Radka Toneff

Radka Toneff was a Norwegian jazz vocalist and composer, born in Oslo in 1952. She is best known for vocal jazz, intimate ballad interpretation and Scandinavian jazz. Qobuz describes her as a Norwegian jazz vocalist of “legendary stature,” and Deezer identifies her as Ellen Radka Toneff, a Norwegian jazz singer with Bulgarian and Norwegian family roots.

Her most important albums include Winter Poem, It Don’t Come Easy, Fairytales with pianist Steve Dobrogosz, Live in Hamburg, Some Time Ago: A Collection of Her Finest Moments, and Butterfly. Her best-known songs include “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress,” “Come Down in Time,” “Lost in the Stars,” “My Funny Valentine,” “Nature Boy,” “Antonio’s Song,” and “Don’t Weep for the Lady.”

She is especially known for the album Fairytales, recorded with Steve Dobrogosz in 1982. Highresaudio notes that it became the top-selling Norwegian jazz record ever and was voted Norway’s best album of all time in a 2011 poll of Norwegian musicians.