Tooji

	Chart positions ; Explanation of the data
	Singles
	Stay

Tooji , actually Touraj Keshtkar , ( Persian تورج کشتکار) (Born May 26, 1987 in Shiraz ) is a Norwegian TV presenter, singer and composer born in Iran . He represented Norway at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 . It is also known as 冬至, these are the characters of the Japanese word Tōji , literally winter solstice .

Life

Tooji was born in 1987 as Touraj Keshtkar in Shiraz, Iran. At the age of one he went to Norway as an asylum seeker with his mother Lily . When he was 16 years old, he started working as a model . At the same time he began training as an educator. He got into the music business through his moderation work for the Norwegian branch of the TV channel MTV . Here he hosted the Toojis Top 10 hit parade and the Super Saturday show . He released his first own single Swan Song in 2008.

In 2012 he took part in the Melodi Grand Prix with the song Stay . The song, written by Tooji together with the Swedes Peter Boström - who was also a co-author of the Swedish contribution - and Fredrik Boström won the Norwegian preliminary decision for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 on February 11, 2012 in the Oslo Spektrum . On May 24, 2012, he performed the song for Norway in the second semifinals of the ESC in Baku and was able to qualify for the final two days later. There he had to be satisfied with seven points and last place. In 2013 he was allowed to present the points from the Norwegian televoting at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö .

In 2015 Tooji made his homosexuality public. He also uploaded the controversial video for his single "The Father Project", which shows intimate scenes with a young priest on the altar of a church in Oslo . This was sharply criticized, among others, by Ole Christian Kvarme , the Bishop of Oslo , as an abuse of the Church, where he also said that "a similarly similar scene with a man and a woman would have been just as unacceptable".

Discography

Singles

2008: Swan Song
2012: Stay
2012: If It Wasn't For You
2013: Rebels
2014: Packin 'Guns
2014: Cocktail
2015: Money
2015: Father
2015: Say Yeah

Individual evidence

↑ Chart sources: NO
↑ Cavan Sieczkowski: Pop Star Comes Out, Causes Outrage By Having Sex With Priest In NSFW Video. In: www.huffingtonpost.com. The Huffington Post , September 6, 2015, accessed November 10, 2015 .
↑ Musikvideo med misbruk av kirkerom. Church of Norway , September 7, 2015, accessed November 10, 2015 (Norwegian).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Tooji
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Keshtkar, Touraj (real name); Tōji; تورج کشتکار (Persian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Norwegian singer, presenter, composer
DATE OF BIRTH	May 26, 1987
PLACE OF BIRTH	Shiraz

[charts-1] Chart sources: NO

[2] Cavan Sieczkowski: Pop Star Comes Out, Causes Outrage By Having Sex With Priest In NSFW Video. In: www.huffingtonpost.com. The Huffington Post , September 6, 2015, accessed November 10, 2015 .

[3] Musikvideo med misbruk av kirkerom. Church of Norway , September 7, 2015, accessed November 10, 2015 (Norwegian).