2015 is coming to an end, and what a year it’s been!
Wow, there’s been so much fantastic new music from the Nordic countries that we don’t know where to start! Last year we decided to celebrate the fantastic videos being made by our favourite Nordic artists by running the first edition of the Ja Ja Ja Music Video Awards, and this year, we thought, why not do it all again?!
Let’s have a look at some of the most outstanding Nordic videos of 2015!
Best skating skills of 2015
Hey Elbow – ‘Rael’
Who rides those disco roller skates the best?! Hey Elbow from Sweden of course! They proved that have VERY impressive roller-skating skills in the video for their latest single ‘Rael’. Rolling around Malmö to the sound of a fabulous track like the cool kids they are – Liam, Ellen and Julia are definitely the 2015 pros of roller-skating!
Best behaved butterflies of 2015
Aurora – ‘Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)’
There’s no doubt that 2015 has been the year of Norway’s super talented Aurora! As if hit singles, shout outs from Katy Perry and touring across Europe weren’t enough, it turns out that Aurora also has a good hand for taming butterflies!
Yes, proof can be found in her video for ‘Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)’ – a beautiful black and white video featuring Aurora and some very well behaved butterflies, all soundtracked by an outstanding acoustic rendition of her song!
Best ‘Ode to a Green Plant’ of 2015
Lisa Alma – ‘Fern’
Lisa Alma from Denmark unveiled a striking video for her track ‘Fern’ this year, prominently featuring a very healthy green plant in many of the video scenes and in the background. Also, how fierce does Lisa look in that white wig? Anyhow, it’s a very well made and beautiful video, and one that absolutely should not be missed!
Best winter sweater of 2015
NEØV – ‘Woollen Pumpkin Shirt’
It’s well known that it can be at bit chilly in Finland at this time of year. Finnish fellas NEØV know what it’s like, and what better way to combat the cold than to write a song called ‘Woollen Pumpkin Shirt’? In search of the owner of a lost orange jumper and with help from some adorable puppies in a beautiful Finnish winter landscape, this video is absolutely brilliant!
Best smashed cake of 2015
Dream Wife – ‘Believe’
Reykjavík trio Dream Wife dropped a video for their bubblegum psychedelic pop-track ‘Believe’ earlier this year and it’s hard not to get in some kind of dancing mode with their hypnotic neo-disco coming straight at you! Apart from a cake about to get smashed, the video is filled with sparkles, bright colours and some serious synchronised dancing!
Best glitterball dancing in a fringed poncho of 2015
Susanne Sundfør – ‘Accelerate’
Who doesn’t love glitter, a fringed poncho and dancing in the light of a glitterball to a massive, cool track?! Susanne Sundfør has got us covered, as always! The Norwegian pop queen released the mind-blowing video for her track ‘Accelerate’ earlier this year – an obvious choice for this year’s edition of the Ja Ja Ja Music Video Awards!
Best food, computers and outer space video of 2015
Mew – ‘The Night Believer’
From the long awaited latest album from legendary Danish band Mew came the track ‘The Night Believer’, for which the band put together an excellent – and somewhat unique – video!
Take some eggs, fruit and other kinds of food, computer features, screenshots, some graphics, then add a little cosmos here and there and about 1000 Mew fans – and there you have it, ‘The Night Believer’ video! Yep, pretty rad and pretty cool!
Best multiple windows video of 2015
Jaakko Eino Kalevi – ‘Deeper Shadows’
Finland’s Jaakko Eino Kalevi never fails to surprise us. In his video for the track ‘Deeper Shadows’, every scene has a rectangle somewhere in the picture that becomes a window into the next scene of the video, constantly keeping you wondering what will happen next! Some parts are completely off the wall, adding up to become a superb visual experience – just like anything Jaakko does!
Best panorama shoot of 2015
Björk – ‘Stonemilker’
Iceland’s queen of music Björk returned with a long awaited new album earlier this year, so we’ve picked one of the highlights from Vulnicura! The visuals to ‘Stonemilker’ show off a fantastic panoramic view of the Icelandic landscape with one, two and sometimes even four Björks singing and dancing along. Let yourself drift away with the video and sink into ‘Stonemilkers’s great beauty!
Best midnight street dancing of 2015
Seinabo Sey – ‘Pretend’
And wow, what a year it’s been for the magnificent Seinabo Sey from Sweden as well! She’s been taking the world by storm, launching hit after hit and doesn’t seem to plan to stop any time soon… At the end of this summer she released a video for ‘Pretend’, a clip following two girls on a night adventure in the middle of the summer, dancing through the city until the sun rises above the Stockholm skyline again!
Other honourable mentions for videos of the year:
There have been soooo many good videos this year; so we’ve listed some more of the many videos that we thought also had that little ‘extra’! Hope you’ll enjoy them as much as we do!
José Gonzalez – ‘Let It Carry You’
Jonas Alaska – ‘Summer’
Reptile Youth – ‘Arab Spring Break (Part I & II)
Siv Jakobsen – ‘Caroline’
Frida Sundemo – ‘Keep An Eye On Me’
Zara Larsson & MNEK – ‘Never Forget You’
