Earlier this month, Svala won the Icelandic national selection with the song Paper and will thus represent her country in the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest. Svala has been singing since she was 7 years old and since then she has become a songwriter, a judge on The Voice, a fashion icon and toured the world. We found out more about the singer from the most westerly country in the contest.
Svala is a big celebrity in her home country. She is the daughter of the legendary pop star Bo Halldorsson and has had a big impact on the Icelandic music scene since she entered it at a young age and has countless number one hits under her belt.
In 1999 Svala signed one of the biggest record contracts ever made with an Icelandic artist with EMI in the US. Her first single, The Real Me, became a top 30 hit on the Billboard charts in 2001 in the US, launching her career also as a respected songwriter and lyricist. Svala formed the Icelandic electronic band Steed Lord in 2006 and toured all over the world selling out shows both in Europe and North America and more recently, headlining Gay Pride in San Fransisco and Copenhagen in front of 50,000 people. In addition to all this, Svala is one of the four main judges on The Voice Iceland.
According to Svala, her song, Paper, is very personal to her. "I wrote from my own experiences. Everyone goes through difficult times so everyone should be able to relate in one way or another", she said. When asked whether she has a lucky routine before taking to the stage, she provides a humorous reply; "I bathe myself in unicorn tears and take a shot of snow on fire."
For Svala the Eurovision Song Contest is important: "It is a great platform for singers and songwriters, allows me to perform my song on an out-of-this-world stage and it gets me closer to my beautiful fans around the world."
