Soluna Samay Kettel (born 27 August 1990,

Guatemala City Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, nest ...

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

) is a Guatemalan-Danish singer of Swiss and German origin based in Denmark. Samay represented

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2012 The Eurovision Song Contest 2012 was the 57th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Baku, Azerbaijan, following the country's victory at the with the song " Running Scared" by the duo Ell & Nikki. It was the first time Azerb ...

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

with her entry " Should've Known Better."

Early life

Soluna Samay Kettel was born in

to a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

father, musician Gerd G. Kettel (stage name Gee Gee Kettel) and a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

mother, artist Annelis Ziegler. She grew up on the shores of

Lago de Atitlán __NOTOC__ Lago, which means "lake" in Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Galician, may refer to: Places *Lago, Calabria, a ''comune'' in the Province of Cosenza, Italy *Lago, Mexico, a municipality zone in the State of Mexico *Lago District, a ''dis ...

, Guatemala and attended the Robert Muller LIFE school. Soluna moved to Denmark in 2000 when her parents purchased a small farm on

Bornholm Bornholm () is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea, to the east of the rest of Denmark, south of Sweden, northeast of Germany and north of Poland. Strategically located, Bornholm has been fought over for centuries. It has usually been ruled by ...

, a Danish island in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

. Soluna is multilingual speaking fluent English, Danish, Spanish and German. Her name is derived from the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

words ''sol'' and ''luna'', meaning

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

and

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

. Soluna has a Swiss passport, so, officially she is Swiss.

Music career

Soluna's music career began at age of 5 when she joined her father on drums and soon after began singing along. At the age of 10 she switched to electric bass, at 16 to upright bass. With her parents she spent her summers touring and playing music on the streets of Europe, and winters living in Guatemala. Soluna started to learn guitar around the age of 12, when she also wrote her first songs.

National final and Eurovision 2012

Soluna was chosen as a wildcard entry by

DR1 DR1 (DR Et) is the flagship television channel of the DR (broadcaster), Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR). It became Denmark's first television station when it began broadcasting in 1951 – at first only for an hour a day three times a we ...

for the

Dansk Melodi Grand Prix Dansk Melodi Grand Prix (), also known as Melodi Grand Prix or simply DMGP, is an annual music competition organised by the Danish public broadcaster Danmarks Radio (DR) since 1957, which determines the for the Eurovision Song Contest. The fe ...

(Danish Eurovision Song Contest), singing a song called "Should've Known Better" written by

Remee Remee Sigvardt Jackman (né Mikkel Johan Imer Sigvardt; born Frederiksberg, 8 November 1974), better known as Remee, is a Danish producer, composer and songwriter. Career Remee has written more than 60 hits and has sold over 25 million records. H ...

, Isam B (Outlandish) and A Sulaiman and produced by Chief1. She won the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2012 on 21 January over Jesper Nohrstedt and

Christian Brøns Christian Brøns Petersen (born 1977) is a Danish singer. In 2001, Christian took part in the first season of TV Danmark's reality television series '' Big Brother'', but withdrew in protest. Shortly after he signed with Spin Music releasing ...

& Patrik Isaksson, and won the right to represent Denmark at the

. ; Results from the voting of the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2012First an international jury gave points to each of the final three contestants and afterwards the points from the Televoters were given. The song performed 13th in the first semi-final and finished 9th to qualify for the Eurovision final where she finished 23rd.

Debut album

Soluna recorded her debut album " Sing Out Loud" over a two-year period, produced by Jesper Mejlvang and Michael Friis. It was released by Baltic Records on 23 September 2011.

Discography

Gee Gee & Soluna

*''The Beat Goes On'' (Ozella Music; 2001) *''Thinking Of You'' (Ozella Music; 2004) *''Movin’ On'' (Chocolate Factory; 2006) *''Lucky Seven'' (Funky Farm Records; 2007) *''Just Passing Through'' (Chocolate Factory; 2008) *''Streetwise'' (Funky Farm; 2009) *''The Best & the Rest'' (Chocolate Factory; 2011)

Soluna Samay

Albums

Singles

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Samay, Soluna 1990 births Living people Danish child singers Danish women singer-songwriters Guatemalan emigrants to Denmark Guatemalan people of Swiss descent Guatemalan people of German descent Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Denmark Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 2012 People from Guatemala City English-language singers from Denmark Spanish-language singers of Denmark 21st-century Danish women singers