The Best Indonesian Music | A Top 12
If you look at the countries along maritime trade routes, you can notice many interesting things. Today, my interest is cultural exchange. And countries like
We all know how important oral traditions have been in preserving history, culture and literature. Take, for example, Greek classics and Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry.
These oral traditions hold a special place in Indigenous cultures because they make knowledge part of everyday cultural life. Their repeated performance helps strengthen cultural identity and keep traditions relevant across generations.
And when oral knowledge becomes musical as a melody, chanting and singing, it becomes part of a community’s musical tradition. This can be seen in Indigenous vocal traditions such as Māori waiata, Mongolian throat music and Sámi joik.
For the Sámi people, joik became a way to express and evoke people, animals, places and experiences. And although joik remains an important part of Sámi music, Sámi musicians have also redefined the music.
Over time, they have fused Sami joik music with folk, rock, electronic music, hip-hop and other genres. That’s why Sámi music is now much more than traditional joik.
Now, I will discuss Famous Sami singers and to show how Sámi music is still relevant today!
Since I want to show the diversity of Sami joik music, I will categorize the music using different genres and will discuss related top Sami musicians.
Mari Boine is a Norwegian Sámi singer and songwriter. She is world-famous for fusing Sámi joik with contemporary folk, rock, jazz for global music fans. She began her career in the 1980s, with her debut album Jaskatvuođa maŋŋá.
Her major breakthrough came with Gula Gula, a famous Sami world music album from 1989. It was the earliest album which brought Sami music to world music. Following the success, she came up with albums, like Goaskinviellja, Leahkastin, Eight Seasons and In the Hand of the Night.
The success of above Sami joik music albums took her to international tours and collaborations. She did a cameo in Jan Garbarek’s two albums. And she was part of Peter Gabriel’s One World One Voice project in 1990.
She won the Spellemann Award for Goaskinviellja in 1993 and the Nordic Council Music Prize in 2003. In 2017 she was given the Spellemann Honorary Award.
Gabba is a Sámi-Norwegian band, which is led by John André Eira, a yoiker musician from Finnmark. Eira as a solo singer had already released an album and he also won the joik category at the Sámi Grand Prix.
The idea behind making Gabba band by Eira and fellow musicians was to fuse joik with their backgrounds in folk and other contemporary music.
And the fusion is apparent in their music that has traditional joik alongside blues, Norwegian folk, Americana, jazz and world-music.
The band released its self-titled debut album, Gabba, in 2022. Since then, they have released multiple singles. One of the singles, “Horagállis” is a collaboration with actor and singer Stig Dogg for the HBO series Utmark.
The band’s latest album, Smestániá, came in 2025 and it mixes Sami joik music with folk, hip-hop, blues and African music.
Marja Mortensson is one of the youngest South Sámi singers from Svahken Sïjte, a reindeer-herding district in Norway. She sings traditional South Sámi joik music in her South Sámi language.
She came up with her debut album, Aarehgïjre, in 2017. Her second album, Mojhtestasse, came in 2018. She has followed those with three more Sami joik music albums.
She won the Spellemannprisen, Norway’s prestigious music award, for Mojhtestasse in the folk and traditional music category.
Sami musicians have a knack for making great fusions. And their fusion of Sami joik with indie folk, rock guitars, drums and electronic music needs no introduction. Adjágas and SomBy are also some of the top Sámi-language rock bands. Let’s talk about them and more!
SomBy is a Finn Sámi rock band from Finnish Lapland. The band plays Northern Sámi-language melodic pop-rock with contemporary rock arrangements.
Although the band was in existence for 5 years, it got major recognition for the song, “Ii iđit vel”, and it won the Sámi Grand Prix. The same song also won Liet International, a European competition for music in minority languages.
Their debut EP, Čáhppes Lasttat, came in 2008. And the first full-length album Álás Eana came in 2010, and later the second album, Viimmat.
Adjágas is a Norwegian Sámi music band with two by Lawra Somby and Sara Marielle Gaup, two North Sámi joik performers. The best thing about their Sami joik music is that they write original joiks rather than traditional lyrics.
And they fuse that joik music with indie folk, psychedelic folk, blues, rock and ambient music. Their debut album, Adjágas, came out in 2005. And they followed that with the second album, Mánu Rávdnji, in 2009.
Adjágas is one of the few Sami musicians who has performed at the Glastonbury Festival’s Pyramid Stage.
Tiina Sanila is a Skolt Sámi singer-songwriter from Sevettijärvi, Finnish Lapland. She performs rock and pop-rock in Skolt Sámi, an endangered Sámi language.
She came up with the first debut album, Sääʹmjânnam rocks!, in 2005, a first album in Skolt Sámi language. She came up with the second album, Kåʹllkueʹll še måttmešt tålkk, in 2007.
Apart from music, Tiina Sanila-Aikio was the first vice-president of the Sámi Parliament of Finland from 2012 to 2015. She also was the first woman to hold the presidency until February 2020.
Sámi musicians have also experimented with joik music into ambient, electronic and cinematic music. Frode Fjellheim took the music mainstream by creating the joik opening song for Disney’s Frozen movie.
Wimme Saari is a Sámi yoiker who mixes traditional Northern Sámi joik with experimental music. His becoming a Sami yoik musician is interesting. It’s because while working on musical archives, he found recordings of his uncle. And those recordings made him pursue music.
However, his unique sound came after collaborating with Tapani Rinne, a Finnish saxophonist. Their music improvises joik with techno rhythms, jazz and electronic music.
Over the years, he has released multiple albums. Wimme, Gierran, Cugu, Bárru and Mun are some of his best Sami music albums.
Sarri was given the Áillohaš Music Award, a prestigious Sámi music prize, for his contribution to Sámi music. His album Mun, won the Teosto Prize, a top award in Nordic countries.
Frode Fjellheim is a South Sámi musician and joik performer from Norway. He plays piano and fuses Sámi joik music with jazz, electronic music, folk and classical composition.
In 1992, Fjellheim founded the Jazz Joik Ensemble, which later became Transjoik. That band used to blend traditional joik with jazz improvisation and electronic music. Saajve Dans, Mahkalahke, Meavraa and Uja Nami are some of the albums under Transjoik.
Later, he released some solo works that include Aejlies Gaaltije – The Sacred Source and Biejjien Vuelie – Solkvad. Both of these albums have South Sámi joik with Christian liturgical music, Sámi, Latin and other European music.
One of his joik compositions, “Vuelie” became the opening musical of Disney’s Frozen. Over the years, he has been given prestigious awards like Spellemannprisen, the Hilmar Prize, among others.
Sámi hip-hop is no different from other fusion of Sami music. And there are many Sami hiphop artists who talk about social issues in Indigenous languages. Amoc raps in Inari Sámi, Áilu Valle raps in Northern Sámi and Finnish, and SlinCraze mixes Sámi with Norwegian.
There’s also a music documentary, Rap and Reindeer, about a Sámi rapper Mihkku Laiti as he weighs his future against his family’s tradition of reindeer herding. And for more such stories, check out the best music documentaries.
Amoc, whose real name is Mikkâl Antti Morottaja, is an Inari Sámi rapper from Inari. He is credited for rapping in Inari Sámi, an endangered language with only a few hundred native speakers. Amoc was the first Sami singer to release a rap single and a full-length album.
Amoc’s rap style is sort of horror rap, where he tells dark stories about monsters, death, horror and Sámi mythology. So his lyrics are not mainstream but more about fantasy and disturbing narratives.
Before releasing his debut album, Amok-kaččâm, he only had a single, Šaali, to his credit. Since then, he has only released singles and continues to do so.
Maxida Märak is a Swedish-Sámi rapper, singer, joik performer and activist from Sweden. She mixes hip-hop, heavy electronic beats and traditional Sámi joik with lyrics that talk about Indigenous identity, land rights and environmental issues.
She released Mountain Songs and Other Stories with the Downhill Bluegrass Band. Her solo albums include Utopi and Anekdot, Lanat, among others. She has just released her latest album, Ögonblick, in October, 2026.
One of her notable collaborations was “Eanan,” with the Canadian Indigenous electronic and hip-hop group A Tribe Called Red.
Apart from music, Märak is also an activist. She has taken part in protests for social issues and Sámi land rights.
Since Märak is from Sweden, here are some Scandinavian movies that also feature her country.
Sami music is a great example of how a culture can keep its traditions alive while experimenting with new ideas. Joik is an integral part of Sami music, but famous Sami singers are not limited to one style. They can use traditional vocals in a rock song, experiment with electronic sounds or experiment through hip-hop.
What makes Sami music interesting is that the Sami musicians also express their culture, languages and concerns through music. And whichever genre from folk, rock or rap, or electronic you like, you will find a relevant work of music.
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