Iceland’s 10 Best Musicians of All Time

Potentially the most famous musician to come out of Iceland, Björk is weird in the most wonderful of ways. Her performances border on theater, and her music will haunt you for days to come. Born in Reykjavík, Björk has been creating music since age 11. She was the founding member of alt-rock band Sugarcubes before taking off on her own solo projects in 1993. Since then, she’s released nine albums, the most notable being Post (1995), Homogenic (1997), and most recently, Utopia (2017).

Since 1994, Sigur Rós has been filling ears with their avant-rock sounds—music that immediately transports you to a calmer place. They use special instruments like a bowed guitar to produce some of the more otherworldly elements of their music. The bands consists of Jón “Jónsi” Birgisson (vocals and guitar), Orri Páll Dýrason (drums), and Georg Holm (bass). The group has released six albums since 2012, the most popular being their sophomore LP Ágætis Byrjun. 

If you’re listening to Sigur Rós and not watching their music videos, you’re missing out on a big part of the intrigue. The group is known for creating painstakingly detailed videos with beautiful plots. And don’t sleep on the solo work of this band’s frontman, Jónsi. His falsetto sets an ethereal tone that’s much more pop-inspired than the songs of the full group.

Chances are you’ve already heard one of Emilíana Torrini’s songs, even if you’ve never consciously sought one out. The Icelandic singer-songwriter is the voice behind “Gollum’s Song,” which was featured in—you guessed it—The Lord of the Rings (specifically, The Two Towers), and in 2009 she had another hit with “Jungle Drum.” Her songwriting goes beyond her own albums. Torrini helped write Kylie Minogue’s “Slow” and “Someday” off of Body Language. She’s an especially fun musician to keep tabs on, given her raw and genuine sharing of what it’s like to create music. Her album, The Colorist & Emilíana Torrini (2016), is a collaboration with the Colorist Orchestra, a group that reinvents work from well-known musicians around the world using their own musical sensibility. 

Formed in 2010, this five-person group—Ragnar “Raggi” Þórhallsson on vocals, Brynjar Leifsson on guitar, Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson on drums, and Kristján Páll Kristjánsson on bass—has found international acclaim for their catchy folk music. The band is actively touring around the world, and it’s not hard to catch them in major cities around the United States. 

Though Russian by birth, Vladimir Ashkenazy has held Icelandic citizenship since 1972 and is today an important figure in the Harpa Concert Hall community. The Grammy-winning pianist and conductor has performed works by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff, among other masters. He got his start in the world of classical music after performing in the 1955 Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. His recording is Ashkenazy: 50 Years on Decca is a celebration of his longtime partnership with the London record label.

Sóley’s lyrics are powerful, her instrumentals are delicate, and her voice is ethereal. Born Sóley Stefánsdóttir, this musician and composer is a graduate of the Icelandic Art Academy in Piano Arts, skills that are front and center in most of her songs. Her compositions are introspective, incorporating her own fears, thoughts, and hopes. In fact, Sóley’s album Endless Summer was inspired by a note the musician wrote to herself after waking up in the middle of the night: “Write about hope and spring.”

For more than 20 years, GusGus has comprised a rotating cast of band members performing electronic music that’s now been heard around the world. Originally, the group’s intent was to form a film and music collective; the latter won out as a priority, but not before the founding members produced a short film. In 1997, GusGus released their second album, Polydistortion, which helped them achieve recognition outside of Iceland. The fun thing about GusGus is that they incorporate all forms and styles of electronic music—trap, techno, trance—giving it their own spin.

Six months after forming Árstíðir, the band members found themselves at the top of the Icelandic music charts. This was 2008, right after the stock market crashed—meaning the band saw unlikely success in bleak times. Árstíðir made history as the first Icelandic music group to win the Eiserner Eversteiner European Folk Music Award, but it was their spontaneous performance in a German train station while on tour in 2013 that gave them their viral moment. Aside from having some serious talent, they are also super creative. To create their third album, Hvel, the band utilized Kickstarter—offering incentives like lava ash from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption—and the campaign was a raging success.

When you think of music in Iceland, you probably envision some sort of metal show—and that’s is exactly where you’d find Sólstafir, a band with roots in Viking and black metal. Originally founded with four members—Aðalbjörn Tryggvason on guitar and vocals, Halldór Einarsson on bass, and Guðmundur Óli Pálmason on drums—Sólstafir is now a quartet, with Svavar Austmann and Sæþór Maríus Sæþórsson joining on guitar. It was with this group that the band released their first two hits, “Fjara” and “Ótta,” from the Köld album. Later on, Pálmason left the group to be replaced by Hallgrímur Jón Hallgrímsson.