Founder of Alaska band Pamyua is contestant in online Arctic musical competition

A celebrated Alaska musician is a contestant in what has become an Arctic version of the international music competition known as Eurovision.

Qacung Blanchett, who with his brother founded the award-winning band Pamyua, is one of nine artists or groups from the circumpolar north who performed Saturday in Pan-Arctic Vision, a musical event that was launched last year. Other competitors are from northern areas of Finland, Sweden and Norway, Canada’s Nunavut Territory, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. There is even a Russian contestant, a singer from Murmansk who is currently living in Norway.

Pan-Arctic Vision is about more than music, according to its organizers. It “is both an art project and a sincere attempt to use the tools of art to change common sense and unite the North,” the organization’s website said.

The performances at a cultural center in Nuuk, Greenland were livestreamed for audiences through the organization’s website. A viewing party was held Saturday morning at the Anchorage Museum, which is one of the collaborating organizations. Viewers are asked to submit votes to select the winners.

Blanchett is Yup’ik and Black and grew up in Bethel and Nunapitchuk. Pamyua’s music blends Indigenous traditions with rhythm-and-blues styles. In addition to being part of Pamyua, Blanchett is the creative director of an Indigenous musical festival, Áak’w Rock, which is held in Juneau. He has also been working on solo projects.

The first edition of Pan-Arctic Vision was held last year in northern Norway in the small community of Vadsø. Alaska’s 2023 contestant was Byron Nicholai, a musician from Toksook Bay in Western Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim region.

It has yet to be determined whether Pan-Arctic Vision will become an annual event, according to the organization’s website.