Silvía Night
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Silvia Night | ||
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 Silvía Night in a publicity photo for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006
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| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir | |
| Born | July 28, 1982 (age 24) | |
| Origin |  , Iceland |
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| Genre(s) | Pop, Dance, Electronica, Pop/Rock, R&B, Contemporary Ballad | |
| Years active | 2005–present (solo) | |
| Label(s) | Reykjavik Records (2006–present) | |
| Website | Silvia Night.com | |
Silvía Night (Icelandic: Silvía Nótt) is a fictional, satirical character on Sjáumst með Silvíu Nótt (English:The Silvia Night Show), an Icelandic comedy show of the television channel Skjár einn. The character was invented by Gaukur Úlfarsson and Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir; the latter plays Silvía Night. Silvía Night interviews people in real-life situations.
Before the show made its début on TV, and when Silvía was still unknown, she used to upset the people she interviewed dramatically with her outrageous behaviour.
Silvía Night was Iceland's participant in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. Her antics, both onstage and offstage, created controversy and garnered international media attention. Her album Goldmine is set to be released in April.
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[edit] The character
Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir, former singer of the band Ske and a young and unknown actress, and Gaukur Úlfarsson, decided to invent a character to adopt as an alter ego (cf. Ali G) that brought out all the worst elements of human behaviour in modern society. Silvía's personality is highly affected by narcissism and she sees herself as the most famous and talented person walking on the planet Earth. Her full Icelandic name is Silvía Nótt Sæmundsdóttir (see Icelandic naming conventions) and she is 24 years old. Silvía means goddess of silver and Nótt simply means night.
Silvía's favorite foods are sushi and feta cheese and she aims for a career as a model, singer and a movie star.
Her use of language includes heavy slang and she frequently uses English words and phrases while speaking in Icelandic. (In her public appearances at the Eurovision Song Contest, she spoke entirely in English.)
Silvía is also equally hated and loved throughout Iceland.
[edit] Influence on audience
Silvía Night has influenced Icelandic youth quite a bit and youngsters imitate her unique style in their everyday demeanour. Many get irritated by her behavior and find it offensive and vulgar; her fans claim that such behavior constitutes a satire on the greed in modern society rather than simply a comical character.
[edit] Trivia
It took a while for the Icelandic audience to realize that Silvía Night was a fictional character and not just a mad woman in search of attention. The actress, Ágústa Eva, is more often referred to as Silvía Night than with her real name.
In February 2006, Silvía was voted Iceland's sexiest woman by the audience of national radio station Rás 2. Also, Ágústa Eva came in fourth place.
Silvía Night received the Edda (Icelandic Film and TV Awards) in 2005 for the Best Comical Show of the Year and as the TV Personality of the Year.
[edit] Eurovision Song Contest
Silvía Night was Iceland's participant in Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the song Congratulations, after winning the Icelandic national finals.
The song was originally in Icelandic, called "Til hamingju Ísland" ("Congratulations Iceland"). The Icelandic lyrics, heavily filled with slang, talk about how lucky Icelanders are that she was born in Iceland and that she is going to win the contest, because she's better than all the other contestants (see 'The Character' above). The song was controversial because it was being distributed on the Internet before the competition had taken place, as that was not allowed by the rules of the competition. Silvía Night was nonetheless not banned from the competition. This decision by RÚV (The National Broadcasting Company) has been criticised, with one participating song writer filing a complaint, but the case was dismissed.
Silvía's song came 13th in the semifinal held on May 18 in Athens, leaving her out of the finals on May 20.
[edit] Controversies
During her presence in Athens, and according to her role's character, Silvia behaved provocatively and rudely to technicians and journalists, calling them “fucking amateurs”. In addition she was particularly shouting on stage "Fuck you, you fucking retards". The participants, not knowing that Silvia Night was actually there in a performed role, mistook her behaviour for real, not to mention that the phrase "fucking retards" was misheard for "fucking Greeks". The media criticised and attacked the singer, thinking that she was actually problematic and rude (a reaction similar to how she was first received in her country before becoming famous) and that she had offended Greece and its people. During the press conference she ordered the journalists not to look her in the eyes. One of them did and she ordered her "bodyguard" to take her out. The bodyguard obeyed and carried the "journalist" (who was an actress, part of the "show") on his shoulders.
Another controversy is the English lyrics to her Eurovision song, “Congratulations”. On the first verse the lyrics go “The vote is in, they say I win”, however in the video and at rehearsals she sang “The vote is in, I'll fucking win”. According to Eurovision rules, songs shouldn't contain swearwords. [1] Silvía Nótt has personally responded on her website, that she will “fucking say what [she] fucking [wants]”. In the preliminary contest, known as the Semi Final on May 18 she did not use the expletive, instead she sang "I'll freaking win". In her appearance for the semi-finals, a great part of the audience and artists from the other countries reacted by booing her not tolerating her supposedly provocative and unprofessional behavior.
The song didn't make it to the finals. Silvia, being true to her role, had some performances to indicate her 'regret'. She pretended to slap her boyfriend, and then 'threatened' to jump from a bridge. In addition she started yelling foul language and spitting at the journalists and called Lordi 'ugly people from Finland without a real make-up artist', Treble the group from the Netherlands (who she had previously upstaged on Icelandic TV) 'sluts', and Swedish singer Carola Häggkvist an 'ugly fucking old bitch'. She also threatened to sue a random journalist (calling her 'slut'), TV station and the competition for 'spreading lies' about the 'Fucking Greeks' mishearing.
Silvia Night's tantrum also made number 1 on youtube.com getting 1,300,000 views within 4 days.
[edit] 2007 - New Album
Silvia's new single off her debut album is titled "Thank You Baby", which she performed on Icelandic television. Silvía stated in an interview with esctoday that her new album is titled Goldmine. According to her official website she has signed one of the largest record contracts in Icelandic music history and it is speculated that her album will be released on April 1, 2007.
