everything’ or nothing.
Sans Parade (Finland) – On war (now) and On war (then) (dual single release)
I’d been waiting for something epic to turn up in the email inbox for a while. I had a premonition it was coming. Here it is.
War is here to stay for all the efforts of all the counterculture Beatniks the world has ever known. The Peace & Love, Man winds of change have long since fizzled out (you could argue they did at Altamont) and that seems to be the conclusion offered by Helsinki’s Sans Parade with the dual single release, ‘On war (now)’ and ‘On war (then’).
There is exactly the same degree of powerlessness and hopelessness on both the tracks as there is Orwell’s opening page of 1984 as the clock strikes 13. Or that Joseph K. felt with the first knock on the door in The Trial. A similar level of absurdity to that Meursault experienced at his mother’s funeral before he fled home to make passionate love to his girlfriend in L’Etranger.
The world’s spinning out of control and there’s nothing we can do about it.
‘On war (now)’ is bombastic to put it mildly with huge synthesiser chords booming out a six note tune like the giant spaceship did (with five) in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, only these aliens are of the evil kind. Meanwhile Markus Perttula makes Richard Burton’s ‘War of the Worlds’ narration sound like he’s a choirboy.
It is six and a half minutes (there is a shorter radio edit) of epic evocation and what is being evoked is the malevolent spirit of all pervading war.
In contrast, ‘On War (then)’ turns its attention to the subtler forms of warfare, signified by the synthesiser’s in your face melody’s replacement by an acoustic guitar while that synthesised sound becomes more ethereal, suggesting something bad lurking around a corner, like an IED. Then there’s a reassuring Greg Lake-style vocal to go with it.
The two parts are musically contrasted but ultimately both are in the here and now, where we can’t shake them off.
The 11 minutes of ‘Now’ and ‘Then’ collectively make up an impressive body of work and Markus Perttula has the convincing vocal to enhance their veracity even further.
Sara Lina (Denmark) – Only say yes
There was little information about Sarah Lina on social media, but I did manage to find out that she’s Danish-Italian and the Italian in her smoulders through the song.
She spent four years in Melbourne, chasing (like RABO, see later) sun and surf but finding instead “a journey into an unknown underworld”, but it doesn’t seem to have done her any harm.
‘Only say yes’ is a flamboyant noir-pop track – mesmerising, sensual and free like the night – as Sara Lina sings about the freedom to live spontaneously and say ‘yes’ to all of life’s experiences, fully aware that they might leave scars.
Sounds like my kinda girl.
The song juxtaposes (word of the day), a melancholic piano of the sort that accompanies cinematic Rom-Coms when it becomes evident that Harry and Sally are never going to be an item after all these years, with a much less careworn, almost couldn’t care less, vocal delivery but one which at the same time is stating her philosophy that life is for living and she’s up for any challenge, just bring it on.
Her voice and the sensual way she presents the song are very much similar to the way Norway’s Marte Eberson (see above) does it and she has the same penchant as Eberson for living spontaneously, sampling experiences and taking risks.
And on top of everything else that’s some endorsement, too.
Sol Heilo (Norway) – Black Crow Cloud
There are two extremes to Sol Heilo.
One the one hand she can write lightweight, frivolous songs, often complete with a lively banjo accompaniment and of the variety that you can’t resist getting up and dancing to. It’s a continuation of what she used to do with Katzenjammer, whether or not she’d created the song herself.
On the other hand there is darker content and again there always has been. Think for example of ‘A bar in Amsterdam’, ‘Tea with Cinnamon’, ‘Wading in Deeper’, ‘Virginia Clemm’, ‘Lady Marlene’ and ‘Lady Grey’ from the Katzenjammer era, most of them vocalised by Sol. Some of them jolly, others sad, but all having a darker motif to them.
And then in her solo career. On her debut album ‘Skinhorse Playground’ there are only two ‘happy ‘ songs out of nine, and they bookend the album, which also includes observations on the hardships she faced when living in London, terrible events in her own country, a gaslighting lover, and the death of a relative.
She’s a walking, talking box of contradictions and so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that she introduced her single, ‘Black Crow Cloud’, by describing the content as “dark matter” and adds, “sometimes when I’m sad, I seek comfort in listening to sad songs. When I’m dark, I listen to dark music. It’s like minus and minus is plus, in the state of mind.”
The tone of this song is quite different from anything we’ve heard from Sol Heilo previously, it being dominated by overlapping and syncopated acoustic guitar melodies that have ‘deep south’ etched into them and enlivened by a neat steel guitar bridge..
She’s shifted from the halfway house of Nordicana we’ve experienced before now to outright, full on gloomy Americana and does it extremely effectively.
It seems to recall the US Depression, perhaps set in the Appalachians, a la The Waltons, as decent folk surviving through hard times have to face up to further impositions put on them by humans and Daddy is resolved to do whatever it takes to protect the family.
But it could be applied to any situation you imagine, including war and civil conflict, the common denominator being that ‘Black Crow Cloud’ bearing down on you, carried by the wind of your uncertain future.
I have no idea if this is going to be Sol Heilo’s new style going forward, or whether it’s a one-off. All I know for sure is that she never fails to come up with the goods and to live up to and then exceed expectations.
Sophie Lou (Denmark) I will love you till I die (debut single)
Sometimes this job can completely blindside you and I just love it when that happens. And it could well happen to you right now. It’s hard to believe this grandiose masterpiece is a debut single.
Sophie-Lou (Sofie Emilie Maintz Thorsen) tells a story of “losing one of the most important people in my life” (we don’t know if that’s a lost love or a lost relative) and then falling in love, prompting that weird juxtaposition that afflicts most people at one time or another of grief versus joy, with both vying for our utmost attention.
Hence ‘I will love you till I die’ turns out to be a declaration of love to her new partner, friends, and family, all in one go.
But what a song. It ambles along for a minute or so as a melancholic ballad to simple acoustic guitar chords – the sad part of the equation I suppose – and then suddenly explodes into an overwhelming cacophony of multiple choral voices and distorted guitars – the joy of love.
Apparently a special binaural microphone was used to replicate the way the human ear hears and the difference is evident even through the cheap 10-bob flea market headphones that I use. I could easily compare it to 10cc’s ‘I’m not in love’ or perhaps Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ for the quality of that multi-tracked vocal recording although some readers might not know what I’m talking about.
The overall effect is impressive and of course this isn’t the work of someone who’s just walked in off the street with a song written in a bedroom on the back of an envelope.
She draws on a wide-ranging musical background and is a lifelong explorer of contrasts, which is how she is able to identify and bring to life the contrasts in this song. She grew up surrounded by jazz and spent 14 years performing with the Danish National Girls’ Choir.
She has also composed classical choral works, while carving out her own sonic world through ambient and electronic music.
Quite a mix when you think about it. And it all comes to a head here. Brace yourself then listen.
Soffía (Iceland) – Dreamcatcher
Soffía is heading steadfastly towards her new and third full length album, again working with Pétur Ben, a seasoned collaborator over the years.
The previous single from that album, ‘Redwing’, seemed to mark a turning point of some sort; a softer, gentler song with none of the uncertainty and edginess that populated much of her material prior to it and a positive vibe emanating from it throughout.
‘Dreamcatcher’ though is a return to form musically, a dark, moody piece full of compelling, even disturbing bass lines from Fríða Dís – another regular collaborator (both ways) – ominous percussion from Magnús Trygvason Eliassen, half-spoken lyrics and dramatic synthesised interventions that suggest the hand of Pétur Ben.
The sort of thing that belongs in the Icelandic Nordic Noir TV dramas that the country doesn’t make enough of and one of which it would fit well into (hint).
Lyrically, it is open to interpretation, which is my excuse for saying I might have got this badly wrong!
Briefly, it appears to be a gothic coming of age story in which the singer finds red hot, unadulterated love for the first time, as if Heathcliffe had been directed by a guardian angel off the wiley, windy moors and straight to Cathy’s door, which he duly smashed in and had his way with her.
Not that she was complaining, mind.
“Heaven and Earth came together; I wish I could stay forever…and ever…”
And what do we make of the ‘Dreamcatcher’ here? I’m assuming it is a reference to the Native Indian cultural charm that ‘traps’ bad dreams and nightmares in its web, allowing good dreams to pass through to the sleeper.
So is it really all just a dream anyway, and will Heathcliffe only ever be manifested as an apparition? Will the wait for the real one have to continue, nanananananana?
For the last seven or eight years I’ve been saying that Soffía is a terrific songwriter just waiting to be discovered big time outside of Iceland. This album will be the one, I’m certain if it.
Spotless Souls (Finland) – Rosemary
The four-piece ‘art rock band’ from Helsinki, Spotless Souls, were twice in NMC in 2025 and seem to have a thing about oddball romances.
Previously in ‘In the heat’ they put the instantaneous attraction of two women who meet by chance on the dance floor under the spotlight.
Then, in this song,they returned with an ode to ‘Rosemary’, which concerns a doomed summer romance, a wistful, intoxicating one set amidst infatuation and its “naïve destruction.”
“I birthed the end between us” observes singer Alina Kolehmainen and in one universe that’s all it amounts to; a separation between the makers and the made. In another it could be a better outcome or lead to far worse.
Rosemary’s baby has many potential manifestations and not only demonic ones.
It is the preserve of the very young to re-imagine old relationships in new ways or at least to present them so. ‘Rosemary’ is a slow burner of a thing that could be another way of telling the story of Squeeze’s immortal ‘Up the Junction’ five decades on and I’m sure Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook would love it.
These are smart kids with something to say. Two songs in and they’ve already got me thinking of them winning prizes –Teosto perhaps, or the Nordic Music Prize, or even the Polar Prize. Like, quite soon.
I have to say something about the video, too, which is linked here instead of Spotify. There are some sublime moments in it. The use of mime to underscore this imaginary world; the way the male character’s lingering ends and he almost imperceptibly moves away. The enchanting tiny smile developing on Alina’s face before the cheekbone can’t hide it any longer.
And the revelation of those deep brown eyes that will always be her secret weapon.
Stephanie Meincke (Denmark) – Full time driver (from a debut EP)
This debut song taken from an EP impressed me so much that it merited a 750 word review. (Please do read it).
Stephanie Meincke’s voice is a little American accented and if I’d been told that she was out of US indie music hotspots like Williamsburg or Silver Lake and that she’d moved there from Nashville I wouldn’t have queried it.
And that’s why it isn’t hard to perceive a US level of inquisitiveness about this single, ‘Full-Time Driver’ and the EP it is from, ‘Not Never Thinking’
Because I’m pretty darned sure that is what many American twenty somethings are engaged in most of the time – never not thinking – their brains overloaded from the minute they open their eyes until the moment they close them again each day. 24/7/365.
Those lives are chock full of smart phones clamouring relentlessly for your attention; the World Wide Web, 666 with its endless pap and fake news; Amazon and Netflix; YouTube; podcasts; Zoom chats; Instant this and that; X, Y and Z; and all the other wastes of time I either can’t remember or I’m too freaking old enough even to know about.
In her promotional photo Stephanie, who describes herself as a ‘professional over thinker’, is pictured in her kitchen, frozen in time, almost Zombie-like, as she wrestles with the question of whether she should get the dinner on first or wash up the lunchtime plates.
Such catatonia afflicts us all as we battle to distance ourselves from the swirl.
No, the future is here and “the hard rain that’s a-gonna fall” (Dylan, 1962) has assumed monsoon proportions. It ain’t pretty and it ain’t gonna improve any time soon either.
If I read it correctly that’s the main thrust of Stephanie’s EP, while in ‘Full-Time Driver’ she relates how she feels she’s going the wrong way around a race track, dawdling along while everyone she knows is hurtling happily in the other direction, “having kids, and getting married.”
But it also serves another purpose, a more positive one, namely to remind her of “the small but significant goals, experiences, and moments that inspire us to do so much more.”
Now we’ve got the philosophy out of the way let’s turn our attention to the musicality. The song lies somewhere vaguely in that no-man’s land between pop, folk and Americana. It is sumptuous.
Quality flows out of every note and every syllable sung.
It has a distinct 1980s feel to it, the same vibe that you got from Alanis Morissette and Suzanne Vega, perhaps Cyndi Lauper in some of her songs.
And any amount of Nashville based stars but they would never write lyrics as good as this.
That American accent helps of course and the clarity of her vocal delivery is exceptional.
However you come at it, this song is fabulous and on its strength alone I predict a big star in the making.
I find it hard to believe this is debut work and that Stephanie doesn’t have a lengthy history in the business already.
Tara (Sweden) – Pain (debut single)
Tara is a tender 16-year-old singer-songwriter based in Stockholm and she released her debut single, ‘Pain’ this year.
Hailing originally from Serbia she arrived in Sweden as a child so has been exposed to two contrasting cultures and she writes about the intensity of teenage emotions, meaning love, loss and self-discovery. My attention was drawn to the claim “imagine if Lana Del Rey and Kate Bush had a musical love child—that’s Tara’s evocative soundscape.”
That’s quite an image to live up to.
I can’t think of a better title to sell a song! Just about everyone is in some sort of physical or metaphysical pain right now and that pain ain’t gonna subside anytime soon.
In her case pain means being misunderstood, which I guess is something that happens easily when you move between countries and will most definitely apply to ‘international’ relationships.
I wasn’t expecting anything quite as attention grabbing. ‘Pain’ lies somewhere between a Shakespearean soliloquy and a plea for help to The Samaritans. The lyricism is exceptional for someone so young.
Try these lines for example:
“I was always a crazy child/living by the gates of Hell…In my heart and in my head I know I’m young but I keep on wishing that I was dead.”
Musically, it is a power ballad underscored by thumping war drums and assorted percussion that suggest mounting tension, sumptuous synthesised chords and a delicious instrumental/vocal bridge.
Vocally, she has that knack of sounding both young and vulnerable and older and world-weary at the same time in one song.
Putting the production aside (from Tim Godsen), if Tara wrote all of this herself I would say we have a genuine star in the making here.
Tarja (Finland) – Together
It was just over 20 years ago – 21st October 2005 – that Tarja (Turunen) was summarily dismissed from Nightwish, of which she had been a founder member a decade previously, immediately after the end of a very long world tour and for reasons that are too complex to raise again, here.
It took her a little time to pick up the pieces after that brutal night but she rose to the challenge of nailing a solo career with nine albums and eight word tours of her own since 2006.
Another album – ‘Score for a Dark Christmas’ – was released on December 5th.
The idea of a dark Christmas fascinates me and one of my favourite seasonal songs is Poly Styrene’s ‘Black Christmas’ chronicling the actual assassination of an entire family of his in Los Angeles by a bloke dressed as Santa Claus and to a reggae beat.
But althoughTarja can have a dark side in her work that isn’t really evident in the first single from it, ‘Together’.
She has written and released a single with that same title previously and it featured on her Christmas live album, ‘Christmas Together: Live at Olomouc and Hradec Králové 2019’ being one that was considerably more powerfully operatic than this latest song.
That isn’t to say that the 2025 ‘Together’ isn’t powerful. Be careful how you adjust your headset or ear pieces so you don’t get your head blown off. It rises majestically from fleetingly fanciful to a point three minutes and twenty seconds later (“together we will fly into the night”) when they might be making that journey on an Apollo rocket to the Moon.
If you traditionally link Tarja with metal put that aside for the moment. This is the stuff of a global diva. It belongs in a Broadway or West End musical or at the conclusion of the world’s most romantic Hollywood movie of the year.
Lyrically, it appears a little maudlin at first, as if one character is lamenting the physical loss of another but the subject matter on closer examination seems to be of the need to find solace and connection during the Christmas holiday season, contrasting seasonal melancholy and the feeling of togetherness, even for those who are lonely or missing loved ones.
Tarja has said that the album it previewed explores “the other side of Christmas. The Christmas of the lonely people and the missing ones. The Christmas for those that do not find joy in the blinking lights and the jingle bells”.
And that in this track, the message is one of a shared human experience of emotions during the holidays, going beyond typical cheerful carols to address deeper, more sombre feelings, and suggesting that in this shared experience, people are not truly alone.
My own personal take is that everyone is ‘alone’ to a degree at Christmas, a season that is tailor made for introspection and regret, irrespective of the number of humans close at hand, and that is why this powerful goose bump stimulator of a song will resonate with so many.
Terje Gravdal (Norway) – No broken adult (track from the EP The Dreamer)
Terje Gravdal is one of the most reviewed artists in NMC and that’s for a reason, namely that he holds an opinion on a wide range of subjects, many of them political and socio-economic, and he’s invariably got something to say that demands your attention in a way that your average politician doesn’t.
Often I get a heads up on the meaning of a song from Terje but in the absence of one here for ‘No broken adult’ I hazarded a guess that what he’s intimating is that to avoid rearing ‘a broken adult’ and to ensure that his soul “remains free” the parent ought not to raise him in his/her/their own image and definitely must not draw them into their own entangled failures or in his own words “to keep them there” (in that broken space).
In fact not to rush them to adulthood at all; rather to let them acquire wisdom at their own pace.
In all probability it is a philosophy that probably works well in the mountains of south-central Norway and Terje’s assertion in that it will work in an Oslo suburb as well if you put your mind to it.
Musically, it builds slowly but surely and ultimately majestically with pounding drums and what might be a didgeridoo, and is written as to tell a coming of age story, as if the subject is on the edge of adulthood and stands there as an exemplar of how to raise a child in a way that best prepares it for the world.
Vocally, he’s chosen to use his Lee Marvin baritone for this song. There’s nothing more appropriate for a storyteller and he ranks amongst the very best.
Theresa Rex (Denmark) – Scream
Theresa Rex has visited NMC several times and made the 2024 Songs of the Year list. She ranges over many different personal matters in her songs including her desire to have her own voice heard, conversely her decision to disengage from the world when she was being treated for a serious illness and being stabbed in the back by a friend that stole her boyfriend. Ouch.
Even so she usually manages to make them all bubbly and bouncy, as if she doesn’t have a care in the world.
This time she turned her attention, in a single she released herself, to the subject of anxiety, the overwhelming sensation of chaos many young people feel and how they try to drown it all out by partying like its 1999. (Actually that applies even more to us oldies, Theresa, and we don’t know what day it is, either).
She says she’s experienced anxiety bad enough to think she was having a heart attack and has often turned to the bottle, which only made it worse. (Actually that applies even more to us oldies…oh, never mind).
I used to follow the US artist Little Scream until she went all political and they should dub Theresa ‘Big Scream’. She even does a very convincing one towards the end, right out of Janet Leigh’s shower scene in Psycho.
The song’s vibe is very much of Kim Wilde (think ‘Kids in America’) as it progresses, underscored by a relentless, machine gun-like bass line.
It’s got it all: a strong melody, smart lyrics that are earthy at times, and it verges on anthemic and then backs off just at the right moment. The whole nine yards.
There’s a wonderful short sampling of John Farnham’s ‘You’re the voice’ in the chorus. I don’t know if she meant it but it works beautifully.
And boy, can she sing. That’s how you get 1.5 billion streams on Spotify.
Oh and here’s a thing. This is a genuine pan-Nordic production, with the song written in Iceland by Theresa Rex along with Icelandic writer Hákon Guðony and the Finnish producer Camu Creutz.
TULLE (Norway) – Devour / The Performer
Again this was a very long review originally, almost 800 words (and this isn’t much shorter!), but with TULLE there are no half measures.
TULLE is the musical equivalent of every horror show they broadcast on TV on Halloween (“the best day of the year” as she describes it) – the movie franchise of that title, and those of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, Fright Night; also Trick ‘r Treat, The Cabin in the Woods, The Blair Witch Project, The Shining, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, any of The Exorcists, Rosemary’s Baby, Dawn of the Dead, the spoof Shaun of the Dead… the list goes on.
She’s the Death-pop artist; the primary exponent of Apocalyptic Pop.
If you like being spooked you know now where to go on Spotify.
Not to mention Stephen King’s ‘It’, with its star turn, the child munching, gutter lurking Pennywise the Clown, because she has an even bigger thing about circuses and her catchphrase is ‘your silly little clown loves you’.
But there is much more to her than that.
Indeed she describes the circus as her “universe”. She wrote ‘Devour/The Performer’ about “how it feels constantly to perform and to try to put on the ‘best version’ of yourself, while you’re slowly watching the mask fall. It is a very personal song that describes my entire project.”
That project is to bring the sum of the circus and all that it stands for and represents (risk, daring, adventure, excitement and freedom) to the attention of the masses whose lives are much more hollow and one dimensional without it. The extravaganza that contrasts with the bread (free food) handed out by the Romans to pacify the public in the Roman satirist Juvenal’s timeworn phrase ‘bread and circuses’, which applies today as much as it ever did, certainly in the UK.
But Juvenal never envisaged that circus ‘mask’ slipping. TULLE got ahead of the game.
Musically, to me there’s a distinct 1980s vibe about ‘Devour/The Performer’, probably the most pioneering era of contemporary, post war music and one that saw huge innovations in mainstream pop, intelligent/alt-pop and electronic music.
And TULLE somehow manages to throw many of those styles into this song – together with searing rock guitar – one that chops and changes direction more often than an Agatha Christie ‘whodunit?’, while there are more ‘noises off’ than in your typical Shakespearean play.
The representation of a show being enacted comes out of the opening fast drum roll and after that there are at least four distinct sections to it, like a mini operetta.
And never at any time does a melody go absent.
And you can read several alternative lyrical interpretations into it. Devour might be the moniker of the performer or it might be (verb) what she hopes the audience will do to her, which could be in either a good or bad way. “Look at me! How I present myself so perfectly. A prodigy. A modern God.”
There’s a suggestion too about a split personality.
And there is always the conviction that art mimics life and that she is seeking acceptance in the ‘circus’ that we live in, perhaps because of a physical, mental, or ‘hidden’ disability.
With each successive release I become increasingly impressed by TULLE. She has the songwriting attributes of so many top artists with whom I’ve compared her previously and her lyrics are sublime:
“Oh I can do my routine/step after step when I bleed/just like a well-oiled machine” and
“What a bitter little lady/she only wanted sweetness/what a curse/she’ll never learn”…”So she’s forced into the circus/performs to find a purpose/how sad to watch her go mad.”
They have the true mark of class.
THE RIVER (Sweden) – I guess now that I’m the King (Track from debut album)
The old morphs into the new with THE RIVER, a band that was formed in 2024 by Frederik Zäll (vocals, guitar, piano) and Joacim Brunnberg (drums, percussion), who were also previously the movers and shakers behind the band Eskobar and who were on the lookout for a vehicle that offered them the opportunity to create something rawer, freer and with the additional benefit of being completely on their own terms.
The result is the debut 10-track album ‘And the Storm’ from which this track is taken.
For a duo they make quite a noise, you’d think there was an army of them and unlike some other rock duos and despite the ‘rawer’ feel they sought, whatever style they are playing in there is often a cinematic, especially road trip movie, feel to it.
They certainly know their way around their instruments and I’d bet this week’s wages that they can replicate these songs live under just about any circumstances.
And Frederik’s vocal is especially intriguing with shades of everyone from Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Ronnie van Sant to Crash Test Dummies’ Brad Roberts seemingly making an appearance at one time or another.
There’s melody-a-plenty, strong hooks, unexpected riffs, challenging one-to-one lyricism as if they’re telling you a story in the pub, and flowing high level composition in every track.
I eventually opted for the rock-balladic closer, ‘I guess now that I’m the King’, as the selected trackfor its poignant piano, elegant guitar break and teasing lyrics that could be interpreted as anything from an anti-war song to James Bond’s last stand.
The Victim (Denmark) – Heartaches and Lows
Sometimes a song can be just too long; especially when there is eight and a half minutes of it.
But that isn’t the case with this wonderful piece by The Victim which has the stamp of Anohni and the Johnsons on it in the early part and which could have gone on for another half hour in my book.
‘Heartaches & Lows’ is the title track from The Victim’s debut album and was released in June.
The Victim has gone all DIY since the last time we reviewed him, writing, recording and releasing the album himself and reporting that he’s “probably in a better place in life than what has previously been the case.”
And you can tell that from this track, which carries a positive vibe from the off even though it begins life as a melancholic, almost mournful slow ballad, delivered by the saddest synthesiser you ever heard and a bass line that is counting out time to the dawn and the coming execution.
And it is still positive mainly because of The Victim’s vocal, which brings a message of hope within it like a dove of peace arising out of the flames of the Middle East. (I might be getting a little carried away myself there, steady on Dave!)
Then, on three minutes, it breaks out into what is an instrumental precursor to an almighty guitar/synth anthem outro which kicks in from 4:30 for the last four minutes.
An elegant but powerful extended guitar solo to play it out with just the faintest hint of ‘Layla’ to add an edge to it then it ends with what sounds like the cacophony of celebratory ringing bells in a cathedral.
The sort of thing that would not only fill the Royal Albert Hall, but also seep out through the streets and down into the subway where entire carriages would be rocking through the night and into the dawn.
It’s not The Victim that I’ve been used to hitherto, but I’ll buy into it any day.
Valerie Melina (Sweden) – My current obsession
Valerie Melina’s ‘Death of me’ single last year was a song about the ecstatic feeling that comes early in the stage of falling in love with someone, concomitant with being slightly aware that it could all go wrong.
It was an absolute gem of a song, one that showcased that rare ability to write sad lyrics to an up-tempo song, and which not only easily got into the Top Songs of 2024 list but also only just missed out on a Top Five placing.
She returned this year with several new songs including ‘My current obsession’, which she says is written from the perspective of a self-proclaimed Manic Pixie Dream Girl; or at least, someone who has been viewed as one by others.
If you’re unfamiliar with the phrase it refers to a young woman with an eccentric personality who exists only to teach the male protagonist important life lessons, while receiving nothing in return. Elizabeth Bennet to Mr Darcy in Pride & Prejudice I suppose although it could be argued that in that example she is as much the protagonist as he is.
There are plenty more examples in the movie world but all this stuff started in the early 19th Century when women knew a thing or two about how to please a man…
Valerie’s question is, if we ever got to know more about her, what would she say? I guess that means about herself. Her raison d’être.
Her video for the song reveals that anyone can be an MPDG, even if they’re working for, or acquiring ‘clients’ via the Boring Beige Bureau, which designed my living room.
It’s evident that it’s all a game at the end of the day, with only one winner and only one loser, the latter being one who learns nothing and is the one wearing the pants. But not for long if a liaison actually develops into something, if you get my drift.
This young lady can write a lyric. She has the irony of a Morissette and the biting satire of an Apple.
Musically, the melody doesn’t quite reach the heights of ‘Death of me’ but that would have been an exceptional turn of events. That doesn’t mean it isn’t catchy, in fact I mused several times since I first heard it that it’s the sort of thing that Madonna might have come up with around the same time as ‘Everybody’ and ‘Holiday’.
Madge Melina. That’s got a ring to it.
And so the Top 5, in reverse order…
#5 Sordal (Norway) – I see you every day in her eyes
Sordal had two songs in NMC this year including this super (and super long) single, ‘I see you every day in her eyes’.
They’ve been around since 2008 and their styles have evolved to embrace country, pop and soft rock, and with occasional folk‑roots and Americana influences. Quite a melting pot.
I like heavily emotive titles like this. It immediately brought to mind James’ seminal ‘Sometimes’ (“when I look deep into your eyes I swear I can see your soul”).
That’s one powerful song with a hook to die for but Sordal matches it here in one that is mainly exquisite piano early on and then after a robust but elegant guitar solo goes all hard rock for a while before returning to its original format and then plays out instrumentally.
It’s quite a tour, a mini opera in the way too that ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is and that’s before it has even been examined lyrically.
The song appears to refer to a loss of some kind, literally or figuratively, of the father of the family perhaps, the eyes being those of the daughter.
But the beauty of oblique lyrics is that in times of stress many meanings can be read into them and in their own way they can bring comfort accordingly.
I am slowly forming the opinion that in time this piece, with a depth and gravitas I’ve rarely heard before out of the Nordics, is going to be regarded widely as a highly respected standard.
#4 Lights of Skadi (Sweden) – Valkyria
Lights of Skadi is a band we featured on several occasions in 2024, marveling at their use of orchestral cinematic pieces in rock music.
Their EP and subsequent full length album last year, ‘A cinematic experience’, was just that. Power and majesty are their watchword.
I even went so far as to say that they are out-writing Hans Zimmer and his peers at times.
But even I was taken aback by the authority woven into this latest single, ‘Valkyria’.
Heavy rock and metal are full of valkyries (the handmaidens of Valhalla) of course, they even literally front some bands, and if Lights of Skadi ever found themselves in need of a permanent female singer I’m sure they’d find one, somewhere.
Indeed the human embodiment of Skadi herself, the Goddess of hunting and of winter. An icy slayer.
It’s the amalgam of rampant guitar, bass and drums opening in a traditional metal fashion – the charge of the Light Brigade if you will – which then transitions briefly into a keyboards dominated section before the guitar main riff enters, followed again by a lighter guitar moment before a full on orchestral synthesised section takes over prior to a return to the opening frenetic guitar conclusion with a grandiose parting chord thrown in for good measure, a promulgation of the one that started the song off.
(I’m sure that’s the longest sentence in any music review this year but I couldn’t chop it because it’s in sync with the flow of the song).
And it’s a casual way of describing a very well composed piece of music in six acts, performed in just three and a quarter minutes. These Norse characters don’t hang about and neither do the bands that play their praises.
Lights of Skadi are the multi-instrumentalists Jorgen André, Jesper Jansson and Martin Ragnarsson and on this song they were joined by Alexander Borger & Stefan Löfstedt.
#3 Remedies (Norway) – Don’t let it in
Remedies appeared in NMC no fewer than five times in 2025 as they released singles in advance of an album, ‘Truth for Lies’, which became available last month.
The cultured duo hit the mark with every one of those songs but I’m sticking with the first one, ‘Don’t let it in’, here.
The title suggests a horror film, a spin-off from the Elm Street Freddy franchise, or perhaps Halloween, or even The Exorcist; the demon Pazuzu lurking outside a Georgetown townhouse, awaiting it’s chance to slip in through a bedrom window and seize the soul of an innocent 12-year old girl.
With its classic 1970’s acoustic guitar prog intro, cinematic melodies, chromatically rising riffs, synthesised orchestral arrangement; soulful jazzy bridge and baroque pop outro that has elements of both the UK’s indie darlings The Last Dinner Party and fellow countrywomen Katzenjammer, Remedies manage to cram four or five songs seamlessly into one.
Meanwhile vocalist Sigrid Ravn Ryan herself offers several different vocal styles, from the weirdness of Apple to the softness of a Natalie Mering to the loucheness of a Shirley Bassey or an Elkie Brooks.
The song is actually about not giving in to events beyond our control by preventing negative thoughts and feelings from taking over, staying true to your guiding principles.
But this is one of those instances where even reveling in the way they craft a story your attention will be directed more to the journey of the tune rather then the depth of the lyrics.
They (Sigrid and multi-instrumentalist Tor Erik Krane Ursin) formed the band in Narvik in 2016.They compose, write, produce, and release their music independently.
# 2 RABO (Norway) – You get a little too lost sometimes
RABO easily made her way into the NMC Top 40 Songs for 2024 (and close to Top 5 status then as well), the ex surfing instructor in Greece and Brazil (how exotic is that?) making a memorable introduction with her debut single ‘Talk to me’ a year ago.This third single, ‘A little too lost sometimes’, is on another level again and is the first taste of a forthcoming EP set to arrive early 2026.
It’s an absolute banger of a thing which should be topping the charts here in the UK and the States, never mind Norway.
It starts off like the opening of a Disney film and that’s probably where she’ll end up before long at this rate. It’s breathless and relentless as she pumps up the volume in a three-part series of verse, pre-chorus and chorus to levels not heard since the likes of Tina Turner and Shirley Bassey.
The chorus generates enough energy to power a spaceship to the edge of the Solar System.
And then she bloody well goes and does it all over again.
Her voice is amazing; she must have pipes made of titanium. Perhaps it’s a tad too breathless at times as if she’s trying too hard to impress, but otherwise very striking.
And the vocal backing, which I’m guessing is also her doing, is sublime, hinting at another side to her character and an air of her own vulnerability while you rarely hear a guitar make such a statement with four quick fire chords unless you’re listening to U2 and the snare drum’s paradiddles rattle like a machine gun.
I was going to say something about the inspirational lyrics but you’ll be inspired enough by the sheer power of the song.
Taylor, Beyoncé, Ariana, Demi, Katy, Miley, Lana, Sabrina, Selena, Chappell, Olivia…watch your backs. This girl is coming for ya. With or without her surfboard.
And the winner is…
#1 AURI (Finland) – A Boy travelling with his Mother
As with 2024 the #1 song doesn’t come from a start up or indie artist but from an established band and one that itself is considered to be a ‘spin off’ of an even more established one although it amounts to much more than that.
And I chose it because there is a degree of excellence in this composition and its presentation that everyone should aim for.
AURI is the band and it is made up of two full time members of symphonic metal rockers Nightwish – Tuomas Holopainen and Troy Donockley – complemented by Hoplainen’s wife, Johanna Kurkela (Eye of Melian, Altamullan Road etc), and on their latest album by Nightwish percussionist Kai Hahto.
(Those with long memories will recall that Nightwish was #1 in this list last year with ‘Lanternlight’.)
Auri released their third album, ‘III – Candles & Beginnings’, in August and this is the final track on it. Don’t expect metal, it isn’t. In fact I don’t know what it is. The best I can offer is that it is what I expect 1970s/80s prog rock might have morphed into by now had it continued. The sort of thing Yes might have done had original versions of that band stayed together.
‘A Boy travelling with his Mother’ is what it says on the tin, an 11-minute rail journey (you know by the sound of the wheels on the track) which we are invited to interpret in our own way. Where are they going, and why?
Nothing is perfect but this odyssey is the closest to it I have heard this year.
That’s All Folks!
