Kong Harald V left us on Friday 28 August 2026. He was 89, Europe’s oldest monarch, and he had reigned for thirty-five years — the first prince born in Norway in 567 years, the sailor who carried the flag at Tokyo in 1964, the world champion on the water in 1987, the king who opened the Lillehammer Games in 1994 and the new Opera House in 2008.
This week’s twelve tracks are not a playlist about monarchy. They are a playlist about the man: the sea he raced on, the Sámi north he stood for, the songs his family smuggled into the Palace when they wanted to make him smile, and the anthem sung at Nidaros Cathedral when he and Sonja were consecrated. Music is how Norway said thank you.
He waited nine years to marry the woman he loved, so there is Grieg’s “Jeg elsker dig” — I love thee. He quoted Leonard Cohen in his New Year’s speech — “there is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in” — so there is Anthem. He watched cowboy films with his granddaughter on the royal ship, so there is Morricone. He was a sailor, so there is a lighthouse on the coast. And there is Sissel Kyrkjebø, the voice he loved above most, singing the three songs she sang for him on his 88th birthday.
Listen, in order, as a single quiet hour. It is what golden hour sounds like when a country says goodbye to its king.
Sissel Kyrkjebø — Kjærlighet
The song Sissel sang first at the secret Palace concert for his 88th. The King made her a Knight of St. Olav’s Order in 2006; she has been Norway’s voice at royal moments for four decades. “Kjærlighet” — love — is the door into this set.
Edvard Grieg — Jeg elsker dig (Op. 5, No. 3)
Barbara Bonney sings Grieg’s most direct love song. Harald waited nine years to marry Sonja Haraldsen; this is that waiting, in four minutes and under.
Kari Bremnes — Sangen om fyret ved Tornehamn
A lighthouse keeper’s song from one of Norway’s finest voices — the coast, the weather, the vigil. For the man who loved the sea and the country that gave him the sea.
Jahn Teigen — Optimist
The third song Sissel sang at the birthday — Teigen’s great, grinning anthem of stubborn hope. “I stand in darkness and glimpse the light in the distance.” That was Harald, through illness and storm.
Mari Boine — Gula Gula
The Sámi voice that carries the north. Harald was president of WWF Norway for twenty years and travelled to indigenous peoples in the Amazon; his Norway always included the Sámi.
a-ha — Summer Moved On
The biggest Norwegian band in the world, at their most tender. Summer moved on in August 2026, and Norway’s pop royalty sings the season away.
Sissel Kyrkjebø — Se ilden lyse
“Fire in Your Heart” — the anthem of Lillehammer 1994, written for the Games Harald opened. If one song says “Norway in the 1990s”, it is this.
Ennio Morricone — The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Main Theme)
Because the King watched cowboy films with his granddaughter on the royal ship — the picture of a man who was never too royal for a good western.
Jan Garbarek — Molde Canticle (Part 1)
Norwegian jazz at its most austere and beautiful — ECM’s Nordic sound, a canticle for the coast town of Molde. Something to breathe to.
Leonard Cohen — Anthem
The song Harald quoted at the Norwegian people from the Palace on New Year’s Eve: “Forget your perfect offering / There is a crack in everything / That’s how the light gets in.” A king who opened the year with Cohen is a king worth remembering.
Sissel Kyrkjebø & Russell Watson — Bridge Over Troubled Water
The second song from the birthday concert. Sissel and Russell Watson sang it together at Oslo Spectrum in 2002 — the bridge that carries you when the water is rough. The King knew rough water; he crossed.
Oslo Filharmoniske Kor — Kongesangen (Gud sign vår konge god)
The royal anthem, sung by the choir of the city where he lived. On the streaming set it plays the version recorded at Nidarosdomen — the cathedral where he and Sonja were consecrated in 1991. “God bless our king.” That is how the hour ends.
Listen: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaSCTeQidj38
Takk for alt, Majestet.
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