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UNOFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY OF MARI BOINE

Photo:See link to Samimusic at frontp.

Mari Boine was born in 1956, out of the deep of North Sami Native Culture, and gave her a heritage which make the her the strong voice of the northern people in Scandinavia. Her childhood was spent in the small village of Gámehhisnjárga, not far from the sami cultural center of Karasjok, Finnmark.(North of Norway).

Her first musical experience came from the Laestadian movement, a strong influenced Christian movement among the Sami people. Their pietic psalms filled some gap between the traditional sami joik and the Norwegian folkmusic.

Mari Boine's roots in the Ethnic native Sami "joik" , together with the Christian influences have, beside of her adopting of jazz, rock and native music from all over the world, made her one of today's really unique artists.

She was met with resistance from her own at first, due to the opposition she made against the traditional ways of Sami Culture under Norwegian colonization, and the traditional women's roll, but now Mari Boine give the inspiration to most of her people, and crushes the myths about Norwegian bending the Sami, and the problems towards the Norwegian society. The history of Norwegian domination and injustice are not spoken easily about even today, and somehow it's being silenced and even denied of some Norwegians.

The understanding of both Norwegian and Sami Native Society, and it's internal and external conflicts, has made Mari Boine a great ambassador of her outspring and people. She is a strong personality and a woman with unbended will, and most of the time she has been working with her own music....created the best ethnic music there is to find in Norway today.   Her audiences outside Norway, in Europe and even in USA , has increased the last two years, and her work is something to give her respect for. The high number of fans and visitors to her concerts is enough evidence of that.

The first international released album was "Gula -Gula", recorded in 1989, released by Real World Records. The third album "Eagle Brother" made a Norwegian Grammy in 1994,  after it's release at spring 1993. Her band plays a variety of ethnical and traditional instruments beside of the electronically one's. Some of the instruments in use are the violin, bass, keyboard, guitar, Native American flutes, strings, and ethnic drums.

When the journalists meet Mari Boine today, she tells that she loves to be at the scene, and if anyone want to make a "home- with interview" with her, they are welcome to do it at the stage, because that is , in some ways her home. She says that she has developed alot these 16 years as an artist and feel the connection between her and her public when she performs at stage, the magic between her and the public can't be remade in any studio.. .

She feels that the new concert album has caught a kind of magic, which is impossible to create in a studio. It's about something that happen between the present audience, me and the Band, and it's something we appreciate very much.She feel more secure now than when she began as an performer, and this make the experience of having a live audience very special.

The making of this record was done in Germany, among other places, and Mari Boine has a very good experience with the German public. She is traveling alot, and everywhere in the countries she travels, she always meet a warm and great response.

In not so long, she will again go to Germany, England, and Czech Republic, were she will perform in alot concerts. The 12.th of December she will hold a concert in Oslo, Norway.

Mari Boine will stand as the future artist of ethnic music world wide, and she is and will be the one spirit of fire , which will burn in many people's mind for a long time into the future.

She is the cultural identity of the Native people of the world, one voice and mind that refused bending knees for anything or anyone.   

1996