Sissel Kyrkjebø (; born 24 June 1969), also known abroad as Sissel, is a Norwegian soprano. She is considered one of the world's top crossover sopranos. Her musical style ranges from pop recordings and folk songs to classical vocals and operatic arias.
She rose to prominence in Norway in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and her cover version of Ole Paus' song "Innerst i sjelen" (Deep in My Soul) gained wide popularity in the 1990s. She is well known for singing the Olympic Hymn (Hymne Olympique) at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway; for duets with Plácido Domingo and Charles Aznavour at the Christmas in Vienna concert of 1994, José Carreras, Andrea Bocelli, Bryn Terfel, Josh Groban, Neil Sedaka, Mario Frangoulis, Russell Watson, Brian May, Tommy Körberg, Diana Krall, Warren G, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and The Chieftains; and for her participation on the Titanic film soundtrack.
Sissel received her first US Grammy nominations on 6 December 2007 for a collaboration with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Spirit of the Season, a collection of songs from the choir's 2006 Christmas concert at Temple Square, was nominated for the Best Classical Crossover Album of the Year as well as Best Engineered Classical Album.
Sissel's combined solo record sales—not including soundtracks and other albums to which she contributed—amount to 10 million albums, most of them in Norway, a country with 5 million people. Her albums have also sold well in Sweden, Denmark, and Japan. She and Odd Nordstoga are the only Norwegian artists to have an album go 11 times platinum in album sales for Strålande Jul (Glorious Christmas).
Although Sissel sings mainly in English and Norwegian, she has also sung in Spanish, Swedish, Danish, Irish, Italian, French, Russian, Icelandic, Faroese, German, Neapolitan, Māori, Japanese, and Latin.
In Norway she is mostly known as Sissel Kyrkjebø, her last name meaning "church farm" or "church field". She started using her first name mononymously abroad later in her career.
Early life Sissel grew up in Lønborg in Bergen Municipality with two older brothers, Eirik and Bjørn. She and her parents often took hikes in the mountains surrounding Bergen. In her early years she wanted to be a nurse, but at the age of nine music became her passion.
She joined her first children's choir under the direction of New Zealand-born conductor Felicity Laurence. She stayed with the choir for seven years and said of her experience, "That was my musical education. We sang everything: classical and jazz, folk and even Māori songs. People said we sounded like an angel choir because we had this very clean pure sound, almost like an English boys' choir."
Sissel won her first local talent competition when she was ten. She was influenced by various musical genres; her parents were interested in country music and classical music and her brothers in rock music. She has also stated that Barbra Streisand, Kathleen Battle, and Kate Bush were inspirations.
Her first name "Sissel" is a Norwegian variant of "Cecilia". This is a popular first name from Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of church music. Her last name, meaning "church farm" or "church field", may be derived from an agricultural property owned by or located near the local church.
Career
1983–1985: First television appearances, Syng med oss In 1980, she appeared in the sing-along program Syng med oss (Sing with us) together with a children's choir. Her first solo appearance was in 1984, when she sang the Norwegian folk song "Ung Åslaug". Sissel performed in this program many times until 1989. Her first solo television appearance without the choir was in 1983 on Norwegian television, with the song "Evergreen" in the children's program . Later in the same year, she and Rune Larsen, her later manager, guested the television program ("Do You Remember?"), hosted by Odd Grythe, in which she performed "Barndomshjemmet" (Childhood Home) and "Sukiyaki".
Her signature song has been "Å, Vestland, Vestland" (O, Westland, Westland) ever since she first sang it on Syng med oss in 1985.
1986–1994: Rise to prominence in Norway, Sissel, Soria Moria, and Innerst i sjelen
In January 1986, Sissel appeared on the Norwegian television show Kanal 1, hosted by Ivar Dyrhaug. She performed "You Don't Bring Me Flowers", by Barbra Streisand, and later, in February, she performed "Comin' In and Out of Your Life" on the 1986 Alpine Skiing World Cup television show in Norway. In May, Sissel performed "Bergensiana" during the intermission of the Eurovision Song Contest 1986, which took place in Grieg Hall in her home town of Bergen.47. Pausenummer – Sissel Kyrkjebø synger "Jeg tok min nystemte" Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation That was her big breakthrough and in the same year, her first album, Sissel, was released. It sold more than 500,000 copies, making it the best-selling album in Norway at that time.
In 1987, Sissel made her debut on Danish television on Under Uret, hosted by Hans Otto Bisgaard. She performed two songs: "Vårvise" (Springtime), with Danish singer/composer Sebastian, and "Summertime". Later that year, in November, Sissel released her Christmas album Glade Jul (Merry Christmas) with several traditional Christmas carols. It broke her previous record for best-selling album in Norway, and still holds the record. Upon its release, it sold more than 600,000 copies in a country with a population of fewer than 5 million. To date, it has sold approximately 1 million copies. In Sweden, a Swedish-language version was released, called Stilla natt (Silent Night). Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet honored her as "The Name of the Year" in December. Sissel also was invited that year to represent Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 1987, but she declined, wanting a break from her music career.
She attended a commercial upper-secondary school in Bergen, but in February of 1988 she performed at the memorial concert for singer/songwriter Trygve Henrik Hoff in Tromsø. He had written several of the songs on her debut album, Sissel, from 1986 but died in 1987. In the fall of 1988, Sissel moved to Oslo for a short period to play the role of Maria von Trapp in the Norwegian version of The Sound of Music. This production set box-office records and was seen by over 110,000 people.
In 1989, she released her third album, Soria Moria, named after a Norwegian fairy tale, which sold 180,000 copies. In the summer of the same year, Sissel travelled to the US and performed in New York City on the television program Artists for Our Common Future, which was broadcast around the world, singing "Summertime" and "Somewhere". On a Swedish television concert recorded in Gothenburg, she met Danish comedian and singer Eddie Skoller, whom she later married, at which they sang "Vårvise" (Springtime) by Sebastian.
In 1990, Sissel recorded the singing parts of the character Princess Ariel for the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish versions of the 1989 Disney movie The Little Mermaid, and played the voice role of Ariel in the Norwegian and Swedish versions. In the same year, Sissel visited the Faeroe Islands, developing a project called "Kystland" (Coastland). It resulted in two television programs, Med Sissel til Kirkjubø (With Sissel to Kirkjubø) and the church concert Tidin rennur (Time is Running Out).
In December 1990, Sissel opened the new concert hall in Oslo, Oslo Spektrum, at the Christmas concert Å gi er å se (To Give Is to See).
In 1991, Sissel toured Norway and Denmark with her very successful church concert Tidin rennur (Time is Running Out). In the fall of 1991, Sissel met and performed with Neil Sedaka on the Norwegian television show Momarkedet, singing Sedaka's song "Solitaire" while he played the piano. He was very impressed, and they collaborated on her next album, Gift of Love, which would come out the next year as her first album featuring only songs with English lyrics. On it Sissel sang three songs written by Sedaka, including a duet with him on "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do".
In the winter of 1992, Sissel made a short appearance at the closing ceremony of the Olympics in Albertville, France. Dressed as a princess and seated on a giant fake polar bear as in the Norwegian folktale Kvitebjørn kong Valemon (White Bear King Valemon), she performed "Molde Canticle" (Molde is the name of the location of an annual music festival in Norway) by Jan Garbarek. She was also named one of the official musicians for the upcoming 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway. In October, Sissel's album Gift of Love was released but sold only 60,000 copies, receiving criticism for her new style. Later that year, she joined Neil Sedaka on his fall tour in Norway and also did several event performances in the US.
In the summer of 1993, Sissel played the role of Solveig in Peer Gynt, by Henrik Ibsen, at Den Nationale Scene (The National Scene) in Bergen, a performance that was very well received by critics. Later, in August, her marriage to Eddie Skoller took place in Mariakirken (St. Mary's Church) in Bergen. Thousands of fans waited in the rain outside the church to get a glimpse of Sissel after the wedding ceremony. The wedding received a great deal of attention from the Norwegian and Danish press.
In February 1994, Sissel performed during the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. During the Olympics, legendary Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo visited Norway, where he came across one of her earlier albums. He contacted Sissel and the next day they recorded "Fire in Your Heart", an English version of "Se ilden lyse", the official theme song of the Lillehammer Olympics. These two versions of the song were released in February 1994 on Sissel's solo album Innerst i sjelen (Deep in My Soul), a collection of Nordic folk songs. Domingo invited Sissel, along with world-renowned French singer Charles Aznavour, to take part in his annual Christmas in Vienna concert later that year. The concert was broadcast around the world and released as an album internationally.
1995–2001: Climb to international recognition, All Good Things and In Symphony In 1995, Sissel was invited to perform at the 1995 Live For Peace – Royal Gala in London. In celebration of 50 years since VE Day—the end of World War II in Europe—she performed before Charles, then Prince of Wales and other Royal Family members in the London Coliseum, singing the renowned aria "O Mio Babbino Caro" (O My Dear Papa) from the opera Gianni Schicchi by Giacomo Puccini, and the Norwegian classic "Vitae Lux" (Light of Life) with the choir Gli Scapoli (The Bachelors).