After nearly thirty years of pop music history, the internationally renowned Norwegian trio A-Ha has announced that its 2010 World Tour will be the last hurrah. Read the full story

The now world-renowned Iceland Airwaves music festival began life back in 1999 in an aircraft hangar at the local Reykjavik airport. The music festival originally started as a talent showcase intended for foreign record company executives – but since then has grown and blossomed, interweaving itself into Reykjavik’s cultural life whilst also earning itself a permanent place on Iceland’s yearly calendar. Read the full story

In the ongoing quest to find the next commercially viable way for music artists and their labels to make money from their songs, a Swedish firm called Spotify has emerged with a novel solution. For a small monthly fee, users can stream any music from participating artists as often as they like from the website. Read the full story

It was a surprise for all parties involved when a nude saxophone player beat out four similarly clad violinists to be voted the best representation of a water fairy from Swedish folklore. The Arets Nack (Water Fairy of the Year) has been a popular event in north-western Sweden for more than a decade. But for the first time in the 15 years of its history, a contestant played something other than a violin. Read the full story

Finland’s brief but glorious summer is the jazz festival season in this Nordic nation. Many music fans will be surprised to learn that Finland has a thriving jazz music scene, and a number of festivals with impressive line-ups are scheduled at cities throughout the country. Read the full story

Put a Nobel Prize winner, a renegade artist, and a few thousand music fans who don’t mind rolling around in the mud as their favourite bands play on stage and you’ve got the makings of something special. This year’s Roskilde Festival truly put the ‘human’ into their traditional mix of humanitarian awareness, art and rock music with a unique piece of artwork.
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The documentary Heima about the Icelandic band Sigur Ros has been ranked the best documentary of all time by the film information website Internet Movie Database(IMDB). According to mbl.is the website is the most popular of its kind, grading films from one up to ten, and after a score of 8.7 Heima hails at the top of the ratings for documentary films. All together just over 2,400 people have given the film a grade, with around 1,360 of them grading the film 10 out of 10. Read the full story

The Nordic countries enjoyed an excellent Eurovision 2009, with all five Nordic songs progressing to the final and Norway and Iceland ending up first and second.

Norway were runaway winners on the night in Moscow with 387 points, including top marks (12 points) from 16 countries.

Iceland came second with 218 points, including ‘Douze Points’ from three countries: Norway, Malta and Ireland. Read the full story

Iceland is among the ten countries to advance from this evening’s first Eurovision semi final in Moscow.

Johanna Gudrun Jonsdottir will sing ‘Is it True?’ in the final on Saturday night. Eight of tonight’s competing countries did not make it through. Read the full story

In an unpromising industrial zone at Reykjavik’s main cargo docks, a grubby warehouse appears through the heavy spring rain. Step through the small rusty door though, and you’re met by a wall of sound emanating from a pretty young woman with an infectious smile and a singing voice sent from above.

Johanna Gudrun Jonsdottir (sometimes just Yohanna) is practicing Iceland’s 2009 Eurovision entry over and over again in a punishing build-up to Moscow designed to elicit a perfect performance on the night. And for the record, inside the warehouse is a roomy and pleasant former film studio.

Allowing her famous backing singers, Erna Hronn, Hera Bjork and Fridrik Omar (last year’s Eurovision entry) a breather, Johanna takes time out to chat with IceNews just days before they all flew off to Russia last week. Read the full story