Rita Engedalen & Band
Norway's Blues Queen, Rita Engedalen, is one of the most high-profile female blues artists in Europe.
She is often described as an artist with a unique presence. Engedalen hits listeners right in the soul with her honest lyrics, strong melodies and powerful and sensitive voice. Now she and the band are ready for Notodden Blues Festival 2026.
Rita Engedalen is this time putting aside the popular project Damer I Blues, which she has with Margit Bakken, and is coming to Notodden Blues Festival 2026 under her own name and with her own band. Engedalen is currently working in the studio on what will be a new solo album. Some songs will be released throughout the spring and summer.
It will be very exciting to once again experience Engedalen and the band at Notodden Blues Festival with new songs and old audience favorites in free expression and with full force. It is only for the audience to enjoy themselves wildly.
Rita Engedalen's music and style is a solid mix of American blues, gospel, Norwegian folk music and roots/Americana inspired by music from the American South. Few artists do this as well as Rita Engedalen. This is music that is current and "in the wind". For Rita Engedalen, this is not flirting with what is popular right now. It is a style that Rita has cultivated naturally and with love ever since her first album in 2004. The vast majority of the song material in a Rita Engedalen concert is self-written songs that she performs in her own unique and personal way.
In her concerts, Rita Engedalen gives her audience a mix of high goosebumps factor and infectious rock foot! Rita takes us on a musical journey in the American South that goes beyond the busy highways. She takes us on country roads in areas such as the Appalachians and the Mississippi Delta, with the exciting Hill Country area of Mississippi as her natural musical home.
Rita Engedalen made her debut as a blues artist on record in 2004 with the album "Hear My Song". She has recorded seven albums under her own name and has a remarkable and award-winning career. She received the Spellemannsprisen for the album "Heaven Ain't Ready For Me Yet" in 2006, and received the Notodden Blues Festival's Bluespris in 2010. In 2010, she was also honored with the Rolf Gammleng Prize from the Fond for Utøvende Kunstnere.
Rita Engedalen has an international audience, and won the European blues competition European Blues Challenge in Berlin in 2012. Engedalen is also one of the few Norwegian artists to have headlined a blues festival in Mississippi. This happened in 2015 at the "Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival" in Clarksdale, where she shared the stage with Stax Records legend William Bell.
In 2022, she released her seventh solo album "Sun Will Come", which was nominated for this year's Spellemannpris in the BLUES category the same year. The album received rave reviews both at home and abroad. "Sun Will Come" received airplay on 60 radio stations in the UK, France, New Zealand and the US, garnering great acclaim and being selected as IBBA Album of the Month in 2022.
The Spellemann Prize winner from 2006 received a very positive review for her latest album "Sun Will Come" in Blues News, where reviewer Johnny Andreassen writes the following: "Rita appears more deeply Afro-American and Native American in soul, singing and her blues than ever on the new album. It is a powerful performance where nothing is indifferent or "just entertainment". She has many emotions and a lot of strong blues to share with you on a fantastically strong album". Proud and magical blues, right up there with the best you have heard from the treasure chests up in North Mississippi." An album with a lot of soul, blues, and a Rita Engedalen that Norway only has one of! "
We are looking forward to new music from Rita Engedalen and look forward to her concert at the Notodden Blues Festival 2026.