Juneau singer-songwriter Annie Bartholomew will represent Alaska this Friday in a live song contest for circumpolar artists called Pan-Arctic Vision. It’s similar to the Eurovision Song Contest, which gathers artists from different countries across Europe, but for Arctic nations and cultures.
“When the folks in Norway came up with this concept for Pan-Arctic Vision, they wanted Arctic countries represented, and talk about issues like independence and resource extraction, and bring these bigger issues to the front through art and performance,” Bartholomew said, describing the idea on KTOO’s Juneau Afternoon last week.
Kindred Post in Juneau will host a watch party Friday at 10:30 a.m.
According to Pan-Arctic Vision, the goal is to join people across the Arctic, strengthen connections and build a Pan-Arctic identity through song.
The event started in 2023 and has taken place in Norway, Greenland and Nunavut, Canada. This year’s showcase is in the Faroe Islands, an archipelago of 18 islands between Iceland and Norway.
The event’s Alaska partner is the Anchorage Museum. Bartholomew submitted an application for its call for artists earlier this year.
“You just put your name in the hat for these things and hope you get picked, and then you do, and you just pinch yourself for months, thinking how am I going to capture the Northland in one performance?” she said.
Bartholomew will premier a new song she wrote called Cross Sound Blues. She says it’s a “rowdy old-time tune about fishing.” Long-time collaborator Kat Moore, an Anchorage musician and singer, will join Bartholomew on the Pan-Arctic Vision stage.
Bartholomew’s first record – Sisters of White Chapel – came out in 2023. The folk album was featured on NPR and Folk Alley. Bartholomew has received artist awards from the Rasmuson Foundation and Juneau Community Foundation. She’s currently working on a new album.
Other artists that have represented Alaska in Pan-ArcticVision over the years are Yup’ik artist Byron Nicholai, Bethel-raised musician and Pamyua frontman Stephen Qacung Blanchett and Anchorage’s Quinn Christopherson, an Athabascan and Inupiaq songwriter who won NPR’s Tiny Desk contest.
This year, Bartholomew and Moore will be competing against nine other performers and groups, mostly from the Arctic. One musician is a special guest from Palestine.
PanArctic Vision will stream live from the Faroe Islands Friday morning at 10:30 a.m.
Pan-Arctic Vision will also broadcast live on KTOO 360TV starting at 10:30 a.m. Friday.
