On Thursday 10 December the ballad singer August Selnes takes over Håkonshallen with guitar, harmonica and a large repertoire of original and inherited songs.
August Selnes captures the room with a performance that is just as powerful as it is understated. With an insistent conviction he serves up melancholically beautiful, hysterically funny and tension-filled stories – conveyed through the voice, the guitar and the harmonica. He needs no further framing.
When Selnes played at Vill Vill Vest festival in 2025, Petter Lønningen in Bergens Tidende wrote that he delivered «perhaps the festival's best concert so far», and gave the concert a top score. The reviewer particularly highlighted Selnes' distinctive ability to unite humour and music:
«He has the timing, the self-irony and the presence needed to hold attention, whether he is talking or playing.»
Those who come to a Selnes concert might perhaps expect a ballad singer in the classic sense: warm and cosy, with sentimental and morally uplifting lyrics. Instead they meet an artist who conveys questions rather than answers. The lyrics move effortlessly between the intimate and everyday and the grand and existential – always with a distinctiveness that makes the listener believe him.
In addition to an ever-growing repertoire of original songs, Selnes puts his personal stamp on both Norwegian and international song treasures. He likes to bring out songs from the Norwegian musical heritage, and is also an enthusiastic translator of English song lyrics.
– We have a rich Norwegian song tradition that seems to be increasingly forgotten, Selnes himself has said.
In August 2026 the long-awaited debut album Gjennom veggen arrived. The record quickly received very positive reviews, among others from Dagens Næringsliv, Dag & Tid, Øyvind Rønning and Dust of Daylight. When Selnes played at Håkonshallen during Bergenfest, the concert received five out of six hearts in Bergens Tidende.
On Thursday 10 December August Selnes returns to the historic setting of Håkonshallen – with new songs, old treasures and stories that linger in the room long after the last note.
