Fay Wildhagen chose the right time, and the right place, to draw curtains on her 2024 project, Let’s Keep It In The Family.
The award-winning Norwegian singer, songwriter and bandleader waved her “final goodbye to that era” with a headline performance earlier this month at the 2026 Bergtatt Festival, one stacked with songs from Family, her third studio album, and rearranged fan favorites.
There’s more new music to come. “I have a bag full of demos that I’m listening to in the car, and in hotel rooms. I feel like my head is so full of music,” she tells Billboard in a chat at the edge of the mighty Sognefjord fjord.
The next album will be independently released through the Orchard, on Wildhagen’s own label, ending a 10-year partnership with Warner Music Norway.
“It just feels cool to try something new, and just go for it,” she enthuses. “And just give it a real try before I’m done.”
Wildhagen is in sparkling form. Raised in Oslo, the capital, she signed with Warner Music Norway as a 21-year-old and released her Spellemannprisen-nominated debut album, Snow, in 2015. Her sophomore album, Borders, arrived in 2018, opening doors for critical praise and concerts across Europe. Fay produced the 2023 album Møtested – en hyllest til Anne Grete Preus, and collected the Spellemannprisen (the Norwegian Grammys) for producer of the year — a moment that touched something deep inside.
“I cried when they gave it to me,” she recounts. “Nobody quite understands how much time goes into the writing, and the producing, just making and recreating sounds, turning and tossing them around, and trying things. For hours and hours and hours.” Getting recognized for the work that few people see, “yes, I cried a lot.”
Family was a seven-year itch. “It took time for me to find the right path for it. And find the home for it,” she recalls. “And also, it needed a lot of courage to write it properly, honest and true.”
On Family, she wrote, produced and arranged all 15 songs and its instruments, with the exception of the first single “Reason,” which was co-written with Øystein Greni, frontman and main songwriter of the Norwegian rock band Bigbang.
Fay Wildhagen and Billboard’s Lars Brandle at 2026 Bergtatt Festival
Ingrid Marie Slettemoen
With the studio calling this year, Wildhagen took a detour to enjoy the Bergtatt experience. The journey was something else. With her partner, Wildhagen drove from Oslo, 220 miles to the south, completed hair-raising mountain passes, all of it to tick-off that bucket-list item.
The boutique fest in Luster, Western Norway, presented on the banks of the epic fjord and surrounded by striking, snow-capped mountains, just might be most picturesque setting for a live music event, anywhere.
“It’s been a dream to come here for many years,” she tells Billboard. “It has never fit the schedule, so it’s never just been right.” The festival “is one of these things that I’ve always wanted to do. It’s really amazing.”
