Here are the nominees for the 2026 Nordic Council Music Prize

May 19th 2026
The thirteen nominated works from across the Nordic Region span a wide range of genres and forms of expression. What they all have in common is a high degree of innovation and artistic quality.

This year’s nominations invite deeper engagement and reflection within a broad and exceptional musical landscape where tradition and renewal merge. The nominated works range from a children’s opera to film music, classical, pop and jazz, as well as field recordings, modern interpretations of East Greenlandic drum dancing and the North Sámi joik tradition, blended with electronic soundscapes. Among the nominations is also something as unusual as a musical work entirely without sound, in which people express the music through movement and facial expression.