Hans Per Rotmo (born 10 March 1948) is a Norwegian singer and songwriter, known by most Norwegians as the leading figure of 1970s
folk-rock band
Vømmøl Spellmannslag,
and also known as the writer of hit songs like "Fire fine lænestola" and the Christmas tune "Vårres jul". Rotmo sings in his own dialect, from the municipality of
Verdal
Verdal is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Innherad region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Verdalsøra. Some villages in the municipality include Forbregd/Lein, Lysthaugen, Stiklest ...
.
He was a supporter of the revolutionary communist movement
AKP(m-l)
The Workers' Communist Party ( no, Arbeidernes Kommunistparti, AKP) was a Norwegian communist party (1973–2007). AKP was a Maoist party and one of two communist parties in Norway; the other was the older Communist Party of Norway which had rema ...
in his younger years, and many of the lyrics of his songs, especially those from the Vømmøl period, are influenced by the thoughts of
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
and
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
, although the surface content of most of these songs concern the population of rural Norway, the industrial progress that followed
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, and the effects of the latter on the former.
References
Norwegian male singers
Norwegian songwriters
1948 births
Living people
{{Norway-singer-stub