Snorre Serigstad Valen (born 16 September 1984 in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

) is a Norwegian journalist, musician and former politician from the Socialist Left Party. He served as an MP in the

Storting The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years bas ...

from

Sør-Trøndelag Sør-Trøndelag () was a county comprising the southern portion of the present-day Trøndelag county in Norway. It bordered the old Nord-Trøndelag county as well as the counties of Møre og Romsdal, Oppland, and Hedmark. To the west is the No ...

from

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

, and deputy leader of the party from November 2015 to 2019. Valen previously worked as a communications assistant at NTNU Social Research. In 2020, he became head of the politics section of the newspaper ''Nidaros'' in

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

, Norway.

Early life and education

Valen was born on 16 September 1984, the son of Knut Serigstad, a civil engineer, and Kristin Valen, a social worker. Valen attended Berg elementary school from 1991 to 1997 and Blussovoll lower secondary from 1997 to 2000. He then went to dance and drama at

Trondheim Cathedral School Trondheim Cathedral School ( no, Trondheim katedralskole, Latin: ''Schola Cathedralis Nidrosiensis'') is an upper secondary school located next to the Nidaros Cathedral in the center of Trondheim, Norway. History There is great dispute regarding ...

from 2000 to 2003. He then went to NTNU from 2003 to 2004, and studied state science, international and imperative politics and got a ex.phil in political risk.

Career

From 2007 to 2008 Valen was the head of the short-lived newspaper ''Arbeideravisa'' in

. Valen sat in the Sør-Trøndelag County Council and in Trondheim City Council from 2003 to 2007, and during this period, led the foreign affairs and welfare committees in the county council. After being elected to the Norwegian parliament in 2009, he served as member of the

Standing Committee on Energy and the Environment The Standing Committee on Energy and the Environment ( no, Energi- og miljøkomiten) is a standing committee of the Parliament of Norway. It is responsible for policies relating to petroleum, energy, hydroelectricity, environmental protection and re ...

from 2009 to March 2012. He was the second deputy chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence from April 2012 to September 2013. In February 2011, Valen nominated the website

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international Nonprofit organization, non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous Source (journalism), sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activism, Internet acti ...

for the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...

. In 2013, he nominated Chelsea Manning and

Edward Snowden Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American and naturalized Russian former computer intelligence consultant who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, when he was an employee and su ...

for the 2014 Nobel peace prize, stating that Manning's leaks helped end the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

while Snowden had exposed how the war on terror had led to

mass surveillance Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizati ...

of ordinary people. As an anti-monarchist, Valen consequently refused to attend the yearly royal dinners for parliamentarians. On 20 March 2017, Valen announced that he would not be seeking re-election to Parliament in the September election. On 24 September 2018, Valen announced that he wouldn't be seeking re-election as deputy leader the next year.

Music

Valen is a pianist and singer, has a background in

Nidarosdomens Guttekor The Nidaros Cathedral Boys' Choir (''Chorus Puerorum Cathedralis Nidrosiensis'') is a Norwegian choir in Trondheim, consisting of 76 boys and men as of spring 2008. It represents a tradition of boy and men cathedral choristers in Nidaros Cathedra ...

and has studied music at

Trondheim katedralskole Trondheim Cathedral School ( no, Trondheim katedralskole, Latin: ''Schola Cathedralis Nidrosiensis'') is an upper secondary school located next to the Nidaros Cathedral in the center of Trondheim, Norway. History There is great dispute regarding ...

. From 2004–2008 he played in the band '' Gallery'', and released one record with the group. Later on he became a member of the

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

group Amish 82 and the

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

band Peevish Penfriend. In 2010, he composed the melodies heard at each stop on the then-new Bergen Light Rail network.

References

External links

Snorre Valen's blog

Amish 82

Peevish Penfriend
1984 births Living people Socialist Left Party (Norway) politicians Members of the Storting Journalists from Oslo People educated at the Trondheim Cathedral School 21st-century Norwegian politicians Politicians from Trondheim {{norway-politician-1980s-stub