This year proved especially prolific for the Icelandic music scene. New releases from established artists such as Dr. Gunni, Ólöf Arnalds, Hildur Guðnadóttir (with her project Osmium), and Ólafur Arnalds arrived alongside striking debut works by emerging artists Rakel and Emma.
Creative partnerships were a defining feature of the year. Collaborative albums by Benni Hemm Hemm and Bára Gísladóttir, as well as Ingibjörg Elsa Turchi and Hróðmar Sigurðsson, claimed their own space and highlighted the transformative power of artistic collaboration.
Meanwhile, influential bands with a growing international following—such as Oyama and Gróa—continued their momentum, delighting listeners with a new single and a new album, respectively.
This playlist gathers the Iceland Review team’s favourite Icelandic songs of 2025. While it captures many highlights, it represents only a fraction of the year’s musical activity. For more, explore our coverage of the year’s major music events and music-related news.
Below is our playlist, accompanied by track-by-track commentary.
Oyama – “The Bookshop”
Inspired by stories and reading, the song takes you on a road trip where adventure is intertwined with contemplation. As the collective is currently working on a new album, we can expect more pleasant surprises from them in 2026.
Dr. Gunni – “Beaujolais” (Botnlaus bröns & búbblur)
Imagine spiky riffs of Buzzcocks’s debut EP “Spiral Scratch” augmented with the halo of psychedelicised American alternative rock circa 1991 (read The Smashing Pumpkins). Despite familiar references, each Gunni’s release has a very individual artistic touch.
Gróa — “Ugh” (Drop P)
Started as The Slits-esque post-punk project in 2017, sisters Karólína and Hrafnhildur Einars Maríudóttir, together with their childhood friend Fríða Björg Pétursdóttir, began experimenting with sophisticated time signatures, shamanic vocals, and improvised lyrics. Disobedient stoner “Ugh” comes from the band’s latest record Drop P.
Benni Hemm Hemm and Bára Gísladóttir — “Dos Voces” (GUFA)
Creative collaborations are natural in Iceland. Both Benni Hemm Hemm and Bára Gísladóttir have a rich scope of work as solo artists. Yet, GUFA, recorded at and named after the industrial area of Gufunes, presents a different dimension of their music.
Clocking in at nearly eleven minutes, “Dos Voces” features merely a dialogue of distant vocals, gradually suffused in the dense fog of drone ambient. A captivating and one of the most mysteriously-sounding releases of the year.
Ólafur Arnalds — ‘A Dawning’ (A Dawning)
Another composer whose music spread far beyond Iceland is Ólafur Arnalds. His most recent release is a collaboration with the late Eoin French, an Irish musician also known as Talos.
Impressionistic, transparent and poignant, the composition summons a skyline where a sunbeam radiates through the silver clouds, suggesting a glimpse of hope.
Emma — ‘Hide’ (Halidome)
Having emerged from the Músíktilraunir talent competition, four-piece collective Emma revolves around the creative partnership of brothers Sindri Snær Ómarsson and Breki Hrafn Halldóru Ómars. One of the tracks from their debut Halidome, ‘Hide’, is not short of expressive means.
What starts as bucolic folk gradually develops the force of a storm akin to Apocalyptica and the Ágætis Byrjun-era Sigur Rós.
Osmium — ‘Osmium 4’ (Osmium)
Hildur Guðnadóttir is well-known for her impeccably intense film music. Everyone has goosebumps when watching the scenes of Chernobyl or Women Talking, accompanied by her music.
An equally intense side project of the composer, Osmium, also features like-minded experimentalists James Ginzburg, Sam Slater and Indonesian vocalist Rully Shabara.
Rakel — “11:11” (A Place To Be)
Hailing from Akureyri, Rakel brings into Icelandic songwriting an intimacy that is unpolluted with cliches. “11:11” is taken from the artist’s debut album A Place To Be, recorded on a farm in Staður, North Iceland. The name of the location simply means “place” in Icelandic. Such simplicity defines Rakel’s album, emanating purity and passion at once.
Ólöf Arnalds — Heimurinn Núna (Spíra)
Those interested in Icelandic popular music are, of course, familiar with folk songwriter Ólöf Arnalds. The artist’s style, defined by stripped-down arrangements, soft-spoken vocals, and lyrical storytelling, is recognisable and inimitable.
Released on venerable UK label Bella Union, Arnalds’s fifth album Spíra (‘Sprout’ in Icelandic) takes one back to the phantasmagorical worlds of her previous work—2013 record Sudden Elevation and even 2009 debut Við og Við.
Sandrayati – “Forward” (INHABIT)
Indonesia-born and Iceland-based Sandrayati Fay has been producing music for eight years, with her two most recent full-length albums recorded in her new home.