Sissel Kyrkjebø

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Sissel Kyrkjebø

Background information
Also known as Sissel
Born 24 June 1969 (1969-06-24) (age 40)
Origin Bergen, Norway
Genres Pop, Folk, Classical Music, Operatic pop
Occupations Singer
Instruments Vocals
Years active 1986 — present
Labels Denon, Universal
Website www.sissel.net

Sissel Kyrkjebø (English pronunciation: /sɪsəl ʃʏrʃəbə/, Norwegian pronounciation [sɪsəl çʏrçəbø]; born 24 June 1969 in Bergen), also simply known as Sissel, is a Norwegian soprano.

She is best known for singing the Olympic Hymn (Hymne Olympique) at the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway, for duets with Plácido Domingo, Charles Aznavour, José Carreras, Neil Sedaka, Warren G, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Josh Groban, Diana Krall, Russell Watson and The Chieftains, and her participation on the Titanic film soundtrack.

Sissel received her first U.S. Grammy nominations on Dec 6th, 2007 for a collaboration with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Spirit of the Season, a collection of songs from the choir’s 2006 Christmas concert featuring Norwegian recording artist Sissel and the Orchestra at Temple Square, was nominated for the Best Classical Crossover Album of the Year, as well as Best Engineered Classical Album.[1]

Sissel is considered as one of the world's top crossover sopranos. Sissel's musical style runs the gamut from pop recordings and folk songs, to classical vocals and operatic arias. She possesses a "crystalline" voice[2] and wide vocal range, sweeping down from mezzo-soprano notes, in arias such as Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix from Saint-Saëns's opera Samson et Dalila, to the F natural above soprano C.[3] She sings mainly in English and Norwegian, but has also sung songs in Swedish, Danish, Gaelic, Italian, French, Russian, Icelandic, Faeroese, German, Spanish, Māori, Japanese and Latin.

Sissel's combined solo record sales (not including soundtracks and other albums to which she contributed) amount to 10 million albums sold, most of them in Norway—a country with 4.7 million people. Quite a number of albums have been sold in Sweden and Denmark also. Coupled with her contribution to the Titanic soundtrack, Christmas in Vienna, and other collaborations, her record sales approach 35 million albums.

Sissel was married from 1993 to 2004 to Danish-American comedian and singer Eddie Skoller. They have two daughters.[4]

The first name 'Sissel' is a Norwegian variant of 'Cecilia'.[5] This first name has become popular after the martydom of Saint Cecilia, who is the patron saint of church music according to the Catholic Church.[6][7]

Contents

[edit] Biography

When Sissel was nine, she sang in a children's choir, under a New Zealand-born conductor Felicity Laurence, and Sissel stayed with them for seven years. She said, “That was my musical education. We sang everything ‐ classical and jazz, folk and even Maori songs. People said we sounded like an angel choir because we had this very clean pure sound, almost like an English boys’ choir.” [8] Sissel won her first local talent competition when she was eleven. She was influenced by various musical genres; her parents were interested in country music and classical music, and her brothers' interest in rock influenced her also. Later, Sissel said Barbra Streisand was a huge inspiration.

In 1983, she appeared for the first time on Norwegian TV with the song Evergreen in the children's program Halvsju.[9] In 1984 Sissel appeared in the sing-along program Syng med Oss ('Sing with us') together with a children's choir. The first Norwegian song she sang with this choir was the Norwegian folktune Ung Åslaug.

Sissel sang solo on TV several times in 1984. She also appeared in several TV programs, and met Rune Larsen, who later became her first manager.

[edit] 1986–1994: Rise to prominence at home

In May 1986, Sissel performed during the intermission of the Eurovision Song Contest, which was arranged in Grieg Hall in her hometown of Bergen.[10] That same year, her first album, Sissel, was released and sold more than 400,000 copies, making it the best selling album in Norway at that time.[11]

In 1987, her Christmas album Glade Jul was released. It contained several traditional Christmas carols and it broke her previous record for best-selling album in Norway. This album still holds the record for being the best-selling album in Norway. Upon its release, it sold more than 600,000 copies in a country with less than five million population and has since been sold approximately a million copies.[12][13] In Sweden, a Swedish language version was released, called Stilla Natt. That year Sissel was invited and offered the chance to represent Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 1987, but she declined.

In the fall of 1988, Sissel moved to Oslo for a short period to play the role of Maria von Trapp in the Norwegian version of The Sound of Music. This production set box office records and was seen by over 110,000 people. Sissel later got sick and Merethe Trøan stepped in for her.

Sissel recorded the audio dub of the character Princess Ariel for the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish versions of the 1989 Disney movie The Little Mermaid.

In 1989, she released her third album, Soria Moria, and on a Swedish TV-concert taped in Göteborg she met the man whom she would later marry, Danish comedian and singer Eddie Skoller. They sang "Vårvise" by Sebastian and their perfomance was visibly sparkling. The couple were engaged during the Christmas season of 1991 and married in Mariakirken in Bergen on 21 August 1993. This was a big happening in Norway that year. They had two daughters, Ingrid and Sarah, before they divorced in 2004.[14]

Sissel and Charles Aznavour performing in Vienna

In February 1994 Sissel performed during the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer.[15] Legendary Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo visited Norway during the Olympics, where he came across one of her earlier albums. He contacted Sissel and the next day they recorded Fire In Your Heart, an English version of Se ilden lyse, the official theme song of the Lillehammer Olympics. These two versions of the song were released in February 1994 on Sissel's solo album Innerst i sjelen (Deep Within My Soul) a collection of Nordic folk songs. Plácido Domingo invited Sissel, along with world-renowned French singer Charles Aznavour to partake in his annual Christmas in Vienna concert later that year. The concert was broadcast around the world as well as released as an album internationally.[16]

[edit] 1995–2001: Climb to international recognition

In 1995, Sissel was invited to perform at the annual Royal Variety show in London. There she performed the renowned aria O Mio Babbino Caro from the opera Gianni Schicchi by Giacomo Puccini and the Norwegian classic Vitae Lux with the choir Gli Scapoli.

In 1997 Sissel toured the USA with the Irish group The Chieftains. They appeared, among other places, on the Late Show with David Letterman and in Carnegie Hall.

Later that summer Sissel was involved in recording the soundtrack to the film Titanic, which reached #1 on the Billboard charts and sold more than 24 million copies worldwide. James Horner, the composer of the music in the movie Titanic, knew Sissel from her album Innerst I Sjelen and he particularly liked how she sang Eg Veit I Himmerik Ei Borg (I Know in Heaven There Is a Castle). Horner had tried 25 or 30 singers and he chose Sissel in the end.[17]

Sissel had a #1 hit across Europe in 1998 with Prince Igor, a duet with an American rapper Warren G on the concept album The Rapsody Overture which combined American rappers with European opera singers. Sissel sang an aria from Borodin's opera Prince Igor during the chorus, while Warren G rapped. When the song was recorded, Sissel had just a half-hour to learn the Russian lyrics and she got help from a Russian, who drove a cab in the New York City and the driver's name, incidentally, was Igor.[17]

In 1999, she sang the Gaelic song Siuil A Run on The Chieftains' 1999 album Tears of Stone.

In November 2000, Sissel released (in Norway only) her solo album, All Good Things, which was her first solo album in nearly seven years. In 2001, Sissel released All Good Things throughout Europe and Asia. All Good Things also contained the duet "Where the Lost Ones Go" with fellow Norwegian singer Espen Lind which was released on his album This is Pop Music in 2001.

In December 2000 she was invited to represent Norway at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert, where she sang "One Day" and "Weightless", both songs from her latest release "All Good Things". She was presented by Jane Seymour as "the Norwegian star Sissel."

In 2000 she also released a greatest hits collection in Japan that included two new songs from the Japanese TV show "Summer Snow", one of which was the show's theme song. Sissel is enormously popular in Japan and has released several Japanese versions of her albums there.

In 2001 she was asked to sing a duet with the Danish goth rockers Sort Sol. Sissel sang with them on the track Elia Rising from their album Snakecharmer, released in May 2001. They also performed together at the Roskilde Festival that year.

[edit] 2002 to present: Global stardom

On October 1, 2002 Sissel released her first album in the USA, which sold over 100,000 copies in its first three months of release with almost no advertisement or marketing.[18] The album sold better than Decca record execs expected. Their initial goal was to sell 100,000 copies in the first 9 months. Her USA album, self-titled Sissel, is largely a re-recording of songs from her Norwegian album, All Good Things with a couple of other songs such as Solitaire and Shenandoah added.

On May 24, 2002 dressed in traditional Norwegian costume, Sissel performed her hit Lær Meg Å Kjenne at the wedding of Princess Märtha Louise of Norway and Ari Behn.

In late 2002 one of Sissel's concerts was filmed at the Oslo Spectrum and later broadcast in March 2003 on PBS in the United States. The British Singer Russell Watson was one of her guests. It was subsequently released as the DVD Sissel in Concert.

In December 2002 Sissel again was invited to represent Norway at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert. Here she sang Somewhere over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz, and a duet with Josh Groban. They sang The Prayer.[16]

My Heart

Sissel released her second USA album My Heart, in March 2004, a classical crossover album, which also included two pop songs written by Richard Marx and one ballad Wait A While written by Jon Lord of Deep Purple.

In the summer and fall of 2004 Sissel went on tour with The Lord of the Rings Symphony Tour.[19] Sissel was a featured soloist on an orchestral performance dedicated to the music from the The Lord of the Rings films. At each performance, Sissel performed with a symphony orchestra and choirs with 200 musicians on stage. Howard Shore stated, "Ancient Norwegian mythology and culture had a great influence on Tolkien's work. It is very thrilling to have the Norwegian singer Sissel perform as a soloist in The Lord of the Rings Symphony. Sissel's radiant voice illuminates this work." When asked about the tour in an interview, Sissel raved "I love the music. It's such a wonderful feeling to be sitting in the middle of a symphony orchestra, surrounded by the beautiful voices of the choir and all those gorgeous melodies".

In May 2005 Sissel performed with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City, Utah on their radio and TV broadcast Music and the Spoken Word, which is featured on nearly 2,000 stations across the USA and around the world. Sissel joined the choir to commemorate the Centennial of Norwegian Independence from Sweden, which was being celebrated that year. Sissel sang the ABBA song Like An Angel Passing Through My Room, Vitae Lux, the traditional Norwegian hymn Herre gud, ditt dyre navn og ære, and the Norwegian national anthem Ja, vi elsker dette landet (Yes, we love this country!), with the choir.

In October 2005 Sissel was invited to perform on the well known temple-concert, Ninna-ji Otobutai, in Osaka, Japan.[20] She sang Pie Jesu, Sancta Maria (intermezzo from Pietro Mascagni's opera Cavalleria Rusticana), You Raise Me Up, and several other songs. The year before, Sarah Brightman was their guest on this concert. This concert was aired on television in Japan.

In December 2006 Sissel again joined the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for their annual Christmas concerts as the featured soloist. In four performances, she sang for more than 80,000 people in the 21,000-seat Conference Center in Salt Lake City. The concerts were videotaped for PBS television, and aired in December 2007.

Sissel has celebrated more than 20 years in the music industry with the release of a greatest hits album containing 40 of her best and most well-known songs.

And in March 2007, a statistically representative sample of the Norwegian population chose her as the best female Norwegian musical artist, in competition with 15 other big names, including Lene Marlin, Wenche Myhre, Kari Bremnes, and Bertine Zetlitz. In the summer of 2007 Sissel toured Norway, Sweden, France and the USA with a band. According to Sissel this is a new concert format without a choir.

For the 2007 holiday season, PBS stations aired two concerts starring Sissel as part of the December pledge drive, one with the aforementioned Mormon Tabernacle Choir titled Spirit of the Season, released on CD and DVD in late September 2007, the other with operatic legend and good friend José Carreras titled Northern Lights, released on CD and DVD in early November 2007. The albums of these concerts have proven to be extremely popular, with Northern Lights reaching #10 in the Billboard Classical Crossover list,[21] and Spirit of the Season staying firmly planted at #1 on the Billboard Classical charts[22] for nine consecutive weeks.[23]

The album Northern Lights is a live recording of a concert at Bergstaden Ziir, a church from the 17th century in Røros, Norway. It was inspired by Norway’s winter, the Blue Hour and the mystical Northern Lights. The concert featured the tenor José Carreras. The music is arranged by Kjetil Bjerkestrand. The musicians sharing the stage with Sissel were the Trondheim Soloists, Nidaros Cathedral Girls Choir and Sissel’s own band.[8]

Sissel concluded an eight-city US tour in February 2008, singing selections from Northern Lights.[24] This was the first wing of a US tour that lasted all year. The second wing covered the central and southern United States, and lasted through April.[24]

On 9th November of 2009, Sissel released a new Christmas-album called Strålande Jul (Glorious Christmas), a Christmas-project with Odd Nordstoga, a popular Norwegian singer. This album contains mostly old Christmas-carols from Scandinavia. Sissel toured in both Norway and Sweden with Odd Nordstoga, The Real Group, Orsa Spelemannslag and Krister Henrikson. This album and their outsold Christmas-concerts have received very much critical acclaim in Norway and Sweden. The record company Universal Music estimated a selling figure about 100000 at the beginning, but it turned out that the disc was sold more than 300000 in just 2 months in Norway. [25]

[edit] Discography

Main article: Sissel discography

[edit] Awards and recognition

  • 1986 - Årets navn (Person of the Year) by a Norwegian national newspaper VG.[26]
  • 1986 - Årets spellemann (Musician of the Year) in the Spellemannprisen (Norwegian Grammy).[27]
  • 2005 - UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador[28]
  • 2006 - Knight of the 1st Class in the Order of St. Olav. On 2 Feb 2006, The King of Norway knighted Sissel for her contributions to music and as an ambassador for Norway and she was the youngest recipient of this honor.[29][30]
  • 2006 - Juryens hederspris (Most Distinguished Artist) in Spellemannprisen 2006. She is the youngest Norwegian performer ever to receive this award.[31]
  • A rose developed by Poulsen Roser is named after Sissel and she baptized the rose in Baroniet Rosendal on 4 Aug 2009.[32][33]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Choir Nominated for Two Grammy Awards
  2. ^ Sissel.cc
  3. ^ Sissel hits Soprano F at 2:42
  4. ^ http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Sissel.htm
  5. ^ Har du et helgen-navn ?
  6. ^ Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Cecilia
  7. ^ Behind the Name: Cecilia
  8. ^ a b Biography of Sissel from the official website.
  9. ^ Sissel 40 år i dag
  10. ^ Legendarisk pauseinnslag fra Melodi Grand Prix 1986
  11. ^ Norsk pop- og rockleksikon fra Vega Forlag (2005)
  12. ^ The official Sissel website.
  13. ^ Norway population
  14. ^ Sissel og Eddie skilles
  15. ^ Sissel Featured in Billboard Magazine
  16. ^ a b Sissel Kyrkjebø (Soprano)
  17. ^ a b The Wall Street Journal: In Titanic's Wake: A Voice to Remember . . .
  18. ^ Sissel aims at U.S. Fame
  19. ^ Sissel tours with the Lord of the Rings Symphony
  20. ^ JAL Otobutai 2005
  21. ^ "Northern Lights" reaches #10 on Billboard Classical Crossover list
  22. ^ Spirit of the Season - #1 on the Billboard Classical Chart
  23. ^ Billboard.com Charts - Top Classical Albums
  24. ^ a b US spring tour for Sissel
  25. ^ Ble tiårets bestselger på rekordtid
  26. ^ ullensakerkulturhus: SISSEL KYRKJEBØ
  27. ^ Spellemannprisen 1986
  28. ^ Goodwill Ambassadors & Advocates: National
  29. ^ St. Olavs Orden til Sissel Kyrkjebø
  30. ^ A video on the ceremony. Aftenposten:Dette er stort, sa ridder Sissel
  31. ^ Spellemannprisen 2006
  32. ^ Sissel Kyrkjebø døber sin rose
  33. ^ Specifications of the Sissel-Rose

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sissel_Kyrkjeb%C3%B8"