Sara Forsberg

Sara Maria Forsberg (born 2 May 1994 in Jakobstad, Finland), known professionally as Saara (formerly Smo, Smoukahontas, or Smokahontas), is a Finnish singer, songwriter, YouTube personality, actress, comedian, multi-instrumentalist, and impersonator.

Career

Early life

Forsberg was born on 2 May 1994 in Jakobstad, Finland to a Swedish father and Finnish mother. As a child, she lived in the United States for a period of time.^[1][2][3][4]

2014–present: YouTube fame, music career and Skiptrace

Since her video What Languages Sound Like to Foreigners was posted on YouTube on 3 March 2014 on her channel Smoukahontas Official (which had been changed into "Saara"), it was seen over 12 million times. Her ability to mimic accents and speech melodies of different languages, which include Japanese, Estuary English, American with California accent, French, Italian, Arabic, and Spanish, using mainly nonexistent words, was praised by media in a number of countries.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10]}

In the first sequel, she re-impersonated some of the languages from the initial video and added new ones, including "Something African" and "Scottish". In another sequel, her "One Girl, 14 Genres" video, a number of musical genres were mimicked.^[11]

In April 2014, it was revealed that Forsberg had signed a development deal with production/distribution company Omnivision Entertainment^[12] /My Damn Channel.^[13] Under the multiyear deal, Sara and Omnivision Entertainment will co-create content to be available on My Damn Channel's website,^[14] the "West Toast TV" YouTube Channel,^[15] and the "Saara" YouTube Channel.^[16]

In July 2014, it was revealed that Forsberg had signed a record deal with Capitol Records with Rodney Jerkins acting as her executive producer. Capitol Records Chairman & CEO Steve Barnett said that the only artists that he had had the same feeling about other than Forsberg was Adele and Sam Smith.^[17] She is the first Finnish person to be signed to a major American record label.^[18] Her debut single "Ur Cool" was released on 21 April 2015.

In October 2014, it was revealed that Forsberg has a small role in the Hong Kong-Chinese-American film Skiptrace directed by Finnish director Renny Harlin.^[19]

Discography

Albums

• TBA (2015)

Singles

• "Ur Cool" (2015)

In media

She was interviewed on British BBC radio,^[20] Finnish public radio YLE,^[21] and Swedish TV^[22] in which she confirmed that she was contacted by a The Ellen DeGeneres Show producer.^[2] She was a guest on the show on April 7, 2014. Her visit on the show lasted approximately 180 seconds and she took home a tripod and a camera as a gift from Degeneres.^[23]

In May 2014, Forsberg relocated to Los Angeles after accepting a job offer. She currently produces and performs on a YouTube channel called "WestToastTV" in addition to maintaining her own personal channel.^[24][25]

References

External links

• Official video on YouTube
• SAARA on YouTube