Guðrið Hansdóttir

Guðrið Hansdóttir in 2008.
Guðrið Hansdóttir performing at the music festival "Bardentreffen" 2013 in Nuremberg

Guðrið Hansdóttir (born 6 October 1980 in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands) is a Faroese/Danish singer, songwriter, composer, and musician. She has released three full studio albums and has released an EP called "Taking Ship" on January 24, 2014 in the United States, in February in Europe. Taking Ship has seven songs which are poems by Heinrich Heine in English translation, except for one of Heine's poems which is in Faroese translation by Poul F. Joensen, Tú hevur tær dýrastu perlur.[1]

Biography

Guðrið Hansdóttir grew up in Argir near Tórshavn, she is the daughter of Louisa and Hans Carl Hansen. Her father is a well-known musician in the Faroe Islands, guitarplayer, he earlier played with the Faroese bands Straight Ahead and Streingjasúpan. Guðrið's lastname was Hansen, which is a Danish form commonly used in the Faroe Islands, but later she changed it to the Faroese form Hansdóttir (which means daughter of Hans). When Guðrið was 14 years old, her father taught her to play the guitar, and ever since then she has been creating her own music, her own songs.[2] Later she became a popular singer/songwriter in the Faroe Islands. She has won the Faroese music award called Planet Awards two times. In 2007, she was awarded as the Best Female Singer and in 2009 her album The Sky is Opening was awarded as the Best Album of 2009 (best Faroese album). After her third album Beyond the Grey which was released in June 2011 she moved to Reykjavík, Iceland, where she concentrated fully on her music. She performed in various places in Iceland and also toured in Europe and USA.[3][4] In the Faroes she has several times performed on music festivals like Summarfestivalurin in Klaksvík[5] and the G! Festival in Syðrugøta. She finds inspiration in all from Swedish pop music to 70´s rock like Jethro Tull and 80´s icon Kate Bush.[6]

Byrta

In 2012 while living in Reykjavík, she met another Faroese musician, Janus Rasmussen, and they found out that they had something in common, they started to play music together. Janus Rasmussen has for some years now been a member of the Icelandic/Faroese electro band Bloodgroup.[7]

Before she met Janus, Guðrið wrote some new songs, this time in Faroese, before she used to write her songs in English. She and Janus worked with these new songs for some months and planned to make a new album. She wrote the lyrics and composed the songs; Janus played all the instruments and later he produced the album. The album self-titled BYRTA was released in May 2013. They are now a new duo, which is called Byrta. Their music is electro pop.

Albums

Solo albums

With Byrta

Prizes and nominations

References

  1. ↑ aktuelt.fo, Guðrið Hansdóttir givið út fløgu við 7 løgum í dag
  2. ↑ Tutl.com
  3. ↑ Last.fm Guðrið Hansdóttir
  4. ↑ Facebook.com
  5. ↑ Eystportal.fo Guðrið Hansdóttir á Summarfestivalinum
  6. ↑ Gfestival.com Guðrið Hansdóttir
  7. ↑ Kringvarp.fo (The Faroese national radio and TV)
  8. ↑ Planet.fo Planet Awards 2011: Tey tilnevndu eru… (in Faroese, list of the nominted artist, albums and musical groups for the Planet Awards 2011)
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