Kurt Nilsen

Infobox musical artist |
Name = Kurt Nilsen

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Img_capt = Kurt Nilsen performing at Tusenfryd for employers of StatoilHydro, 22. August 2007.
Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Kurt Erik Nilsen
Alias = Kurt
Born = Birth date and age|1978|9|29|mf=y
Origin = Bergen, Norway
Instrument = Singing, guitar
Genre = Rock/Country
Occupation = Singer, Songwriter
Years_active = 2003–present
Label = SonyBMG
URL = [http://www.kurtnilsenmusic.com/ www.kurtnilsenmusic.com]

Kurt Erik Nilsen (born September 29, 1978 in Bergen, Norway) is a Norwegian pop/country singer. He won the first season of the Norwegian version of the reality television show "Pop Idol", which aired on TV 2 in May 2003. He then won a one-off international version of Pop Idol, called "World Idol" on January 1, 2004, featuring winners of the various national Idol shows.

Early life

Upon leaving school, he made his living as a plumber.Fact|date=March 2008

Career

Nilsen is left-handed and plays his guitar with the strings upside down. Nilsen was the lead singer in the Norwegian band "Fenrik Lane".

He appeared on and won "Pop Idol" with 53 % of the votes against Gaute Ormåsen. His subsequent single, "She's So High", written by Tal Bachman, went straight to number one in the Norwegian singles chart and is among the biggest-selling singles in Norway to date. His debut album was simply called "I".

He subsequently won the vote for the "World Idol" title on January 1, 2004, singing the hit "Beautiful Day" by U2, beating competitors from ten other nations, including the more famous Idols, Britain's Will Young, and favourite Kelly Clarkson of the United States, and scoring the first place in 10 out of 11 countries eligible to vote for him (Norwegian voters being unable to vote for him). In the show presenting the entries on December 25, Ian Dickson, the Australian (English ex-pat) judge, said: "You have the voice of an angel, but you look like a Hobbit. Right. And the fact is if we were looking for Middle-earth's Idol you'd be an absolute hands down winner" Fact|date=March 2008 Nilsen's gap-toothedness did not seem to bother the viewers and voters, though.

His second CD, "A Part Of Me", released in 2004, contains only his own material.

Nilsen performed the duet, It's All Coming Back To Me Now, alongside Norwegian Pop/Alternative Rocker, Marion Raven at the One Call Event. Taking the place of Meat Loaf, with whom Raven recorded the track for the Bat Out Of Hell 3 album

Nilsen is one of only seven contestants in the Idol (Norway) history who succeeded in staying out of “bottom three/two” places in weekly votes along with Gaute Ormåsen (season 1), Susanne Nordbøe (season 2), Jorun Stiansen (season 3), Alejandro Fuentes (season 3), Tone Damli Aaberge (season 3) and Jonas Thomassen (season 4). Of them, Nilsen and Stiansen went on to win the competition.

In 2006 he and three other Norwegian artists Askil Holm, Espen Lind and Alejandro Fuentes, all in the same management, joined forces and went on tour in March as what was known by the media as "The New Guitar Buddies".

Initially, they planned just a short tour (five to six concerts), but they got so popular that they ended up playing for more than 100,000 people during their tour of around 30 concerts. Although they had not planned to, they subsequently released a live album that turned out to be the fastest selling album of all time in Norway. So far they have sold around 250,000 copies of it.update after|2008|01|01 On the heels of this success, they released a live DVD, which also soon became a commercial hit. After only two weeks, it was almost the best-selling music DVD of all time in Norway.

Nilsen performed the duet "When You're Gone" alongside English pop singer, and former-Spice Girls member, Melanie C at the Top 20 event at Rådhusplassen in Oslo, Norway in the summer of 2007.

In 2008, in connection with his latest and country flavoured album Rise To The Occasion Kurt teamed up with American music legend Willie Nelson to perform the old country music standard "Lost Highway". The song was an instant hit in his native Norway and helped him top both the single chart, the album chart and the radio chart all at once. [ [http://farojournalen.gan.no/id/1113 Trippel listetopp for Kurt Nilsen og Willie Nelson - Farojournalen ] ]

Personal life

In January 2005, he broke up with his fiancée, Kristine Jacobsen. They had been together for 11 years and had two children together: Marte (born 1996) and Erik (born 2000). He and his new girlfriend, Kristin Halvorsen (not to be confused with the Norwegian Minister of Finance), welcomed their first son, Lukas, on January 20, 2006. Nilsen and Kristin later married on July 29, 2006.

Nilsen has received national attention for his guitar shaped alpine hut, in the Hardangervidda in Norway. [ [http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=188063 Se Kurt Nilsens gitar-hytte!] , VG] [ [http://www.kjendis.no/2007/05/21/501244.html Kurt Nilsen bygger gitar-hytte] , Dagbladet]

Discography

Infobox Artist Discography
Artist = Kurt Nilsen
Logo =


Caption =
Studio = 4
Compilation =
Live =
Video =
Music videos =
Singles = 11
Option =
Option name = B-sides
Option color = crimson
1Option =
1Option name = EPs
1Option color = chartreuse
2Option = 4
2Option name = Collaborations
2Option color = violet
3Option =
3Option name = Tours
3Option color = orange
References =
Ref link = Notes and references

The following is a discography of albums and singles released by Norwegian music artist Kurt Nilsen.

Albums

ingles

Other releases

*1998 "Shoe" (with former band Breed; later Fenrik Lane)
*2002 "Come Down Here" (EP) (Norwegian album charts: #2) [ [http://lista.vg.no/artist_info.php?ArtistOp=show&artistId=3961 Fenrik Lane] , VG-lista] (with Fenrik Lane)
*2003 "Idol '03" (Norwegian album charts: #1)
*2006 "Hallelujah - Live" (Norwegian album charts: #1) [ [http://lista.vg.no/artist_info.php?ArtistOp=show&artistId=4695 Espen Lind, Kurt Nilsen, Alejandro Fuentes og Askil Holm] , VG-lista] (Kurt Nilsen, Espen Lind, Askil Holm and Alejandro Fuentes)
**"Hallelujah" (Norwegian singles charts: #1)
**"Boys Of Summer" (Norwegian singles charts: #12)

#1 Singles in Norway

s-ttl | title = Norwegian VG-lista number-one single: She's So High
years = 11 June 2003 – 6 August 2003 s-ttl | title = Norwegian VG-lista number-one single: Hallelujah w/Lind, Fuentes and Holm
years = 10 January 2007 – 17 January 2007 s-ttl | title = Norwegian VG-lista number-one single: "Push Push"
years = 4 July 2007 - 11 July 2007 s-ttl | title = Norwegian VG-lista number-one single: "Lost Highway" w/Willie Nelson
years = 6 May - 13 May 2008

References

External links

* [http://www.kurtnilsenmusic.com/ Official site]
* [http://www.myspace.com/kurtnilsenofficial The Official Kurt Nilsen Myspace website]
* [http://www.kurtnilsenmedia.com/ The Official Unofficial Kurt Nilsen Fansite]
* [http://www.countryhq.com.au/article.php?id=136 CountryHQ's review of Rise to the Occasion]
* [http://tv2.no/webtv/index.jhtml?treeId=5004&progId=37671 "She's so high" Music Video at TV2.no]