10 Great Songs about Norway

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10 Great Songs about Norway

10 Great Songs about Norway

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<iframe width="468" height="263" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/gWq6no_MmfA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> <br><br>

<b>Oslo knows, by Maja Vik </b>. Norway's sexiest woman of 2011 celebrates her home town in her breathless Prince-inspired fashion. Somehow this song presents Oslo as both an impossibly cool metropolis and the sort of small town where literally everybody's in the know about Vik's prospective love interests, with the latter probably closer to the truth.

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<b>Norwegian Wood, by The Beatles </b> isn't about a wood in Norway, but about wood from Norway, namely the cheap Norwegian pine decorating the Notting Hill bedrooms of the 1960s, or so The Beatles' Paul McCartney has claimed.

According to John Lennon, the song is about an affair he was having.

"She showed me her room, isn't it good, Norwegian wood? "Photo: YouTube

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<b>Girl in Oslo, by BigBang </b> The Norwegian retro-rockers channel Credence Clearwater Water in this stomping crowd-pleaser from 2000, probably their best-known hit. "Can I talk to the prettiest girl in Oslo? Oh is that you?"

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<b>Danse Norvégienne, by Django Reinhardt </b> was one of the gypsy jazz guitarist's favourite tunes, an improvisation on a work by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. See if you can spot the Norwegian cadences. Photo: YouTube

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<b>Oslo in the Summertime, by Of Montreal </b>. Anyone who's experienced the long days of the Norwegian summer can identify with the sentiment behind this psychedelic piece of electronica from the US indie favourites. "Oslo in the summertime; nobody can fall asleep, staring out the window from my bed."

<iframe width="468" height="263" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ua1FAlHt_Ys" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> <br></br>

<b>The Cabin, by Ylvis</b>. Ylvis's follow-up to their 2013 mega-hit The Fox recasts the spartan traditional Norwegian cabin as a Barry-White-style funky love-den. "And if you like to piss outside. Well this is definitely the place for you". Quite. Photo: YouTube

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<b>Half Past France by John Cale </b>. "Things are much different here from Norway, not so cold," says the narrator as he looks out of train window at the French countryside in this monologue from the Welsh ex-Velvet. The story of an expat deserting his family in Norway might distress Norway-based love migrants. "It's a simple case of them or me".

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<b>Stavanger Töestub, by Half Man Half Biscuit </b> The finale from Cammell Laird Social Club, the 2002 album from Liverpool post-punk band Half Man Half Biscuit. It's basically just swearing. You wonder what unpleasant touring accident led them to celebrate Norway's oil capital in this way.

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<b> Just Like Christmas, by Low </b> The Guardian praises this as a rare indie Christmas songs that works, because the Minnesota rockers "submerge themselves in the spirit" of the festival. They describe a trip from a snowy Stockholm which "wasn't like Christmas at all", to a snowless Oslo which "was just like Christmas". A victory for Norway, surely.

<iframe width="468" height="263" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/E2wuq7wrAQQ?list=PLxJvBh9-61rmOjyMOUDeGV8GBDbB4_zKs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> <br></br> <b>Oslo, by Little Hands of Asphalt </b>. Shur Lyseid depicts a romantic day in Oslo with Belle and Sebastian-like strummy guitar and harmonies. Musically, it's as far from Maya Vik as you can get, but it's basically the break-up version of Oslo Knows. "I'll be seeing you around, because Oslo is a small, small town."

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