This year's winners of TONO's EDVARD prize are Kajsa Balto, ULD, Witch Club Satan, Tine Surel Lange and Aurora Aksnes – and Aurora's co-songwriters Matias Tellez, Fredrik Svabø, Vetle Junker Vik and Magnus Åserud Skylstad. EDVARD is awarded to composers, songwriters and lyricists, and consists of 70,000 kroner and a diploma and a trophy designed by Magne Furuholmen.
/ 15/10/2025 / Kristian DugstadTONO has awarded the EDVARD Prize since 1998. The prize is awarded to TONO members who have distinguished themselves with particularly strong achievements in writing lyrics and music in the previous year.
This year's winners in the award's five categories are now announced:
Popular: Aurora Aksnes, Matias Tellez, Fredrik Svabø, Vetle Junker Vik and Magnus Åserud Skylstad
Contemporary: Tine Surel Lange
Tekst: Kajsa Balto
Open class: ULD
Challenger: Witch Club Satan
The award ceremonies have been held in secret in recent weeks, with one exception, ULD's award ceremony was shown on Dagsrevyen recently. Each category is awarded prize money of 70,000 kroner, as well as a diploma and a trophy designed by composer and artist Magne Furuholmen.
– With the EDVARD Prize, we honor those who create the music we surround ourselves with every day, the songwriters, composers and lyricists. What makes the prize special is that it is awarded by a competent professional jury of people who themselves know what it means to create music. Receiving the EDVARD Prize means that you have truly touched both the audience and your music-making colleagues, says CEO of TONO, Karl Vestli.
The EDVARD Prize is named after Edvard Grieg, and has been awarded annually by TONO since 1998. The prize is awarded to authors who have created musical works and lyrics of high artistic quality. With the prize, TONO wants to increase attention to Norwegian composers and lyricists, and to increase Norwegians' understanding of, and knowledge of, newly written Norwegian music. The winner's music or lyrics must have been premiered or published in the previous year, but emphasis is also placed on the author's other production.
The jury consists of some of the country's most successful and respected composers, songwriters, lyricists and music publishers:
Johanne Flottorp (jury chairman), Thea Hjelmeland, Alexander "Rykkinfella" Austheim, Jan Erik Mikalsen, Agnes Hvizdalek, Maria Stene Brendstrup (music publisher, Propeller, Andrew Smith (composer, music publisher Norwegian Music Publishers) and Kristoffer Magnus Unstad.
Aurora Aksnes, Matias Tellez, Fredrik Svabø, Vetle Junker Vik and Magnus Åserud Skylstad – What Happened To The Heart?
With her fourth studio album, Aurora Aksnes once again confirms why she is one of Norway's greatest export successes in popular music. Aksnes has a special ability to combine captivating melodies with an adventurous and distinctive ability to communicate, which makes her a unique voice on both the Norwegian and international pop scene. On "What Happened To The Heart?" she demonstrates an impressive breadth in her songwriting - she masters both the intimate and the naked, the playful and eccentric, as well as the powerful and the magnificent. The album's sixteen songs are woven together by a consistent lyrical theme about humanity's lost connection to the spiritual, and to each other, in a modern era. The result is an emotionally charged musical journey, and her most personal work to date. She moves effortlessly between different musical expressions and styles, but at the same time manages to gather everything into a solid and well-thought-out work, carried by a clear artistic vision.
Tine Surel Lange – A forest of sound
Tine Surel Lange's compositional project is about the relationship between man and nature. "A forest of sound" represents the forest and plays on the way trees communicate through their roots, here with the cello as the centerpiece representing mother earth. The work takes its time and grows slowly; it is a world you want to be in. The music unfolds in a flora of strings that stretch in flux.
The work has a unique ability to move in the sound of the strings and exploits this to the fullest. "A forest of sound" is made for five strings and an electro-acoustic track and is in three parts with a rhythmic start, an elongated middle part and with the main emphasis towards the end where overtones characterize the soundscape. The score is not notated traditionally, but uses elements of graphic notation, which contributes to a separate sound world and creates a unique soundscape. Tine Surel Lange manages to create a reflective and completely unique expression with this.
She won the Norwegian Composers' Association's Work of the Year award in 2023 with the work "Two Sides of the River" and by winning the Edvard Prize now, Tine Surel Lange confirms that she is a voice to be reckoned with.
Kajsa Balto – Rajas
With the album "Rájás" Kajsa Balto writes with power and passion one of the darkest chapters in Norwegian history. Just a few generations ago, the Sami language and culture were about to be erased, and Sami children were sent to boarding schools far from home. One of these was Balto's father. In her poetic texts, Balto processes her own, her father's, the Sami's, and also the entire country's grief over this dark history.
The titles themselves alone stand as clear descriptions of everything the Sámi people have been through. Jeđđeluohti or Trøstejoik is a beautiful personification of comfort, which returns through every season, to warm your heart, calm your breath, cover your wounds and wake you up from sleep. Kajsa Balto's lyrics depict great emotions such as anger and sorrow with a concrete and natural language, where comparisons are often used. As in the text Ráfáiduvvat, Å falle til ro, where a leaf's journey down the river, where it must give way to the current, is transferred to how the I-person acknowledges and accepts, and finally falls asleep. Kajsa Balto gives a voice to the generations that could not express themselves and has brought out the power they have handed down to those who came after.
Une Lorentze Onarheim, Lucia Andreadatter Utnem and Dagny Braanen Lindgren (ULD) – from another reality
ULD, consisting of Une Lorentze Onarheim on vocals, Lucia Andreadatter Utnem on piano and Dagny Braanen Lindgren on accordion, has during its first year as a trio completed a musical journey that has fascinated both audiences and critics. The unusual instrumental lineup gives the band a completely unique expression that cannot be easily categorized within traditional genres. The trio's experimental approach to improvised music, combined with inspiration from folk, indie, jazz, folk and traditional music, creates a sound that is both intriguing and recognizable.
Their ability to weave together these different musical threads shows a musical maturity that is remarkable for such a young band. Particularly impressive is ULD's dedication to the lyrical work. Through honest and thoughtful lyrics, complimented by well-crafted musical arrangements, they create a whole that touches deeply. The band's respect for Norwegian poetry shows both cultural awareness and artistic ambition. With the release of "fra en andren verkylket" in 2024, ULD demonstrated their potential as one of the most exciting new voices in Norwegian music. With the unique blend of tradition and renewal, ULD is poised to make a lasting impression on the Norwegian music scene for years to come.
Johanna Holt Kleive, Victoria Røising and Nikoline Spjelkavik (Witch Club Satan) – Witch Club Satan
Witch Club Satan has turned several conventions upside down since their first performance at the Northern Norway Festival in 2022. The black metal trio, consisting of Johanna Holt Kleive, Victoria Røising and Nikoline Spjelkavik, has in a short time managed to breathe new life into their genre, and created a furor and debate both nationally and internationally. In 2024, we finally got the opportunity to hear Witch Club Satan on record, when the band released their self-titled debut album on Women's Day on March 8. The trio has received a lot of attention for their spectacular and groundbreaking concerts, but the music also makes an indelible impression on its own. The listener is encapsulated in a cool and barren musical landscape filled with sharp guitars, brutal drums and intense vocals that go straight to the spine. Song titles like "Fresh Blood, Fresh Pussy", "I Was Made by Fire" and "Black Metal Is War" testify to a band that manages its musical heritage with sensitivity, while also pointing a blunt and disrespectful middle finger at the established.
TONO provides music creators with an economic basis to create new music, and collects and simplifies the licensing of protected music to music users.
The organization was founded in 1928, and is a non-profit cooperative owned and controlled by authors (composers and lyricists) and music publishers, and which, on their behalf, manages the economic copyrights in the music they have created. TONO grants permission for the use of protected music on radio, TV, the internet, concerts and cinema for a fee, and transfers its financial results each year to the rights holders in music that has been played in public. TONO has more than 44,000 members in Norway, but also works for millions of authors and music publishers from around the world.
CONTACT:
Willy Martinsen, Communications Director at TONO, email: willy.martinsen@tono.no, mobile 909 65 254