Artists

The whole line-up of the XXXI Viljandi Folk Music Festival will be announced in May 2024. 
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Duo Ruut

Estonia
Duo Ruut is an alliance of two good friends with different musical backgrounds and tastes, drawing inspiration from their ancestors' heritage. Playing together on one zither opens up new inventive ways of playing and gives life to their minimalist and fresh music.
During a short period of time Duo Ruut have already toured around the world and performed at many prominent festivals, including Celtic Connections, Womex, Trans Musicales and Eurosonic. Within the last two years, they’ve played in almost twenty different countries and their music has received a lot of international media attention, such as MOJO, Le Monde, BBC3, The Arts Desk, Songlines etc.

Ann-Lisett Rebane - vocals, zither
Katariina Kivi - vocals, zither

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Florence Adooni

Ghana
It is difficult to stand still when Florence Adooni connects history and modern times with her contagious dance music. The Ghanaian singer is part of her homeland’s thriving Frafra Gospel scene, which was made to be sung standing at a crowded Sunday service, while backed by sweaty clapping. “The queen of Frafra Gospel” mixes this gripping expression with another of Ghana’s strongest and proudest musical traditions: a melodic and rhythmic pulsating highlife, where local Ghanian traditions combine with inspiration from pop, rock and jazz, including lots of festive horns. After all, she was raised in the town of Kumasi, which is known as being the epicentre of the highlife genre.

By the time of Viljandi Folk Music Festival Florence Adooni will release her first full album.
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Gabba

Norway/Sami
Driven to boost and explore the cultural heritage of Sápmi, the band aims to amplify the extraordinary traditional Sami yoik. With Southern Norwegians in his back, the yoik master John André Eira from far north in Mazé, Guovdageaidnu, brings his ancestral legacy and original compositions to Gabba’s music, creating a sound that is both haunting and captivating. In 2023, the band received the Norwegian grammy Spellemannprisen for their debut album entitled "Gabba". Humbled and honored they continue to develop and play their music across the borders. As the band is ambitious in their music, they are in the making of their second album: Vuossárga Luohti, meaning Yoikes on the first day of the week.

John André Eira - vocals, percussion
Ola Brandsnes Vårtun - banjo, keys, backing vocals
Espen Bakke - bass, backing vocals
Christoffer Mietle Furuheim - Guitar, backing vocals
Idar Eliassen Pedersen - trumpet, backing vocals
Marius Trøan Hansen - drums, backing vocals

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Kumbia Boruka

Mexico
The roots of Kumbia Boruka are to be found in Monterrey, the cumbia capital of Mexico and the place where Hernan Cortés, the accordion player and band leader, grew up. He didn’t only learn to play the accordion from the living legend of Mexican cumbia, Celso Piña, but he was also the percussionist in the band of Celso Piña during long international tours.
Besides their own contemporary and festive compositions, the band knows how to bring new flavours to classic cumbias from the sixties, mixing it with influences from reggae, dub, African music and rock, psychedelic electric guitar melodies, an extensive rhythm section and powerful and exciting brass arrangements. The Peruvian cumbia, called chicha, is not forgotten either. The result is a hybrid cumbia, nueva cumbia, with fierce Latin energy that will blow your mind! With three albums and more than 400 shows, Kumbia Boruka has fulfilled his challenge by making the Old Continent vibrate at the emblematic rhythm of Latin America, the Cumbia.
The "Remedio" that Kumbia Boruka offers is an authentic and compelling cure against the evils of our time.

Hernán Cortés - lead voice, accordion
Christian Briseño - lead voice
Tadeo Cortés - congas, guacharaca
Jonathan Cortez Castillo - bass
Miguel Mino - guitar
Cyril Gelly - drums
Clément Buisson - trumpet
Tristan Darphin - trombone
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Singer Vinger

Estonia
It has been confessed At Singer Vinger's public performances, that they are actually a folk music ensemble. There's a grain of truth in every joke – several of their well-known songs are based on folk tunes. For example, "Raha" is a Sami folk tune, while the melody of "Sängiängi öö" originates from Senegal. "Oi ma lällas" is recognizably of South Estonian origin. In December of last year, in the very successful ETV show "Suust suhu" (“From Mouth to Mouth”), the band performed a rather wild rendition of the folk song "Nuttev tamm" (“Sink-sale-proo”) and Hardi Volmer's very powerful performance style added several new and exciting colors to it, sometimes even altering the meaning of the song. Taking all that into account, the festival made a proposal to the legendary Singer Vinger to put together a programme for the XXXI Viljandi Folk Music Festival, featuring both the already known Singer Vinger songs with a folk background and new interpretations of folk songs.

Singer Vinger's predecessor was the punk-parodying band Päratrust (1979), followed by Turist (1983) and then Singer Vinger (1986). Since Turist, the style presented has been neuro-rock, and still is today. The band's hits have become iconic over the years and across generations.

Hardi Volmer – vocals
Mihkel Raud – guitar
Kaarel-Eno Raud – guitar
Rein Joasoo – drums
Eerik Olle – bass
Ülo Krigul – keyboard instruments

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