Skip to content

PRESS RELEASES

Mari Boine Tour Announcement

Norwegian Sami Singer and Activist Mari Boine
Returns to the States for a Fall Tour
Mari Boine 2019 Tour Dates
October 2 | Scandinavia House | New York, NY
October 3 | Cedar Cultural Center | Minneapolis, MN
October 5 | Chan Centre for the Performing Arts | Vancouver, Canada
October 8 | Nordic Musem | Seattle, WA
October 10 | The Old Church | Portland, OR
October 15 | Lensic Performing Arts Center | Santa Fe, NM
October 17 | Wardruna w. Maria Boine | Morrison, CO
Norwegian singer/songwriter/activist Mari Boine returns to the U.S. since her 2014 performance, in support of her latest release See The Woman. Boine is also set to perform songs from her entire career, in her native Sami language, in six different U.S. cities with a stop in Vancouver, Canada. The tour will close at the world-renowned Red Rocks on a bill with the celebrated Wardruna.
Almost 30 years have passed since Mari Boine swept music lovers around the globe off their feet. First with her astonishing solo album “Gula Gula” which was released internationally on Peter Gabriel’s famous RealWorld label. For “Gula Gula” Mari received the first of her four “Spellemannsprisen” (commonly referred to as Norway’s Grammy Award). With her exotic voice informed by the long time oppressed shaman culture of the Norwegian Sami, an indigenous people often compared to Native Americans, and her almost trance like folk music, Mari Boine created together with sámi guitarist Roger Ludvigsen (member of Ivnniguin, the first rock band to sing in Sami language), a sound universe of her own.
From the start, Mari Boine has been one of the most outspoken and important representatives of the Sami culture. As an artist and activist, she has worked tirelessly for the recognition and preservation of the indigenous Sami culture, thus inspiring younger generations to be proud of their unique roots.
Today Mari Boine is revered as a truly unique artist whose trajectory led her to release more than a dozen highly-acclaimed solo albums (a digital catalogue will be available for the first time in America and Canada, late August, via Zebralution) and collaborate with stellar Norwegian jazz musicians like Jan Garbarek and Bugge Wesseltoft.ft.
Even though Boine draws heavily on her musical heritage (Christian Lestadian hymn singing, Sami joik chants, and Norwegian folk music), she masterfully blends these influences with modern musical elements from jazz, rock, electronic and pop.
The new millenium saw Boine reaching out to new audiences with a couple of highly original remix albums (“Mari Boine Remixed” in 2001 and “ It Ain’t Necessarily Evil” in 2008) featuring reworks by heavy weights like Bill Laswell, Chilluminati and Nils Petter Molvær, to name a few. In 2009 she broke new grounds on “Čuovgga Áirras/Sterna Paradisea” collaborating with South African musicians and adopting a lighter, more pop-like approach. After a lengthy hiatus Mari Boine returned in 2017 with “See The Woman”, a surprising new album sung, for the first time ever, entirely in English.
“See the Woman” is an album shaped by international cooperation. Most lyrics are from artists descending from Australia, New Zealand, Germany, South Africa and the USA. Mari Boine adapted them from poems, songs and prose texts over a period of several years. It’s a work of art from a female perspective, reflecting the role of women in today’s society. “It’s not like you fight for something, and then it’s done. You have to be awake. The struggle for equality is an ongoing thing”, says Boine. She stresses the importance of the contributions of Maori singer Moana Maniapoto and the three songs by Native American activists and poets John Trudell and Joy Harjo. Songs to be heard on the tour. “I am curious about everything in the world. I feel related to indigenous poets. They have the same fight that we Sami have.”