Scotland's northeast has been shaping the country's musical identity since 1662, when John Forbes published Songs and Fancies in Aberdeen, the first printed collection of secular music in Scotland. That deep-rooted connection to folk and traditional song persists today through the Aberdeen Folk Club, founded in 1962 and named Scottish Folk Club of the Year in 2022, while the city has also produced figures as varied as Annie Lennox, electronic pioneers The Shamen, and award-winning Scots singer Iona Fyfe. The live venue landscape runs from P&J Live, the largest event space in northern Scotland, down to intimate rooms like The Blue Lamp and grassroots fixtures like Krakatoa, which puts on live music every Friday and Saturday. A growing R&B and hip-hop scene adds a contemporary edge to a city whose relationship with music stretches back further than almost anywhere else in Scotland.
