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A YouTube salute to Sami National Day

As Sweden's indigenous Sami celebrate their National Day on February 6th, The Local offers up a few video clips highlighting their unique vocal traditions.

Published: 6 February 2012 16:31 CET
A YouTube salute to Sami National Day

February 6th is Sami National Day, marking the date in 1917 when the first Sami congress was held in Trondheim, Norway.

The holiday became official in 1992, when delegates at the 15th Sami Conference in Helsinki, Finland, passed a resolution calling for Sami National Day to be celebrated annually on February 6th.

The Sami inhabit large parts of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia referred to collectively as Sápmi and the Sami language is one of Sweden’s five officially recognized minority languages.

The Sami have a unique traditional singing style known as joik, thought to be one of the oldest music traditions in Europe.

An undated clip of a Sami man performing a traditional joik

In recent years, a number of Sami artists have also put a new twist on traditional folk music in order to bring it to new audiences.

Sami singer Máddji singing “Iđitguovssu” (Dawn Light) from her album “Beyond” (Sámi: “Dobbelis”)

Sami singer Sofia Jannok, who started performing joiks since she was 11-years-old, sings a “Liekkas” from her 2007 album “White” / Ceaskat.

In 2009, Sami singer Sofia Jannok took things a step further when she translated the Abba hit Waterloo into Sami and performed it as part of the 2009 Melodifestivalen song competition in Skellefteå.

For anyone interested in trying their hand at singing the Sami National Anthem, the following clip provides the melody, while an English translation of the lyrics can be found below.

Far up North ‘neath Ursa Major

Gently rises Samiland.

Mountain upon mountain.

Lake upon lake.

Peaks, ridges and plateaus

Rising up to the skies.

Gurgling rivers, sighing forests.

Iron capes pointing sharp

Out towards the stormy sea.

Winter time with storm and cold

Fierce blizzards.

Sami kin, with hearts and souls

Their lands do love.

Moonlight for the traveller,

Living Aurora flickering,

Grunt of reindeer heard in groves of birch,

Voices over lakes and open grounds,

Swish of sled on winter road.

Summer’s sun casts golden hues

On forests, seas and shores.

Fishermen in gold, swaying

With the golden seas, golden lakes.

Silver Sami rivers gurgling

’round sparkling poles, shining oars.

Singing, men float down

Rapids, great and small,

And waters calm.

Samiland’s people

With unbending strength

Defeated killing enemies, bad trades,

Sly and evil thieves.

Hail thee, tough Sami kin!

Hail thee, root of freedom!

Never was there battle,

Never brother’s blood was spilled

Amongst the peaceful Sami kin.

Our ancestors long ago

Trouble makers did defeat.

Let us, brothers, also resist

Staunchly our oppressors.

Oh, tough kin of the sun’s sons,

Never shall you he subdued

If you heed your golden Sami tongue,

Remember the ancestors’ word.

Samiland for Sami!

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CULTURE

New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday’s death

Fans of the late Johnny Hallyday, "the French Elvis Presley", will be able to commemorate the sixth anniversary of his death with two songs never released before.

Published: 17 November 2023 09:05 CET
New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday's death

Hallyday, blessed with a powerful husky voice and seemingly boundless energy, died in December 2017, aged 74, of lung cancer after a long music and acting career.

After an estimated 110 million records sold during his lifetime – making him one of the world’s best-selling singers -Hallyday’s success has continued unabated beyond his death.

Almost half of his current listeners on Spotify are under the age of 35, according to the streaming service, and a posthumous greatest hits collection of “France’s favourite rock’n’roller”, whose real name was Jean-Philippe Leo
Smet, sold more than half a million copies.

The two new songs, Un cri (A cry) and Grave-moi le coeur (Engrave my heart), are featured on two albums published by different labels which also contain already-known hits in remastered or symphonic versions.

Un cri was written in 2017 by guitarist and producer Maxim Nucci – better known as Yodelice – who worked with Hallyday during the singer’s final years.

At the time Hallyday had just learned that his cancer had returned, and he “felt the need to make music outside the framework of an album,” Yodelice told reporters this week.

Hallyday recorded a demo version of the song, accompanied only by an acoustic blues guitar, but never brought it to full production.

Sensing the fans’ unbroken love for Hallyday, Yodelice decided to finish the job.

He separated the voice track from the guitar which he felt was too tame, and arranged a rockier, full-band accompaniment.

“It felt like I was playing with my buddy,” he said.

The second song, Grave-moi le coeur, is to be published in December under the artistic responsibility of another of the singer’s close collaborators, the arranger Yvan Cassar.

Hallyday recorded the song – a French version of Elvis’s Love Me Tender – with a view to performing it at a 1996 show in Las Vegas.

But in the end he did not play it live, opting instead for the original English-language version, and did not include it in any album.

“This may sound crazy, but the song was on a rehearsal tape that had never been digitalised,” Cassar told AFP.

The new songs are unlikely to be the last of new Hallyday tunes to delight fans, a source with knowledge of his work said. “There’s still a huge mass of recordings out there spanning his whole career,” the source said.

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