Kurt Nilsen
Kurt Nilsen |
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Kurt Erik Nilsen (born September 29, 1978 in Bergen, Norway) is a Norwegian pop/rock singer. He won the Norwegian version of the reality television show Pop Idol, which aired on TV 2 in May 2003. He then won a one-off international version of Pop Idol, called World Idol on January 1, 2004, featuring winners of the various national Idol shows.
Early life
Upon leaving school, he made his living as a plumber.[citation needed]
Career
Nilsen is left handed and plays his guitar with the strings the "wrong" way.[citation needed] Nilsen was the lead singer in the Norwegian band Fenrik Lane.
He appeared on and won Pop Idol with 53 % of the votes against Gaute Ormåsen. His subsequent single, "She's So High", written by Tal Bachman, went straight to number one in the Norwegian singles chart and is among the biggest-selling singles in Norway to date. His debut album was simply called I.
He subsequently won the vote for the World Idol title on January 1, 2004, singing the hit "Beautiful Day" by U2, beating competitors from ten other nations, including favourite Kelly Clarkson from the United States, and scoring the first place in 10 out of 11 voting countries. In the show presenting the entries on December 25, Ian Dickson, the Australian (English ex-pat) judge, said: "You have the voice of an angel, but you look like a Hobbit. Right. And the fact is if we were looking for Middle-earth Idol you'd be an absolute hands down winner" [citation needed] Nilsen's gap-toothedness did not seem to bother the viewers and voters, though.
His second CD, A Part Of Me, released in 2004, contains only his own material.
Nilsen performed the duet, It's All Coming Back To Me Now, alongside Norwegian Pop/Alternative Rocker, Marion Raven at the One Call Event.
Nilsen is one of only seven contestants in the Idol (Norway) history who succeeded in staying out of “bottom three/two” places in weekly votes along with Gaute Ormåsen (season 1), Susanne Nordbøe (season 2), Jorun Stiansen (season 3), Alejandro Fuentes (season 3), Tone Damli Aaberge (season 3) and Jonas Thomassen (season 4). Of them, Nilsen and Stiansen went on to win the competition.
In 2006 he and three other Norwegian artists Askil Holm, Espen Lind and Alejandro Fuentes, all in the same management, joined forces and went on tour in March as what was known by the media as "The New Guitar Buddies".
Initially, they planned just a short tour (five to six concerts), but they got so popular that they ended up playing for more than 100,000 people during their tour of around 30 concerts. Although they had not planned to, they subsequently released a live album that turned out to be the fastest selling album of all time in Norway. So far they have sold around 250,000 copies of it.[needs update] On the heels of this success, they released a live DVD, which also soon became a commercial hit. After only two weeks, it was almost the best-selling music DVD of all time in Norway.
Nilsen performed the duet "When You're Gone" alongside English pop singer, and former-Spice Girls member, Melanie C at the Top 20 event on Rådhusplassen in Oslo, Norway in the summer of 2007.
Personal life
In January 2005, he broke up with his fiancée, Kristine Jacobsen. They had been together for 11 years, and had two children together: Marte (born 1996) and Erik (born 2000). He and his new girlfriend, Kristin Halvorsen (not to be confused with the Norwegian Minister of Finance), welcomed their first son, Lukas, on January 20, 2006. Nilsen and Kristin later married on July 29, 2006.
Nilsen has received national attention for his guitar shaped alpine hut, in the Hardangervidda in Norway.[1][2]
Discography
| Kurt Nilsen discography | |
|---|---|
| Studio albums | 3 |
| Singles | 10 |
| Collaborations | 4 |
The following is a discography of albums and singles released by Norwegian music artist Kurt Nilsen.
Albums
| Statistics | Singles |
|---|---|
I
|
|
A Part of Me
|
|
| Push Push |
|
| Country album - TBA |
|
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart positions[5] | Album | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NO | BE | NL | NZ | AT | CH | |||
| 2003 | "She's So High" | 1 | 9 | 16 | 38 | 42 | 91 | I |
| 2004 | "Here She Comes" | 12 | - | - | - | - | - | |
| "All You Have to Offer" | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| "My Street" | - | - | - | - | - | - | A Part of Me | |
| "Before You Leave" | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2005 | "Never Easy" | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 2006 | "When the Stars Go Blue" (featuring Venke Knutson) | 14 | - | - | - | - | - | Venke Knutson's Places I've Been |
| "Push, Push" | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | Push Push | |
| 2007 | "Silence" | 9 | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 2008 | "Reality Kicks" | 20 | - | - | - | - | - | |
| "Lost Highway" (featuring Willie Nelson) | TBR | TBR | TBR | TBR | TBR | TBR | TBA | |
Other releases
- 1998 Shoe (with former band Breed; later Fenrik Lane)
- 2002 Come Down Here (EP) (Norwegian album charts: #2)[6] (with Fenrik Lane)
- 2003 Idol '03 (Norwegian album charts: #1)
- 2006 Hallelujah - Live (Norwegian album charts: #1)[7] (Kurt Nilsen, Espen Lind, Askil Holm and Alejandro Fuentes)
- "Hallelujah" (Norwegian singles charts: #1)
- "Boys Of Summer" (Norwegian singles charts: #12)
References
- ^ Se Kurt Nilsens gitar-hytte!, VG
- ^ Kurt Nilsen bygger gitar-hytte, Dagbladet
- ^ Kurt Nilsen, Norwegian Bandindex
- ^ Kurt Nilsen - I (album), norwegiancharts.com
- ^ Discography Kurt Nilsen. norwegiancharts.com. Retrieved March 21 2008.
- ^ Fenrik Lane, VG-lista
- ^ Espen Lind, Kurt Nilsen, Alejandro Fuentes og Askil Holm, VG-lista