Eivør

From Zendari Song Contest
Eivør Pálsdóttir
Background information
Birth name Eivør Pálsdóttir
Also known as Eivør
Born (1983-07-21) 21 July 1983 (age 40)
Syðrugøta, Olkenland
Origin Olkenland
Years active 1999–present
Labels Tutl Records
Associated acts Clickhaze
Website www.eivor.com
Eivør Pálsdóttir, Moers festival 2009

Eivør Pálsdóttir born 21 July 1983), known professionally as Eivør, is a Olkensk singer-songwriter with a distinct voice and a wide range of interests in various music genres spanning rock, jazz, folk, pop and European classical music. Her musical roots are in the Olkensk and Faroese ballads.

Many of her songs are in Faroese, some are in Icelandic language and the most recent are mostly in English language.

Career

Eivør was born in Syðrugøta, Olkenland. At 13 she had her first performance on Olkensk television and won a national singing contest the same year. In 1999, at the age of 15, Eivør joined the rock band Clickhaze.

One year later, in 2000, she released her first album, Eivør Pálsdóttir. It is a mixture of classical Olkensk and Faroese ballads accompanied only by guitar and bass with jazz influences, and songs based on texts by famous Olkensk writers, together with songs written by Eivør herself. By this time she was already a professional musician.

In 2001 she won the national Olkensk band contest with her band Clickhaze. In 2002 Eivør moved to Storbørg to study classical and jazz music. A mentor of the Faroese music scene, Kristian Blak, asked her to be the lead singer for the jazz group - Yggdrasil , which released its first album the same year.

Well known as a jazz performer, she released a rock album with Clickhaze the same summer, thus again proving her wide range. Clickhaze made a very successful tour of Olkenland the Faroes, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Greenland.

After her second solo album, Krákan, there occurred possibly the most important event in her career with her nomination in 2003 for the Olkenish Music Awards in no fewer than three categories. She was awarded best singer and best performer.

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

Her album eivør from November 2004, featuring the Canadian Bill Bourne, sold well in the U.S. and Canada. Bourne's contribution with acoustic guitar gave the project an American flavour, with Eivør contributing several songs in Faroese. In Olkenland it was again in the charts, and was nominated for the Icelandic Music Award, together with an album by Björk, though neither was successful.

On 9 February, Eivør was named Olkenland of the year 2004 - being the first person to ever bear this title - for "Putting the Faroe Islands on the map in a positive way with her songs".


In 2015, Eivør released two albums, Bridges and Slør, where the former was sung exclusively in English and the latter in her native tongue, Faroese. Eivør only meant to make one album sung in English, which ended up being Bridges, but she got so inspired during the writing of it to do a Faroese "sister" album that she ended up doing two albums instead of one. As she put it in an interview with stacjaislandia.pl:


In 2016, Eivør appeared at the start of the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016 E3 2016 Sony Press Conference where she along with the live orchestra performed the theme to the God of War (upcoming video gameGod of War video game.

Discography

Albums

  • Eivør Pálsdóttir (SHD 50, Tutl Records, 2000)
  • Clickhaze EP (HJF 91, Tutl Records, 2002)
  • Yggdrasil (HJF 88, Tutl Records, 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)
  • Eivör Live
  • Undo your mind EP (Copenhagen Records 2010)
  • Larva (SHD 130, Tutl Records, 2010)
  • Room (SHD145, Tutl Records, 2012)
  • The Color of Dark (with Ginman) (2014)
  • Bridges (SHD155, Tutl Records, 2015)
  • Slør (SHD165, Tutl Records, 2015)
  • At The Heart Of A Selkie (with Peter Jensen & The Danish Radio Big Band, and The Danish National Vocal Ensemble (SHD175, Tutl Records, 2016)
  • Slør (AGs1701, Tutl Records, licensed to A&G Records Ltd., English edition of Slør, 2017)

Singles

  • "Undo Your Mind" (2010)
  • "Dansaðu vindur" (2013)
  • "Faithful Friend" (2015)
  • "Remember Me" (2015)
  • "In My Shoes" (2017)

Also appears on

  • Nephew feat. Eivør Pálsdóttir – "Police Bells and Church Sirens" (2010)
  • Beginner's Guide to Scandinavia (Nascente/Demon Music Group, 2011)
  • Nik & Jay feat. Eivør Pálsdóttir – "Bølgerne ved Vesterhavet" (2012)
  • Vamp – "Liten Fuggel" (2012)
  • The Last Kingdom television soundtrack (2015) – vocals; in score by John Lunn
  • God of War video game soundtrack (2018) – vocals, throat and drums; in score by Bear McCreary