One of Norway's most prominent folk singers, Lillebjørn Nilsen, passed away on Saturday, January 27.
Not only was Nilsen one of the most central voices in the song wave that emerged in the 1960s, he was among the first Norwegian artists to perform music from traditions other than Western.
- Lillebjørn Nilsen celebrated multiculturalism long before the Norwegian public even managed to recognize it. "He was an early adopter of songs that had come to Norway through migration, and thanks to Lillebjørn, the song 'Chitta Kokker Banere te' from Punjab province became known to the Norwegian public as early as the 1970s, but then as the song 'Hane På Taket'," says Khalid Salimi, director of Melahuset and Melafestivalen
Published on January 29, 2024