Eivør Pálsdóttir

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Eivør Pálsdóttir [ˈaivœɹ ˈpɔlsˌdœʰtəɹ] (born July 21, 1983 in Syðrugøta, Faroe Islands) is a Faroese singer/songwriter with a distinct voice and a wide range of interests in many kinds of music from jazz, folk, country, pop to classical and Christian music. Her roots are in the Faroese ballads.

Eivør Pálsdóttir in the museum Blásastova in Gøta
Eivør Pálsdóttir in the museum Blásastova in Gøta
Eivør Pálsdóttir at a concert together with the Danish Radio Bigband, 2005.
Eivør Pálsdóttir at a concert together with the Danish Radio Bigband, 2005.

Eivør is the daughter of Sædis Eilifsdóttir and Páll Jacobsen. Usually she is only addressed by her first name Eivør, which occurs normally as the female name Eyðvør in Faroese.

These naming conventions resemble those of her Icelandic counterpart Björk. But there are many other things she has in common with Björk, and is thus often called the Faroese Björk. Like Björk, she is very successful in Iceland and is one of the most popular non-Icelandic singers there. At home in the Faroe Islands, Eivør is the highest acclaimed musician. Observers expect her final break-through in Denmark soon, while she already has fans all over Europe and North America.

[edit] Career

At the age of 12, Eivør traveled as the soloist of a Faroese men's choir to Italy. At 13 she had her first performance on Faroese television and won a national song contest in the same year. In 1999 at the age of 15, Eivør joined the rock band Clickhaze.

One year later in 2000 her first album Eivør Pálsdóttir was released. It is a mixture of classical Faroese ballads accompanied only by guitar and bass with jazz influences and texts by famous Faroese writers, and concludes with two religious songs. The latter are sung in Danish, but all the others in Faroese. Many of the songs were written by Eivør. By this time she was already a professional musician.

In 2001 she won with her band Clickhaze the national Faroese band contest Prix Føroyar. In 2002, Eivør went to Reykjavík to study music (classic and jazz). The mentor of the Faroese music scene, Kristian Blak invited her to be the lead singer of the jazz group Yggdrasil, which came out with its first album that year.

Well known as a jazz performer, she released a rock album with Clickhaze the same summer, thus proving her wide range again. Touring with Clickhaze in the Faroes, to Sweden, Denmark (Roskilde Festival), Iceland and Greenland was a great success.

After her second solo album Krákan, the perhaps most important event in her young career was the nomination for the Icelandic Music Awards in no fewer than three categories in 2003. She was awarded best singer and best performer - normally only given to Icelandic artists.

Educated as a classical vocalist, Eivør sings also with the Faroese symphony orchestra and sings solo in Kristian Blak's 2004 opera Firra.

Her latest album eivør from November 2004 together with the Canadian Bill Bourne seems be the best selling Faroese album in the U.S. and Canada ever. Bill's companionship with acoustic guitar gave the entire project a great bit of American country music, with Eivør contributing several songs in Faroese. In Iceland it was again in the charts, and was nominated for the Icelandic Music Award - together with an album by Björk. At the Awards ceremony on February 2, 2005 in Reykjavík, neither Eivør nor Björk had success, though.

Eivør is the first person in her country to bear the title Faroese of the year. In February 9 Eivør was named Faroese of the year 2004 (ársins føroyingur 2004) for "Putting the Faroe Islands on the map in a positive way with her songs".

In March 7 2005, the big band of the Danish radio issued its 40th anniversary album. All titles on that CD are written and sung by Eivør. Once again she was honoured in Iceland on June 16 with the national theatre award Gríma for her composing and performance in the piece Úlfhamssaga, based on the Norse sagas.

Eivør's 5th album Human Child is produced by Dónal Lunny and will be issued in both English and a Faroese version under the title Mannabarn on 18 July 2007 in the Faroes. The album was recorded throughout 2006 and early 2007 in Dublin, Republic of Ireland. This was followed with an Irish tour in Summer 2007.

[edit] Discography

  • Eivør Pálsdóttir (SHD 50, tutl 2000)
  • Clickhaze EP (HJF 91, tutl 2002)
  • Yggdrasil (HJF 88, tutl 2002)
  • Krákan (12T001, 12 tónar 2003)
  • Eivør (12T010, 12 tónar 2004)
  • Trøllabundin (together with the Big band of Danmarks Radio 2005)
  • Human Child (R 60117-2, RecArt Music 2007)
  • Mannabarn (R 60116-2, RecArt Music 2007, Faroese version of Human Child)

[edit] External links

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