Girl in red took the grand slam at this year’s Spellemann

23-year-old Marie Ulven Ringheim, known as girl in red, received awards for Spellemann of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Release of the Year

NTB

On April 22, the prestigious Spelleman music awards were presented for the 50th time. This year’s award ceremony took place in the old bank premises at Sentralen in central Oslo.

When all the awards had been handed out, 23-year-old Marie Ulven Ringheim from Horten stood out as the big winner.

Ringheim is currently on an extensive U.S. tour. Recently, she performed at the prestigious music festival Coachella.

Ringheim has put quite the year behind her after she released her first studio album “if I could make it go quiet” in April last year to rave reviews from critics. In May, she embarks on a major European tour.

Pop from Bergen and rap from the country

Bergen’s pop queen Gabrielle drew the longest straw in the pop category for her fourth studio album “Klipp meg i ti og lim meg sammen.” The 37-year-old has been nominated several times before, but this is her first Spellemann award.

“It feels totally sick. Thank you to everyone who listens to my music,” said the Bergen native from the stage when she received the award.

Newcomer Hagle ran away with the generous prize for Breakthrough of the Year and receives the Gramo scholarship of a quarter of a million kroner.

Hagle is a country-rap duo that consists of André Jensen and Olav Tokerud, who have distinguished themselves by using dialect and references to small-town living. Several of the songs became known through the NRK success “Rådebank,” which depicts the youth car scene in Bø in Telemark.

AURORA continues at full speed globally

Aurora Aksnes, best known as just AURORA, was awarded the prize for International Success of the Year after taking her international career to new heights.

In January, she released her third studio album “The Gods We Can Touch,” which is inspired by Greek mythology.

The Bergen rapper Kamelen received the award for Hip Hop of the Year, while the Kanaan trio received the award in the Rock category for the album “Earthbound.”

Hellbillies were honored

This year’s honorary award went to the country rockers Hellbillies from Ål in Hallingdal.

“More things are still to come from the band, we are not finished yet, there will be more music,” said frontman Aslag Haugen from the stage.

This is the country rockers’ fourth Spellemann Prize. In 2008, they were named Spellemann of the Year. The pandemic put breaks on the band’s 30th anniversary in 2020, and the band spent much of the pandemic working on their 12th studio album “Blå dag,” which was released last fall.

The band won a nomination for the album in the Country category, but this award went to Ole Kirkeng for the EP “Rocking Chair.”

Criticism of the way prizes are awarded

This year’s award ceremony was the subject of criticism from several Norwegian artists as a result of many of this year’s prizes being awarded in advance—and not at the ceremony itself.

Artist Marthe Valle came with harsh criticism in a Facebook post, while the winner of the song and song pop category, Tønes, described the way he was presented with the award as “terribly wrong”. Tuva Syvertsen in Valkyrien Allstars was also critical.

“This is the evening to celebrate the breadth of Norwegian music. It is a shame that it may be felt as if some music is hidden away a bit,” she told Dagbladet.

Stian Malme, who is project manager for Spellemann in NRK, defended the arrangement by arguing that each individual artist consequently gets more exposure than they would otherwise receive.

“All prize awards will be shown on Friday. We will do what we can to achieve something nice for the viewer, and we have tried to lift the artists by spreading it out in several areas throughout the week,” Malme said.