After 16 years Oda Felicia unveils her debut project

The Huntington Chorea Project (2007-2025) is an audiovisual art project by Oda Felicia. The artist grew up in a family affected by the rare and brutal “Huntington Chorea” — a highly hereditary disease for which there is no cure, and only one outcome — death. If a parent has the Huntington’s disease gene, there is a 50 percent chance of developing the condition. Living with this fear is expressed both compositionally through the music and in the visual part of Oda Felicia’s project. The EP «FIRST ACT The Huntington Chorea Project» was released on April 21st, just in time for the International Huntington's Disease Awareness Month in May.

Listen to The Huntington Chorea Project.

Oda Felicia Bardal Sigstad Abdelmaguid (born 1989) is a musician, songwriter and composer from the town of Biri in Norway. FIRST ACT (The Huntington Chorea Project) is the artist’s debut release and part of a larger project. Even before the project’s release, Oda Felicia’s videos have gained thousands of followers on Instagram, gone viral, and surpassing several million views.

The visual elements in the project came to life through a creative process with her husband, Magdi Omar Ytreeide Abdelmaguid, one of the most award- winning and influential artists in Scandinavia. The EP is co-produced with the experienced producer, composer and musician Kristoffer Lo (the internationally- acclaimed Highasakite, and many other bands). The musical piece “shotgun dialogue” also features the renowned violinist Harpreet Bansal.

Excerpts from reviews:

The project has received rave reviews from the Norwegian press. Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten calls FIRST ACT (The Huntington Chorea project) “A brave and courageous debut” and “A unique listening experience. It is not always emotionally easy to listen to but feels even more hard-hitting when you give it time.” (Aftenposten)

The review continues to state: “The experiences from the past fifteen years are described with a complete sense of honesty and the poetry surrounding them gives an extra layer of purpose.” (Aftenposten)

Music blog 730 calls FIRST ACT (The Huntington Chorea project): “one of the most beautiful, Norwegian debuts we have seen in a very long time. A painful and sensitive theme delivered in a unique way.” (730.no)

“There is an international quality to the fragile and cautious repetitiveness, where Abdelmaguid obviously has the same epic and stretchy traits to her voice as FKA twigs and Karin Dreijer.” (VG)

This is how Oda Felicia describes her project:

“The disease has affected every aspect of my life, and because the topic has been, and still is, hard to talk about, I developed my own language in the creation of music. Through it, I managed to write, compose and take note of every image and film formed in mind.”

“In 2007, my father was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease. That was when I first started to write. Although it has taken many years to shape and form the project, it is only in the last few years that all the pieces of the puzzle started to come together. I now feel ready to share.”

“This is not just one feeling. In that case it would have resulted in one song. Growing up with this as part of my life was all-consuming, so whatever I created had to reflect just that.”

“Musically, I allow myself to be inspired by everything I believe in; whether the source is Grieg, Frank Ocean or SAINt JHN does not matter, as long as I feel that the music is coming from within."