2019 in Scandinavian music

The following is a list of notable events and releases that happened in Scandinavian music in 2019.
(Go to last year in Scandinavian music or next year in Scandinavian music.)

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Events

January

• 10 – The 18th All Ears festival opens in Oslo, Norway, running until 12 January.[1]
• 25-3 February – The 32nd Nordlysfestivalen is held in Tromsø. Performers include Dmitry Shishkin and Wenche Myhre.[2]
• 31
  • The 8th Bodø Jazz Open Vinterjazz opens in Bodø, Norway, running until 2 February.[3]
  • The 21st Polarjazz Festival opens in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, running until 3 February.[4]

February

• 14 – The annual Ice Music Festival opens in Finse, Norway, running until 16 February. Performers include Maria Skranes, Ivar Kolve and Snorre Bjerck.[5]
• 23 – At the 49th Dansk Melodi Grand Prix final, held at the Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning Leonora emerges as overall winner with the song "Love Is Forever"; she thus becomes Denmark's representative in this year's Eurovision Song Contest.[6]

March

• 6 – The 50th Turku Jazz Festival opens in Åbo, Finland, running until 10 March.[7]
• 9
  • Melodifestivalen 2019 concludes at the Friends Arena in Stockholm, with John Lundvik emerging as overall winner with the song "Too Late for Love"; he thus becomes Sweden's representative in this year's Eurovision Song Contest.[8]
  • The 6th Faroese Music Awards ceremony takes place at the Nordic House (Norðurlandahúsið), Tórshavn. Teitur Lassen wins Best Artist and Best Song.[9]
• 22 – The Blue House Youth Jazz Festival opens in Stockholm, Sweden, running until 24 March.[10]
• 28 – Icelandic band Sigur Rós are charged with tax evasion, covering the period 2011-2014.[11]

April

• 4 – Wisting, Norway's most expensive TV series to date, is launched, with music by Jacob Groth, Ole Bo, and Sören Möller.[12]
• 12 – The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (FRSO) announces that Hannu Lintu's term as chief conductor will end with the 2020-2021 season.[13]
• 30 – Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra announces that Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä has signed a three-year contract to be its next musical director, beginning from January 2020.[14]

May

• 2 – The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra names Nicholas Collon as its next chief conductor, to replace Hannu Lintu; Collon will be the first non-Finnish conductor ever to be chief conductor of the FRSO.[15]
• 9 – Finnish National Opera and Ballet names Hannu Lintu as its next chief conductor; Lintu will hold the post from 1 January 2022 to 30 June 2026.[16]
• 18 – In the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019, Sweden finish in 5th place, Norway in 6th place, Iceland in 10th place and Denmark in 12th place. Finland did not reach the final.[17] The UK entry, written by Sweden's John Lundvik, finishes in last place.
• 22 – The UK's Philharmonia Orchestra names Finnish conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali as its next principal conductor, as from the 2021-2022 season, with an initial contract of 5 years.[18]

June

• 12
  • The Iceland Symphony Orchestra announces that Eva Ollikainen will be its next chief conductor and artistic advisor, the first female conductor ever to take on the role; her contract will be from the 2020-2021 season until 2024.[19]
  • The Bergenfest music festival opens in Bergen, Norway, running until 15 June.[20] The line-up includes Patti Smith and Robert Plant.[21]
• 13 – The Norwegian Wood music festival opens in Oslo, Norway, running until 15 June.[22]

July

• 4
  • The 20th Folk music festival of Siglufjordur opens in Siglufjordur, Iceland, running until 8 July.[23]
  • The 23rd Skånevik Bluesfestival opens in Skånevik, Norway, running until 6 July.[24]
• 5
  • The Baltic Jazz Festival opens in Dalsbruk, Finland, running until 7 July.[25]
  • The 41st Copenhagen Jazz Festival opens in Copenhagen, Denmark, running until 14 July.[26]

August

• 6 – The 20th Øyafestivalen opens in Oslo, Norway, running until 10 August.[27]
• 8 – The 33rd Sildajazz opens in Haugesund, Norway, running until 9 August.[28]
• 11 – The 34th Oslo Jazzfestival opens in Oslo, Norway, running until 17 August.[29]

September

• 5 – The 20th Sibelius Festival opens in Lahti, Finland, running until 8 September. Performers include Karita Mattila, Folke Gräsbeck, and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.[30]

October

• 3 – The Norrköping Symphony Orchestra names Karl-Heinz Steffens as its next principal conductor and artistic advisor, beginning from the 2020-2021 season.[31]
• 4 – The Copenhagen Opera Festival names Amy Lane as its new festival director; she will be the first woman and the first non-Dane to hold the post.[32]
• 18 – Hildur Guðnadóttir wins the Best Television Composer award at the World Soundtrack Awards for her score for the HBO/Sky series Chernobyl.[33]

December

• 15 – Finnish band Children of Bodom play their last show before disbanding, at the Black Box venue in Helsinki.[34]
• 25 – Swedish musical film, En del av mitt hjärta, is released.[35]

Albums released

January

Day	Album	Artist	Label	Notes	Ref.
4	Iihtallan	Festerday		First full-length album	[36]
11	Verkligheten	Soilwork	Nuclear Blast		[37]
18	Last Call: Live in Helsinki	Remu & Hurriganes			[38]
	Covered in Blood	Arch Enemy		Compilation album	[39]
25	Songs for the Dead Live	King Diamond		Live album & Blu-Ray DVD	[40]

February

Day	Album	Artist	Label	Notes	Ref.
1	And Then Comes The Night	Mats Eilertsen, Harmen Fraanje, Thomas Strønen	ECM		[41]
	Lotus	Soen			[42]
8	Dualistic	Dualistic (Bernt Moen, Fredrik Sahlander, Tobias Solbakk)	Losen		[43]
	Tana	Sverre Gjørvad	Losen		[44]
	Æ	Anton Eger	Edition	Produced by Petter Eldh and Anton Eger, Executive producer Dave Stapleton	[45]
22	Quilter	Thomas T Dahl	Losen	Produced by Thomas T Dahl	[46]
	The Door to Doom	Candlemass		Featuring Tony Iommi	[47]
	Esoteric Oppression	The Moth Gatherer	Agonia Records		[48]

March

Day	Album	Artist	Label	Notes	Ref.
1	Human	Darkwater			[49]
	Léon	Léon	Léon Recordings	Digital download only	[50]
	Sucker Punch	Sigrid	Island Records	Produced by Martin Sjølie	[51]
8	Wings of Fire	Brymir			[52]
	Beyond the Void	Iron Fire			[53]
	Hexed	Children of Bodom	Danger Johnny	Produced by Mikko Karmila	[54]
	Voyage	Daniel Herskedal	Edition	Produced by Daniel Herskedal, Executive producer Dave Stapleton	[55]
22	Sounds Of 3 Edition 2	Per Mathisen feat. Ulf Wakenius and Gary Husband	Losen		[56]

April

Day	Artist	Album	Label	Notes	Ref.
12	Hamferð	Ódn (EP)			[57]
19	Per Wiberg	Head Without Eye			[58]
26	Helheim	Rignir			[59]
	Månegarm	Fornaldarsagorna			[60]

May

Day	Album	Artist	Label	Notes	Ref.
3	Ofidians Manifest	Kampfar	Indie Recordings		[61]
10	Glory Chord	Bigbang	Grand Sport Records		[62]
11	Drone Activity	Ulver			[63]
17	The King Live in Paris	Avatar		Live album	[64]
24	Northbound	Eivind Austad Trio	Losen		[65]

June

Day	Album	Artist	Label	Notes	Ref.
7	Första klass	Einár	Self-released	Digital download; reached no 1 in Swedish charts
	One Fire	Combichrist			[66]
14	Return to Eden	Timo Tolkki's Avalon			[67]

July

Day	Album	Artist	Label	Notes	Ref.
5	Outstrider	Abbath			[68]
	Live	Bullet		Live album	[69]
19	The Great War	Sabaton	Nuclear Blast	Produced by Jonas Kjellgren	[70]
26	Recordead Live – Sextourcism in Z7	Lordi	AFM Records	First official Live DVD of the band	[71]

August

Day	Album	Artist	Label	Notes	Ref.
2	Rewind, Replay, Rebound	Volbeat	Vertigo, Republic, Universal	First studio album with Kaspar Boye Larsen on bass	[72]
16	Dominion	HammerFall			[73]
30	In the Raw	Tarja Turunen			[74]

September

Day	Album	Artist	Label	Notes	Ref.
5	Nummer 1	Einár	Self-released	Digital download; reached no 1 in Swedish charts	[75]
13	Rust	Crashdïet	Diet Records; Frontiers Music Srl	First full-length album with Gabriel Keyes as vocalist	[76]

October

Day	Album	Artist	Label	Notes	Ref.
4	Heart Like a Grave	Insomnium	Century Media Records	Mixed by Jens Bogren	[77]

November

Day	Album	Artist	Label	Notes	Ref.
8	Songs the Night Sings	The Dark Element		Featuring Anette Olzon and Jani Liimatainen	[78]
	The Enemy: Reality	Wolfbrigade	Southern Lord		[79]
15	Non Debellicata	Ragnarok			[80]

December

Day	Album	Artist	Label	Notes	Ref.
6	Decades: Live in Buenos Aires	Nightwish	Nuclear Blast	Live album issued as Blu-ray digibook, 2CD digipak, Blu-ray+2CD earbook and 3LP	[81]

Eurovision Song Contest

• Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019
• Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019
• Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019
• Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019
• Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

Deaths

• 12 February - Olli Lindholm, 54, Finnish singer and guitarist (heart attack)[82]
• 26 February - Magnus Lindberg, 66, Swedish musician, singer and composer (cancer)[83]
• 20 March - Terje Nilsen, 67, Norwegian singer-songwriter.[84]
• 26 March - Master Fatman, 53, Danish comedian, film director and singer[85]
• 27 March - Audun Laading, 25, Norwegian musician, member of Her's (car crash)[86]
• 5 May - Ib Glindemann, 84, Danish jazz composer and bandleader[87]
• 19 May - Alfred Janson, 82, Norwegian composer and pianist[88]
• 10 June
  • Ib Nørholm, 88, Danish composer and organist[89]
  • Sven-David Sandström, 76, Swedish composer[90]
• 5 July - Paolo Vinaccia, 65, Italian drummer long resident in Norway[91]
• 8 August - Erling Wicklund, 75, Norwegian jazz trombonist and journalist.[92]
• 2 October - Morten Stützer, Danish guitarist and former bassist of Artillery, 57[93]
• 4 November - Timi Hansen, 61, Danish bassist (cancer)[94]
• 5 November - Jan Erik Kongshaug, 75, Norwegian jazz musician and sound engineer[95]
• 9 December - Marie Fredriksson, 61, Swedish singer-songwriter (Roxette)[96]

References

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4. "Polarjazz 2019". Polarjazz. Retrieved 2018-12-13.
5. "Programme". Ice Music Festival. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
6. "Leonora is Denmark's hopeful for Tel Aviv!". Eurovision Song Contest. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
7. "Turku Jazz Festival 6.-10.3.2019". TurkuJazz.fi. Retrieved 2019-01-19.
8. Granger, Anthony (9 March 2019). "Sweden: John Lundvik Is Off To The Eurovision Song Contest 2019". Eurovoix.
9. Jens Hakun Leo (March 11, 2019). "Eivør, Jón & Teitur are the biggest winners at 2019 Faroese Music Awards". local.fo. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
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11. "Sigur Rós band members charged with tax evasion by Icelandic authorities". The Guardian. 28 March 2019.
12. Horst, Jørn Lier (4 September 2018). "Wisting: from book to screen". Dead Good. Archived from the original on 22 December 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
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63. "Ulver To Release "Drone Activity" In May". theprp.com. March 2, 2019. Retrieved March 11, 2019.
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82. Yö-yhtyeen laulaja Olli Lindholm on kuollut (in Sundanese)
83. Magnus Lindberg frånd Grymlings död (in Swedish)
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85. Journalist, Johan Varning Bendtsen (2019-03-26). "Master Fatman er død". Politiken (in Danish). Retrieved 2019-03-26.
86. "Her's: Band's crash caused by 'wrong-way driver'". BBC News. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
87. Dødsfald: Kapelmester, filmkomponist Ib Glindemann (84) (in Danish)
88. Komponist Alfred Janson er død (in Norwegian)
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94. Mercyful Fate Bassist Timi Hansen Dies After Battle With Cancer
95. Lydmesteren Jan Erik Kongshaug er død (in Norwegian)
96. Marie Fredriksson är död – blev 61 år (in Swedish)