Daníel Ágúst Haraldsson (born August 26, 1969) is an Icelandic solo artist, and a lead singer of the bands GusGus, Nýdönsk and Esja.
Daníel Ágúst has been part of the local and international music scene since he started his career with Icelandic pop sensation Nýdönsk some 20 years ago.
In 1989 he participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1989 for Iceland with the song "Það sem enginn sér". He finished in 21st place, scoring no points.[1]
After releasing 5 albums with Nýdönsk, all of which were warmly embraced by critics and received popular recognition in his homeland, he produced an album with electronic rock group Bubbleflies.
It was around this time he branched out into acting in the National and Municipal theatres, playing roles in West Side Story, Jesus Christ Superstar (Pontius Pilate) and Stone Free. Film directors Arni and Kinski approached him with playing a lead role in their short film Nautn. It was with this film project Daníel founded GusGus in 1995 with Kinski.
The GusGus project became Daníel’s most commercially successful music venture to date, selling over 300 thousand records and touring worldwide.
Daníel took a break from GusGus in the year 2000 to pursue his solo dream as well as writing music for both TV and documentary films and composing music for the Iceland Dance Company.
His first solo album, Swallowed a Star, was released by One Little Indian in Europe (2005) and North America (2006).
During the years leading up to his first solo release Daníel was heavily involved in Iceland’s contribution to the Venice Biennale in 2005. This included acting in, co-directing, and editing the film piece as well as supervising the soundtrack for it.
Daníel formed a musical pet project, with heavy metal band Mínus front man Krummi, called Esja and released a self titled album in 2008.
Daníel rejoined GusGus with the releases of Forever in 2007 and 24/7 (2009) touring extensively in Europe. Daníel is currently working on his second solo album
| Preceded by Beathoven with "Þú og þeir (Sókrates)" |
Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1989 |
Succeeded by Stjórnin with "Eitt lag enn" |