Hafdís Huld Þrastardóttir (; born 22 May 1979), known simply as Hafdís Huld, is an Icelandic singer and actress. She began her musical career as a member of the
electronic
Electronic may refer to:
*Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor
* ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal
*Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device
*Electronic co ...
band
GusGus
GusGus is an electronic music band from Reykjavík, Iceland. Although initially a film and acting collective, the group is mostly known for its electronic music. The group's discography consists of eleven studio albums.
History
GusGus was ...
in 1995 and left the group in 1999. Hafdís made her solo debut with her 2006 album ''
Dirty Paper Cup
Dirty Paper Cup, Hafdís Huld's debut album, was released in 2006 and won the award of best pop album at the Icelandic music awards. She was also nominated for best video with "Tomoko". The album was produced by Neill MacColl and Boo Hewerdine, w ...
''.
Career
1995–1999: Debut with GusGus
Hafdís joined the Icelandic
electronic
Electronic may refer to:
*Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor
* ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal
*Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device
*Electronic co ...
band
GusGus
GusGus is an electronic music band from Reykjavík, Iceland. Although initially a film and acting collective, the group is mostly known for its electronic music. The group's discography consists of eleven studio albums.
History
GusGus was ...
at its inception in 1995 at the age of 15.
During this time, she participated in two world tours.
2000–2005: Collaborations and other activities
After leaving the band she started writing her own songs, and collaborated with
FC Kahuna
FC Kahuna (also known as FC/Kahuna) was a British DJ and electronic music production duo, consisting of Jon Nowell and Daniel Ormondroyd. The group released only one album, '' Machine Says Yes'', in the spring of 2002. It had a number of singl ...
, co-writing their singles "Hayling" and "Machine Says Yes", which were included in the 2002 album ''
Machine Says Yes''. Elsewhere she sang with dance producers
Ewan Pearson
Ewan Pearson (born 1 April 1972) is an English electronic music producer/remixer who works under various aliases including Maas, Sulky Pup, Villa America, World of Apples, and Dirtbox. He is also in Partial Arts with Al Usher. He has remixed ...
and
Tom Middleton
Tom Middleton (born 18 August 1971) is a British electronic recording artist, sound designer, composer, music producer, remixer and DJ. His solo albums include '' Lifetracks'' (2007), ''Glasstracks'' (2011) and ''Sleep Better'' (2018). Middleto ...
. During the same period, she made two feature films and modelled clothing for Extreme Sports. She later studied at the
London Centre of Contemporary Music, graduating with a Distinction in 2006. Hafdís was featured on the track "The News (A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Microsoft Inc.)" on the conceptual rap album ''
Deltron 3030'' in 2000.
2006–present: Solo debut
Her official debut album ''
Dirty Paper Cup
Dirty Paper Cup, Hafdís Huld's debut album, was released in 2006 and won the award of best pop album at the Icelandic music awards. She was also nominated for best video with "Tomoko". The album was produced by Neill MacColl and Boo Hewerdine, w ...
'' was released in 2006 on MVine/Red Grape Records and won the award of best pop album at the Icelandic music awards. She was also nominated for best video with "Tomoko". The result of productive collaborations with a number of highly respected co-writers including
Jim Abbiss
Jim Abbiss is a British music producer, best known for his work on records including the debut album of Editors ('' The Back Room''), Arctic Monkeys' Mercury Music Prize winning debut album, '' Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not'', ...
,
Boo Hewerdine
Mark "Boo" Hewerdine (born 14 February 1961) is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. His work includes lead singer and creative force behind The Bible, formed in the 1980s, and reformed in 1994, as well as solo recordings and work f ...
,
Pascal Gabriel
Pascal Gabriel (born 15 December 1956) is a Belgian-born musician based in London, England and Paris, France.
Background
Pascal Gabriel's musical career began in 1977 in the punk rock band The Razors (bass guitar). He left Belgium for Londo ...
and
Chris Corner
Christopher Anthony Corner (born 23 January 1974) is an English record producer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, singer and video artist. He was a founding member of the band Sneaker Pimps, and is now also active with his solo project IAMX.
...
. The album was universally acclaimed by the press in the UK and Europe and received national radio play on BBC Radio 1, Radio 2 and 6 Music and also won the Icelandic Music Award in early 2007 for Best Pop Album. The album features a cover of
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964. The original line-up consisted of singer/guitarist Lou Reed, multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Angus MacLise. MacLise ...
's "
Who Loves the Sun
''Who Loves the Sun'' is a 2006 Canadian film directed and written by Matt Bissonnette and starring Lukas Haas, Molly Parker, Adam Scott, R.H. Thomson, and Wendy Crewson.Alison Gillmor, "Characters confront the past in cottage country". ''Winn ...
" with a
ukulele
The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings.
The tone and volume of the instrumen ...
accompaniment. This was one of four singles released from the album. The b-sides of all the singles were tracks from the album.
Shortly after releasing the album in October 2006, Hafdís and her band were asked to go on tour with
Paolo Nutini
Paolo Giovanni Nutini (born 9 January 1987) is a Scottish singer, songwriter and musician from Paisley, Renfrewshire, Paisley. Nutini's debut album, ''These Streets'' (2006), peaked at number three on the UK Albums Chart. Its follow-up, ''Sunny ...
on an 8-date sold-out tour of the UK. On these dates and her headline shows Hafdís performs with a three-piece band of Sarah Croft, Alisdair Wright and Steve Ling. The band use guitars, keyboards, ukulele, xylophone and banjo. Hafdís also toured venues and festivals across the UK and Europe, taking in
The Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...
,
The Secret Garden Party,
The Big Chill and
Camden Crawl
Camden Crawl was a music festival in Camden, London, which first appeared in 1995 and then was held annually from 2005 to 2014.
Overview
Rather than a single venue, Camden Crawl operated at multiple venues simultaneously, with different acts tak ...
in the UK,
Hultsfred Festival
The Hultsfred Festival ( sv, Hultsfredsfestivalen) was an annual music festival held in Hultsfred, Sweden. It took place at the lake Hulingen during three days in the June or July, from Thursday to Saturday. Since the first festival in 1986, it ...
in Sweden,
Airwaves in Iceland,
Spot Festival
Spot or SPOT may refer to:
Places
* Spot, North Carolina, a community in the United States
* The Spot, New South Wales, a locality in Sydney, Australia
* South Pole Traverse, sometimes called the South Pole Overland Traverse
People
* Spot (pro ...
in Denmark, Les Femmes S'en Melent and Europavox in France and the Midnight Sun Festival in the Czech Republic. In 2007 she supported
Mika
Mika is a given name, a nickname and a surname. Notable people and fictional characters with the name include:
People known just as Mika
* Mika (singer) (born 1983), Lebanese-born British singer-songwriter Michael Penniman, Jr.
* Mika (footbal ...
in London and performed at In the City in Manchester and
South by Southwest
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...
in Texas, United States.
In February 2007, a headline UK tour was cancelled due to a serious lung infection, from which she took 6 weeks to recover.
The dates were rescheduled to May 2007. On the rescheduled dates she performed "Boys and Perfume", a song from her (then unreleased) second album.
Hafdís was one of the guest vocalists on
Tricky's 2008 album ''
Knowle West Boy
''Knowle West Boy'' is the seventh studio album by musician and music producer, producer Tricky (musician), Tricky, released by Domino Recording Company, Domino Records on 7 July 2008 in Europe, and 9 September 2008 in North America.
A remixed v ...
'', performing on the track "Cross to Bear".
Hafdís recorded an a cappella version of the
Sam Brown classic "
Stop!", which was used on a pan-European TV ad campaign for
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...
. A fully instrumented version of the track charted in Iceland on 8 October 2008 and had a worldwide release on 24 November 2008.
In 2009, Hafdís recorded a second solo album, ''
Synchronised Swimmers''. Two singles from the album went to No.1 in the Icelandic singles chart: "Kongulo" (which means "spider" in Icelandic and was written about the urban climber
Alain Robert
Alain Robert (born as Robert Alain Philippe on 7 August 1962) is a French rock climber and urban climber. Known as "the French Spider-Man" (after the comic character Spider-Man) or "the Human Spider", Robert is famous for his free solo climbi ...
) reached No.1 in July 2009 and the title track from the album reached the top spot in October 2009. The album was released in Iceland in October 2009 and went straight into the chart at No.2. The album is available outside of Iceland, since July 2010.
Personal life
Hafdís Huld is in a relationship with musician Alisdair Wright. In February 2012, Hafdís revealed that she was four months pregnant with their first child and was expecting in early July.
In the summer of 2012, Hafdís gave birth to a daughter. Just before spring 2019, Hafdis announced they are expecting another child.
Discography
Studio albums
* ''
Dirty Paper Cup
Dirty Paper Cup, Hafdís Huld's debut album, was released in 2006 and won the award of best pop album at the Icelandic music awards. She was also nominated for best video with "Tomoko". The album was produced by Neill MacColl and Boo Hewerdine, w ...
'' (2006)
* ''
Synchronised Swimmers'' (2009)
* ''Vögguvísur'' (2012)
* ''Home'' (2014)
* ''Barnavísur'' (2015)
* ''Dare to Dream Small'' (2017)
* ''Variations'' (2019)
Singles
* "Who Loves the Sun"
* "Diamonds on My Belly"
* "Ski Jumper"
* "Tomoko"
* "Stop!"
* "Kónguló"
* "Synchronised Swimmers"
* "Action Man"
* "Queen Bee"
Filmography
Film
* ''
The Icelandic Dream'' (2000)
* ''
Dramarama
Dramarama is an American, New Jersey–based alternative rock/power pop band, who later moved to Los Angeles. The band was formed in New Jersey in 1982 and disbanded in 1994. The band formally reunited in 2003 following an appearance on VH1's ...
'' (''Villiljós'') (2001)
TV
* ''A Legend to Ride'' (1997)
References
External links
*
YouTube channelHafdís Huld interview at Phoenix FM*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Huld, Hafdis
1979 births
Living people
Hafdis Huld
21st-century Icelandic women singers
Icelandic women in electronic music