Ole Paus (born 9 February 1947; full name ''Ole Christian Paus'') is a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

singer, songwriter, poet and author, who is widely regarded as the foremost troubadour of the contemporary Norwegian ballad tradition ( no, visebølgen). During the 1970s Paus was known for his biting social commentary, especially in his ironic and sometimes libellous "musical newspapers" in the form of

broadside ballads A broadside (also known as a broadsheet) is a single sheet of inexpensive paper printed on one side, often with a ballad, rhyme, news and sometimes with woodcut illustrations. They were one of the most common forms of printed material between th ...

in a series of albums titled "The Paus Post". He has later become known for a softer and more lyrical style, and has written some of Norway's best known songs, such as "

Innerst i sjelen "Innerst i sjelen" (Norwegian for "deep within my soul") is a famous Norwegian song by Norwegian artist and troubadour Ole Paus, with music by Örjan Englund and Lars Børke. The song was released on the Kirkelig Kulturverksted record label and ...

" and " Engler i sneen". He has often collaborated with

Ketil Bjørnstad Ketil Bjørnstad (born 25 April 1952) is a pianist, composer and author. Initially trained as a classical pianist, Bjørnstad discovered jazz at an early age and has embraced the emergence of "European jazz". Store Norske Leksikon (in Norwegian) ...

, notably on the "modern suite" '' Leve Patagonia''; he has later collaborated with

Kirkelig Kulturverksted Kirkelig Kulturverksted (KKV) is a Norwegian company and record label, founded in 1974 by Erik Hillestad. Among the musicians who have issued records on the label are Ketil Bjørnstad, Kari Bremnes, Erik Bye, Ole Paus, Sigvart Dagsland, Bjørn E ...

on several projects, and with his son, the classical composer

Marcus Paus Marcus Nicolay Paus (; born 14 October 1979) is a Norwegian composer and one of the most performed contemporary Scandinavian composers. As a classical contemporary composer he is noted as a representative of a reorientation toward tradition, tonal ...

, notably on the children's opera '' The Witches'', ''

Requiem A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...

'' and several later works. One of his songs, " Mitt lille land", gained wide popularity after the 2011 Norway attacks and was described as "the new national anthem". He has been described as the Norwegian counterpart of

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

and as the "voice of the nation."Ole Paus blev Nationens stemme
/ref> Paus was discovered by artists

Alf Cranner Alf Cranner (25 October 1936 – 3 March 2020) was a major Norwegian folk singer, lyricist and painter, considered by many to be the pioneer of the Norwegian folk music wave of the 1960s. (in Norwegian) (in Norwegian) The citation for the award ...

and

Alf Prøysen Alf Prøysen () (23 July 1914 – 23 November 1970) was a Norwegian author, poet, playwright, songwriter and musician. Prøysen was one of the most important Norwegian cultural personalities in the second half of the 20th century. He worke ...

, and was mentored by

André Bjerke Jarl André Bjerke (30 January 1918 – 10 January 1985) was a Norwegian writer and poet. He wrote a wide range of material: poems (both for children and adults), mystery novels (four of them under the pseudonym Bernhard Borge), essays, and arti ...

Jens Bjørneboe Jens Ingvald Bjørneboe (9 October 1920 – 9 May 1976) was a Norwegian writer whose work spanned a number of literary formats. He was also a painter and a Waldorf school teacher. Bjørneboe was a harsh and eloquent critic of Norwegian society a ...

and

Henny Moan Henny Moan (born 22 February 1936) is a Norwegian actress from Finnmark. She has had a long career in theatre, but is best known for her roles in certain classics of Norwegian cinema, such as the Oscar-nominated '' Nine Lives'' (1957) and '' Lake ...

. Paus is noted for his consistent use of Norwegian and has been eager for other Norwegian musicians to switch from English to Norwegian.

Background

He is the son of General

Ole Otto Paus Ole Otto Paus (26 October 1910 – 6 April 2003), né ''Ole von Paus'', was a Norwegian General, diplomat and NATO official. He was head of the army group in the military intelligence service of the exile Norwegian High Command in London during th ...

and a member of the

Paus The Paus family () is a Norwegian family that first appeared as members of the elite of 16th-century Oslo and that for centuries belonged to Norway's "aristocracy of officials" as priests of the state church, judges and other higher government of ...

family. He is the father of composer

Work

Ole Paus debuted as a singer-songwriter in 1970 and as an author the following year, after he was discovered by

and

, respectively. He was one of the central figures of the so-called '' visebølgen i Norge'', i.e. troubadours in the tradition of

Evert Taube Axel Evert Taube (; 12 March 1890 – 31 January 1976) was a Swedish author, artist, composer and singer. He is widely regarded as one of Sweden's most respected musicians and the foremost troubadour of the Swedish ballad tradition in the 20th ce ...

, Cornelis Vreeswijk and others.

Books

* ''Tekster fra en trapp'' (1971) * ''Det går en narr gjennom byen med ringlende bjeller'' (1974) *''Endelig alene'' (1984) *''Milunia'' (1985) *''Hjemmevant utenfor'' (1994) *''Reisen til Gallia'' (1998) (with

) *''Kjære Kongen'' (2002) *''Blomstene ved Amras'' (2004) *''Isengaard'' (2006) ;Reviews *''Ikke gjør som mora di sier'' (1987) *''For fattig og rik'' (1988) *''Norge mitt Norge'' (1991) *''Sammen igjen'' (1992)

Discography

Albums

(For peak charting positions, se
NorwegianCharts.com
*''Der ute - der inne'' (1970) *''Garman'' (1972) *''Blues for Pyttsan Jespersens pårørende'' (1973) *''Ole Bull Show'' (with Gunnar Bull Gundersen) (1973) *''Zarepta'' (1974) *''Lise Madsen, Moses og de andre'' (with Ketil Bjørnstad) (1975) *''I anstendighetens navn'' (1976) *''

Paus-posten ''Paus-posten'' ("The Paus Post") is a music album by Ole Paus from 1977. It was included in the primary Norwegian singles chart VG-lista for 15 weeks in 1977 and made it to number 6. It was the first of five albums in the format of a musical newsp ...

'' (1977) *''Nye Paus-posten'' (1977) *''Sjikaner i utvalg ''(1978) *''Kjellersanger'' (1979) *''Noen der oppe'' (1982) *''Bjørnstad/Paus/Hamsun'' (with Ketil Bjørnstad) (1982) *''Svarte ringer'' (1982) *''Grensevakt'' (1984) *''Muggen manna'' (1986) *''Stjerner i rennesteinen'' (1989) *''Salmer på veien hjem'' (with Kari Bremnes og Mari Boine)(1991) *''Biggles' testamente'' (1992) *''Mitt lille land'' (1994) *''Hva hjertet ser'' (1995) *''Stopp pressen! Det grøvste fra Paus-posten'' (1995) *''To Rustne Herrer'' (with Jonas Fjeld) (1996) *''Pausposten Extra!'' (1996) *''Det begynner å bli et liv''(1998) *''Damebesøk'' (with Jonas Fjeld) (1998) *''Den velsignede'' (2000) *''Kildens bredd'' (with Ketil Bjørnstad) (2002) *''Tolv Rustne Strenger'' (with Jonas Fjeld) (2003) *''En bøtte med lys'' (2004) *''Sanger fra et hvitmalt gjerde i sjelen'' (2005) *''Hellige natt - Jul i Skippergata'' (2006) *''Den Store Norske Sangboka'' (2007) *''Paus synger Paus'' (2009) *''

Dugnad for Haiti – Live fra Operaen Communal work is a gathering for mutually accomplishing a task or for communal fundraising. Communal work provided manual labour to others, especially for major projects such as barn raising, "bees" of various kinds (see below), log rolling, a ...

'' (2010), with other artists *'' Mitt lille land'' (2011), with other artists *''20 av de beste sangene, vol 1'' (2013) *''Avslutningen'' (2013) *''Sanger fra gutterommet'' (2016)

Songs

I en sofa fra IKEA I, or i, is the ninth letter and the third vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''i'' (pronounced ), plural ...

" *"

" *" Mitt lille land" (Peaked at #4 in

VG-lista VG-lista is a Norwegian record chart. It is presented weekly in the newspaper '' VG''. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continents around the world. The data are collected by Nie ...

Norwegian Singles Chart)

Opera

*''Heksene'' (2007) (libretto)

Filmography

*''Inntrengeren'', (1974) – history of Ole Paus in a TV-series ''Et lite grøss?'' *''Solstreif'', (1980) - as author *''

De blå ulvene ''De blå ulvene'' ( en, "The Blue Wolves"}) is a 1993 Norwegian crime film directed by Morten Kolstad, starring Håvard Bakke, Tommy Karlsen and Viggo Jønsberg. Synopsis Pelle's (Bakke) father (Jønsberg) is behaving strangely, and together w ...

'' as guest (1993) *'' Bikinisesongen'' as Robert (1994) *'' Upperdog'' as Axel's father (2009) ;TV Specials host *''På tide med Ole Paus'' - TV series presenter (1992–1993, produced by Lasse Halberg and Petter Wallace on TV3) *''Hjemme hos Paus'' - TV series presenter with Elsa Lystad (1994, produced by Petter Wallace on TV2) *''Ute med Paus'' TV series presenter (1995 produced by Petter Wallace on TV2)

Honours and awards

Spellemannprisen Spellemannprisen, often referred to as the Norwegian Grammy Awards in English, is a Norwegian music award presented to Norwegian musicians. The award was established by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), an organizat ...

, Årets Viseplate (This Year's Folk Song Album), 1976 *

Gammleng-prisen The Gammleng Award ( no, Gammleng-prisen) is a Norwegian culture award created by ''The Fund for Performing Artists'' in 1982, 25 years after the fund was established in 1957. The award's official name is the ''Rolf Gammleng award to performing art ...

, 1995 * Spellemannprisen, Juryens Hederspris (The Jury's Honorary Award), 1998 * Lytterprisen, 1999 * Alf Prøysens Ærespris, 2001, * Spellemannsprisen, Årets Spellemann (This Year's Spellemann), 2013 * Commander of the Order of St. Olav, 2022

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paus, Ole 1947 births Living people Norwegian artists Norwegian male artists Norwegian male singers Norwegian singer-songwriters Spellemannprisen winners Ole Place of birth missing (living people) Norwegian people of Austrian descent