Norwegian artist and producer Fay Wildhagen will release her next album independently through The Orchard, the distribution arm of Sony Music, ending a 10-year partnership with Warner Music Norway. Billboard

Wildhagen confirmed the move in an interview with Billboard journalist Lars Brandle, conducted in person at the Bergtatt Festival in Luster, Western Norway, where she performed a headline set in early March 2026. The festival sits along the Sognefjord, the country's longest fjord, roughly 300 kilometres north-west of Oslo.

She signed with Warner Music Norway at 21, a partnership that spanned a decade and three studio albums. Her debut, Snow, arrived in 2015 and earned a nomination for a Spellemannprisen — Norway's Grammy equivalent. The follow-up, Borders, came in 2018. Her third record, Let's Keep It In The Family, runs to 15 songs, all written, produced and arranged by Wildhagen herself, with one exception: the track "Reason," co-written with Øystein Greni. Wildhagen also won the Spellemannprisen for producer of the year, and produced the 2023 tribute album Møtested – en hyllest til Anne Grete Preus, a record honouring the late Norwegian singer-songwriter Anne Grete Preus.

By going independent, Wildhagen retains ownership of her master recordings — the original sound recordings from which all copies and streams are derived — rather than assigning them to a label in exchange for advance funding and label-side services. The Orchard, the distributor she has chosen, handles digital and physical distribution to streaming platforms and retail without taking ownership of the underlying rights.

Wildhagen grew up in Oslo, where she built her early career as a guitarist before branching into full-scale production and arrangement. Her chart history includes a collaboration with Astrid S that peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard Norway Songs chart, spending one week on the tally dated 25 January 2025. Billboard

No release date or title for the new album has been confirmed. Wildhagen told Billboard that further details would follow.

What sets the move apart is the timing. Wildhagen is stepping away from a major-label structure not at the start of her career, when independents are often the default, but a decade in — after national chart placements, a producer-of-the-year award and three full-length records that established her as both a songwriter and a behind-the-desk studio hand. The decision puts her masters, her release schedule and her marketing choices squarely in her own hands, with The Orchard handling the logistics of getting the music to platforms and shops.

For a Norwegian artist operating outside the Anglophone pop mainstream, that trade-off is familiar territory. The major-label system brings scale and resources; independence brings control. Wildhagen has chosen the second path, and the next album will be the first test of whether she can carry that load on her own terms.