News

The annual Eurosonic Noorderslag (ESNS), Europe’s most important showcase festival and conference, will take place next year on 14–18 January in Groningen, the Netherlands, celebrating the event’s 40th anniversary. This time, the “focus country” will be all of Europe, with a special European area coordinated in its honor. The festival announced its first artist from Estonia, presented by Radio 2: mariin k.

mariin k. is a dream-pop project started independently by guitarist and songwriter Mariin Kallikorm, which has since grown into a full band. It is music of dreams, created for fellow dreamers. Alongside Kallikorm, the band includes guitarist Paul Sild (formerly of Badass Yuki and Tallinn Daggers), drummer Christofer Nõmm and bassist Art Ainsoo (both also members of the punk band Keskkool and the slacker grunge group Buzhold). Originally from Ida-Virumaa, Kallikorm has been a member of trip-hop legend Tricky’s band since 2019 and is also part of the London-based group Wyldest. In 2023, she won the ADM band competition, which supported the release of her debut EP “in your mind”. In August 2024, the label Seksound released their first single “beach” together with a music video. The band’s debut full-length album “rose skin” was released this year.

For the 2025 program, three Estonian artists were selected: Tuulikki Bartosik with Sander Mölder, Hanakiv, and Night Tapes, the latter of whom also won the Music Moves Europe Awards (MME Awards). In previous years, Estonia has been represented by artists such as Tommy Cash, NOËP, Trad.Attack!, Maarja Nuut, Ewert & The Two Dragons, Ingrid Lukas, Erki Pärnoja, IVI, Duo Ruut, OOPUS, Vera Vice, Kitty Florentine, Daniel Levi, among others.

Music Estonia, Tallinn Music Week, and Raadio 2 are also part of the festival’s European Talent Exchange (ETE) network, formerly known as ESNS Exchange. Alongside Estonia, the network includes export offices from 25 other European countries, 129 showcase festivals, and 30 representatives from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) radio network, as well as 28 other members and partners. This makes ESNS the showcase festival with the strongest European-level representation, continuously developing and presenting European talent. ESNS features over 350 artists, whose concerts are attended by more than 40,000 people, and brings together 4,000 music industry professionals from around the world, including representatives from 400 festivals.