Maria Sødal Arredondo (born 6 July 1985 in

Vennesla Vennesla is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sørlandet. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Vennesla. Other villages in Vennesla include Grovane, Hægeland, Hom ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

) is a Norwegian pop singer. Her surname Arredondo comes from her Chilean stepfather.

Career

In March 2003, Arredondo released her first album, the self-titled ''

Maria Arredondo Maria Sødal Arredondo (born 6 July 1985 in Vennesla, Norway) is a Norwegian pop singer. Her surname Arredondo comes from her Chilean stepfather. Career In March 2003, Arredondo released her first album, the self-titled '' Maria Arredondo'' ...

'' by Universal Music Norway. The album was a success in Norway, attaining the highest possible scores from a Norwegian newspaper, ''VG''. In November 2004, Arredondo released her second album, '' Not Going Under''. This was the first album to have videos for the singles, as Arredondo did not produce any videos for her first album. Arredondo released a Christmas album, '' Min Jul'' with some tracks produced and arranged by

Jon Lord John Douglas Lord (9 June 194116 July 2012) was an English orchestral and rock composer, pianist, and Hammond organ player known for his pioneering work in fusing rock with classical or baroque forms, especially with the British rock band Deep ...

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). The track " On Christmas Day" was released as a single. Arredondo's three albums have combined sales of over 150,000.VG
, 2006 Arredondo was among the contributors to the song "That Day", along with singers

Marit Larsen Marit Elisabeth Larsen (born 1 July 1983) is a Norwegian singer and songwriter. She began playing violin at age of 5 and played it until the age of 8. She gained international fame during her teenage years as a member of the pop duo M2M with ch ...

and

Marion Raven Marion Elise Ravn (born 25 May 1984), better known abroad as Marion Raven, is a Norwegian singer and songwriter. Raven formed the pop duo M2M with Marit Larsen, though they ceased performing together in 2002. Raven was later signed as a solo ar ...

, as both members of the pop duo M2M. On 12 November 2007, she released her fourth album '' For a Moment''. The first single from this album, "Brief and Beautiful" became a major hit throughout the fall. "Brief and Beautiful" was written by

Hanne Sørvaag Hanne Margrethe Fredriksen Sørvaag (born 27 December 1979) is a Norwegian singer-songwriter. For many years she was based in Stockholm, Sweden, mostly composing for other artists via Universal. Today she works from Oslo, Norway and has a career ...

and Harry Sommerdahl, and a Spanish-language adaptation of this song called "Fue para los dos" was released earlier in 2007 by Spanish singer

Edurne Edurne García Almagro (; born 22 December 1985) is a Spanish singer, actress, and television presenter. She rose to fame in late 2005 when she took part in the Spanish casting show ''Operación Triunfo'' on TVE and finished in sixth place in ...

. Her fourth album was met with mixed reviews. On the album, "Even when you're with me" is a cover of the Spanish singer

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's "Me Enamoro Del Dolor", and "If You Could Only See Me" was originally recorded by another Norwegian artist called Ina. Arredondo entered the qualifying rounds of the Melodi Grand Prix 2010 (the Norwegian selection process for the Eurovision Song Contest) on 16 January 2010 and was voted through to the national final, with the song "The Touch", which is written by

Rolf Løvland Rolf Undsæt Løvland (born 19 April 1955) is a Norwegian composer, lyricist, arranger, and pianist. Together with Fionnuala Sherry, he formed the Celtic-Nordic group Secret Garden, in which he was the composer, producer, and keyboardist. He beg ...

. Today, Maria works (beside her singing career) 20% in Heggedal church, Asker. In July 2014, Maria took the leading female role in a musical play titled "Kober Mystery". In November, the planned "Sound Of Music in Concert" was staged for two shows, also starring Maria.

Musical style

Her musical style is a mixture of pop and dream pop very similar to artists such as M2M,

Natalie Imbruglia Natalie Jane Imbruglia ( , ; born 4 February 1975) is an Australian singer and actress. In the early 1990s, she played Beth Brennan in the Australian soap opera '' Neighbours''. Three years after leaving the programme, she began a singing car ...

Michelle Branch Michelle Jacquet DeSevren Branch (born July 2, 1983) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. During the early 2000s, she released two top-selling albums: ''The Spirit Room'' and '' Hotel Paper.'' She won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Co ...

, Jewel, and

The Cranberries The Cranberries were an Irish rock band formed in Limerick, Ireland. Originally named the Cranberry Saw Us, the band were formed in 1989 by lead singer Niall Quinn, guitarist Noel Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler. Quinn was ...

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

/ : The singles were only released as radio single.
—: The singles did not enter the charts

Features

References

External links

UK Fansite
* Chinese Fan-bars
@maria@arredondo@mariaarredondo
on Baidu Tie-bar) {{DEFAULTSORT:Arredondo, Maria 1985 births Living people Norwegian pop singers People from Vennesla Melodi Grand Prix contestants 21st-century Norwegian singers 21st-century Norwegian women singers