Abstract
The number of CDs starring Sámi Indigenous musicians from northern Europe peaked from 2000–2010 due to heavy funding from Norway, Finland and Sweden. Government reports argued that funding such Sámi cultural activities fulfilled the Nordic nations’ cultural heritage obligations under several international conventions, including UNSECO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Analysed here as expressions of soft power, the CDs successfully sustained the Sámi historical vocal expression yoik or joik, its creative practices and Sámi languages via a rooted cosmopolitan aesthetic of indigeneity. Through some song lyrics and visually, many CDs—distributed via international music industry channels—also resisted and subverted colonialism-derived relationships that made their funding possible. The article questions whether and how the CDs ultimately worked as an exertion of soft power for the nation states that funded them, and whether said lyrics and visuals fed into geopolitical decolonization or destabilization.
Published Version
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