![]() ![]() “It’s been a real challenge to see whether my own vocal style (which is heavily influenced by traditional Sami styles) can work in a language that isn’t my mother tongue. These sounds create space for me to tell more complex stories.” My new project is full of keyboards and synthesizers and to me, it’s more experimental. Much of the music I’ve been making up until now has a shamanistic beat at its core. So, I reached back into my past, to the kind of music I listened to when I was younger. “For this project, I really wanted to do something different. See the Woman.Īnd as to be expected from Mari Boine, this new album has a twist. This special award acknowledged her artistic achievements, but also her ability to connect with a global audience while still maintaining her integrity as a Sámi. In 1993, Mari’s album Goaskinviella (Eagle Brother) was awarded the Norwegian equivalent to a Grammy.Ī decade later, Mari was recognized with the Nordic Council’s Music Prize. It’s just that music gave me a profile and gave me a platform, so I used it.Īfter all, my songs describe the pain of oppression and the struggle to reclaim self-respect, but I also sing about the joy of growing up within a culture that has such a close bond with nature.” “And I certainly never profess to represent Sápmi. “It is not that I was always a political activist,” she says. Mari channeled her personal and political frustration into the 1989 breakthrough album Gula Gula, which propelled her into popular culture both at home and internationally and gave her a platform to advocate for Sápmi.īy telling my own personal story as a Sámi, I feel I’m sharing a piece of my people’s story. Performing first in Norwegian and English, Mari eventually switched to her native tongue Sámi – “a good language to sing in, so rich for the voice,” she said. Outside the family home, Mari absorbed the music of nature, like the wind “singing” and in spring – birdsong. In fact, I first heard jazz on that radio”. “But of course, when our parents were out or at night, we discovered music from all over the world on those radio channels. We did own a radio, but it was restricted to listening to the news, weather forecasts and Sunday church service,” says Mari. My strict religious parents never allowed that. We had no records or television in our home. ![]() “The first music I ever heard was from my parents, singing hymns. Christianity, repression of the Sámi language and the oppressive culture of “the big men down south” – these all weighed heavily on the mind of a girl raised in her native language but discouraged from performing traditional joik. When Mari Boine made her music debut in the early 1980s, she was an angry young woman. “a good language to sing in, so rich for the voice” In other words, it is like Mari Boine’s voice reveals just the smallest sliver of eternity,” said one critic about her album Gá vcci Jahkejuogo (Eight Seasons). She could have sung her songs a thousand years ago or a thousand years into the future and still retained the same depth and resonance. Her music blends seamlessly into the rhythms and sound picture of our times. “It’s completely irrelevant what you call her music. It’s a voice that brings the landscape alive with a mesmerizing purity a voice that represents a thousand years of ancestral connection to an unyielding frozen space.Ī genre-bending trailblazer with a taste for jazz, folk, rock, and world.Īn artist whose music is inspired by and infused with her Sámi roots.Ī woman who knows who she is, where she’s come from and what she stands for.Ī music icon who has inspired indigenous artists the world over. You’ll feel a voice before you even hear it. Imagine the ice and snow of the Arctic landscape, the bitter cold of the Northern wind, the hint of compelling blue under a crystallized lake. ![]()
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