Silvía Night
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Silvia Night | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Silvía Nótt Sæmundsdóttir |
| Origin | Reykjavik, Iceland |
| Genre(s) | Pop, Dance, Electronica, Pop/Rock, R&B, Contemporary Ballad |
| Years active | 2005–present (solo) |
| Label(s) | Reykjavik Records (2006–present) |
| Website | www.silvianight.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 was released in April. It has topped the Official Icelandic Albums chart on April 23, 2007 [1].
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[edit] The character
Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir, temporary 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 25 years old. Silvía originally means a wood nymph and Nótt simply means night. The name was probably not meant have any such learned connotations, but is rather typical for Icelandic white trash christening fashion of the new century.
Sivia´s boyfriend is the Argentinian alfa male Romario Hugo Estevez, performed by Icelandic actor Björn Thors.
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, not always correctly. (In her public appearances at the Eurovision Song Contest, she spoke entirely in English, exaggerating her Icelandic accent even more than usual.)
Silvía is also equally hated and loved throughout Iceland.
Silvía also speaks some Japanese, as shown when taking part in some Japanese TV shows.
[edit] Influence on audience
Silvía Night has greatly influenced many people in Iceland. Her unique style and behavior is often imitated by loyal preteen fans. However, she has been criticized greatly by critics for being vulgar and lewd. These harsh opinions only contribute to her popularity as she is a satire of the nouveaux riche.
[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 greatest fictional character of the Year.
So far there have been 3 series so far in the Silvia Night Show. In the original series Silvia was very out of style compared to her new character.
[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. After her performance in where she did not qualify for the finals, she declared: Ungrateful bastards... you don't vote me because I'm not a slut from Holland and I'm not an ugly, fucking, old bitch from Sweden. A journalist said to her that it was not so good, but she replied with a fuck you!. After accusing Greek TV journalists of spreading lies about her slagging off Greece, she declared: I will sue you, and I will sue the competition and you will all go to jail.
Silvia also claimed the only reason Carola qualified for the Grand Final was that she had sex with the head of the EBU in a car before the competition. Asked if she was serious, she replied "Yes. I saw them in a car right outside my hotel room. What she's done is terrible... It's her fault I didn't qualify. She's been copying me ever since I got here."[1]
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. [2] 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. It has now topped the Official Icelandic Albums chart on April 23, 2007 [3].
