Here are the nominees for the 2026 Nordic Council Music Prize

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.

The winner of the 2026 Nordic Council Music Prize will be announced on 20 October. During the Session of the Nordic Council in Helsinki, which takes place in the last week of October, the winner will receive the “Nordlys” prize statuette at a special award ceremony. The prize is worth DKK 300,000.

The Nordic Council Music Prize was first awarded in 1965 and recognises the creation and performance of music of a high artistic standard. The prize is awarded on alternate years to a work by a living composer in one year, and an individual performer or group the next. This year, the prize will be awarded to one work.