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Eivør Pálsdóttir (pronounced [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
rock, jazz, folk, pop, to European classical music. Her roots are
in the Faroese ballads.
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.
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.[1] 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.
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)
External
links
References