OZ

With his effortless and unfiltered approach to telling his story, Oz possesses a talent that extends far beyond his 27 years. The Turkish, Kristiansand-based artist uses production and melody that draws inspiration from the rawness of hip-hop, the soulfulness of R&B, and structure from pop as dynamics in his songwriting. The artist explores a new and experimental side that has resulted in a genre-exploding and challenging sound. With a strong focus on lyrics and melody to create something new, which is clearly reflected in the material. Oz debuted with the album ASKE in the fall of 2022, with the goal of releasing something that came from a sentimental and real place. The album mainly deals with psychological problems, a showdown with inner demons and thoughts that life is not worth living. The project was developed to help lower the threshold for talking about mental health, especially for boys. Through their brutal lyrics and catchy melodies, listeners can recognize themselves and give a feeling of belonging and strength. After his debut, he performed as a demo artist during Trondheim Calling in February 2023; and the feedback was exclusively positive, and created great engagement during the industry festival with several different offers of collaboration. This also gave the opportunity to perform at the industry festival Sørveiv in Kristiansand in April of the same year. During Sørveiv, the artist really showed off and achieved great attention locally with several good feedbacks. The artist was also named the winner of the Sørveiv Prize, where the jury describes the artist as forward-looking, highly skilled and accomplished. In autumn 2023 / winter 2024, he will release his second album, where the artist continues to work on the story from the previous album. The sequel is essentially about rising from the ashes. Where the songs lyrically are about how to get better, that there is light at the end of the tunnel and things will work out. It should be clear that this is a sequel to the previous album, and carries with it several of the same elements. Nevertheless, there are more encouraging melodies and a clearly positive mood that shows a new zest for life.