Written by Hey everyone, this is yet another rant on Scandinavia that you may or may not read. Hopefully, you do because nobody likes my articles.
Anyways, here are the top 5 Scandinavian Folk bands.
5# Kalandra
Countries: Norway and Sweden
Years active: 2018 to Now
Kalandra was founded by 2 Norwegian guys, a Swedish composer and a Norwegian-American singer and EDM artist, which is probably the weirdest combination of members.
Despite being active for 5 years, they are very popular, with 4 songs reaching over 1 Million views on YouTube.
They do have a lot of great songs and even appeared in a Video game (Kingdom 2 Crowns). However, they have a greater reputation as an Indie-Folk-Rock band instead of a Traditional folk band.
4# : Hedningarna
Countries: Finland, Sweden, and Sápmi.
Years active: 1989 to 2017
Out of all of these bands, Hedningarna is the most diverse. The band is mostly Swedish, but in the past, they had Finnish and Sámi (Indigenous Scandinavian) band members.
They have some great songs like Räven and Tuuli, and all their songs in their 3rd album Trä, which was released in 1994 (for some reason, most Scandinavian folk bands and artists become popular after their 3rd album).
In 2016, they released their last album, Kult, and broke up the following year. The reason they are at number 4# is because, besides the Trä album, their songs are instrumental and really boring unless you’re a diehard fan.
3# Wardruna
Country: Norway
Years Active: 2009 to today
Ah, Wardruna. Out of all of these bands, Wardruna is the most well-known (they have almost half a million subscribers on YouTube).
Wardruna is a band with many decent songs, and they also appeared in the History Channel TV show Vikings Valhalla.
The reason why they are number 3# is that their fanbase is really bad (most of the fans don’t even know basic Scandinavian history, and this is coming from someone who is half the audience’s target age, and I know a lot about Scandinavian history after the Viking age).
2# Folk Och Rackare
Countries: General Scandinavian
Years active:
1st Gen: 1972-1986
2nd Gen: 2018-2020
Folk Och Rackare is a Scandinavian musical project that is very interesting. It started as a band created in a university in the 1970s, but the 2nd Gen is just two people.
I love this band because the 2nd gen (the 1st gen’s music is nowhere to be found) is really talented. Also, can we appreciate that Carin, the lead singer of F&R Gen 2, was 16 when she F&R?
It is amazing to see younger people being proud of their heritage. The reason they are under General Scandinavia is because Carin is Swedish-American, and Ulf (Secondary singer) is Norwegian.
The original group was also Norwegian and Swedish. They sing songs from every Nordic country
1# Garmana
Country: Sweden
Years Active: 1993 to today
Garmarna. I have very fond memories of this band. I love their music. Why? It is a combination of Swedish Folk, Eletronica, And Rock.
Their songs are not just about Swedish folktales, but they also songs about Sweden’s history and current events. Unlike a lot of other bands here, I do want to say Garmarna’s music is dark most of the time (Nothing over the top).
Also, Their song Herr Mannelig has over 50 million listens on Youtube. So they are pretty popular. I am also seeing them in concert next year.
