Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir

Yohanna is a redirect to this article. For the Nigerian bishop see Bulus Dauwa Yohanna .

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Singles

Is It True?   CH 9 05/24/2009 (3 weeks)   UK 49 05/30/2009 (1 week)

Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir (born October 16, 1990 in Copenhagen ), also known by her stage name Yohanna , is an Icelandic singer. She took part in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow , where she presented Iceland with the English-language contribution Is It True? represented and took second place.

biography

Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir was born in 1990 in the Danish capital Copenhagen, but two years later she moved to Reykjavík with her parents . At the age of eight, Jóhanna moved with her family to Hafnarfjörður . There her talent came to the fore in a singing competition. She was discovered among 700 children by the singing teacher Maria Björk, who brought her to a singing school for children and trained her. Jóhanna Guðrún became a popular child star in Iceland in the following years. Her first album, which she recorded when she was nine, was a great success in 2000. A year later a second album followed.

Jóhanna in Moscow (2009)

After releasing her third album in 2003, on which she interpreted well-known Christmas carols , she withdrew into private life on the advice of her parents. Far away from the public, she graduated from school, continued to work on her singing career and did auditions in New York and Los Angeles , among other places . Later she lived in Denmark for a while. In 2008 Jóhanna Guðrún reported back as a singer with her first adult album Butterflies and Elvis , for which the British songwriter Lee Horrocks was responsible. She then performed several times in Reykjavík and a joint concert with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra followed, which was broadcast live on Icelandic television.

The success of the album made the Icelandic producer and songwriter Óskar Páll Sveinsson aware of Jóhanna Guðrún; Together with Chris Neil and Tinatin Japaridze he wrote the melancholy solo title Is It True? with which she won the Icelandic preliminary round for the Eurovision Song Contest in Reykjavík in mid-February 2009. On May 12, 2009, she performed under the stage name Yohanna in the first semifinals of the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow , which she also won. In the final of the competition, the 18-year-old came second behind the Norwegian Alexander Rybak . Yohanna was able to build on the success of the Icelandic singer Selma , who also took second place at the Eurovision Song Contest 1999 in Jerusalem . In 2010 she read Iceland's scoring for the 55th Eurovision Song Contest .

In addition to working as a singer, Jóhanna Guðrún taught as a singing teacher at her former music school. The Icelander herself studied at the Reykjavík Academy of Singing and Vocal Arts .

In 2011 she took part in the Icelandic preliminary decision for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf . With the Icelandic ballad Nótt ("Night") she reached third place.

In January 2013 she again took part in the Icelandic preliminary decision for the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö . With the Icelandic ballad Þú ("you") she did not reach the final.

Yohanna performed in 2011 and 2017 with a tribute program for singer Eva Cassidy in Iceland. She is assisted by Cassidy's brother Dan, a violinist .

Discography

Yohanna with her Icelandic colleague Friðrik Ómar Hjörleifsson ( Eurobandið ) in Moscow (2009)

Albums

• 2000: Jóhanna Guðrún 9
• 2001: Ég Sjálf
• 2003: Jól Með Jóhönnu
• 2008: Butterflies and Elvis

Singles

• 2009: Is It True?
• 2009: I Miss You
• 2010: Þessi Jól
• 2011: Nótt / Slow down
• 2011: Really Over
• 2011: I Think of Angels
• 2012: Coming Home
• 2013: Þú

Web links

Commons : Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website
• Portrait of Yohanna at eurovision.de
• German website from Team Yohanna

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Chart sources: CH UK
2. ↑ ^{a b c} See profile of Yohanna on the official website of the Eurovision Song Contest (English; accessed on May 12, 2009).
3. ↑ See First International Release from Iceland Teen Soul Star at incenews.is (English; accessed on May 13, 2009).
4. ↑ See portrait of Yohanna at eurovision.de (accessed on May 12, 2009).
5. ↑ Report on the first semi-final of the preliminary decision on eurovision.tv (English)
6. ↑ http://www.yohanna.de/news_termin_002.htm

Note: Icelanders are referred to by their first name or first and last name, but not just their surname. Further information can be found under Icelandic personal name .