The press kit by RÚV
YOHANNA - „Is It True?“
Is It True? will represent Iceland in the Eurovision
Song Contest semi-finals 2009 in Moscow on May
12th. The song is composed by Óskar Páll
Sveinsson, Chris Neil and Tinatin Japaridze and will
be performed by eighteen year old singer Yohanna.
The song was selected to represent Iceland in
Moscow by televoting in the Icelandic National
Song Contest Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins on
February 14th 2009. Is It True? received 19,076
votes while the song in second place received
10,696 votes. Is It True? will be performed in
English at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009.
There was never any doubt that Yohanna (Jóhanna Guðrún
Jónsdóttir) would become a singer.
Born in Copenhagen, Denmark on October 16th 1990, she was a gifted
child and started singing even before she could talk. Yohanna and her
parents moved to Reykjavík in Iceland when she was just two years old
and she continued to show great interest in music. The family moved to
Hafnarfjörður when Yohanna turned eight and that’s where she had her
first real opportunity to put her talent onshow. She was one of seven
hundred children participating in a song contest when singing teacher
María Björk spotted her potential. María offered Yohanna a place at her
children’s singing school, and it was there that she learned the basics of
performing modern pop songs. Everyone was amazed not only by her
perfect pitch, range, and maturity, but also by the control she displayed
when performing. Besides this, she showed an innate ability to quickly
memorize, learn and adapt songs to suit her own individual vocal style.
Yohanna recorded her first album at the age of nine, and
it was released on her tenth birthday in the year 2000.
The debut album was a huge success and was followed
up by a second album in 2001, confirming her status as a
true child prodigy. Her third album, consisting of popular
Christmas carols, was released in late 2003. This proved
to be her last album for a number of years as it was a
joint decision between her manager and parents to give
Yohanna some space to grow up and work on her
musical skills away from the spotlight. In order to develop
both her voice and her own personal musical style, Yohanna’s teenage
years were spent working in and out of the studio with musical
instructors, songwriters and producers. Educationally speaking, this was
a busy period for a young lady who also tried her best to attend school
regularly and have some fun with her friends along the way. Yohanna was
nevertheless away from home for considerable periods, rehearsing in
New York or Los Angeles and meeting with music business people all
over the world. After turning down a recording contract with a major label,
Yohanna spent some time in Denmark working on her vocal techniques.
During this time she also recorded her first adult album ‘Butterflies and
Elvis’ with British songwriter Lee Horrocks and sound engineer Thomas
Yezzi. Asked to say what he thought of Yohanna, Yezzi commented ‘She
is a young, white Icelandic girl with the soul of a fifty year old black
woman. She’s really amazing.’
The album was well received upon its release in early
2008. Yohanna’s years as a child recording star were
now well and truly behind her and she put all her heart
and soul into her newly honed sound. When songwriter
and producer Óskar Páll Sveinsson asked Yohanna to
interpret the song ‘Is It True?’ for the 2009 Icelandic
National Eurovision Preselection Song Contest, he was
looking for Yohanna’s particular R’n’B sound and style
and indeed it soon proved to be the right decision.
At the age of eighteen, Yohanna has come full circle and now she herself
teaches children to sing at the school where she started her own career
some ten years ago. Moreover she is still concentrating on developing
her own vocal technique yet further by attending classes at the Reykjavík
Academy of Singing and Vocal Arts. Yohanna has successfully
blossomed into a soulful, hardworking and highly motivated young
vocalist who has now taken full control of her own destiny.
Óskar Páll Sveinsson was born in Sauðárkrókur northern Iceland and
showed interest in music at an early age when he learnt to play the
clarinet and piano. Óskar Páll played in local bands in his teens and
started working as a sound engineer at RÚV’s Channel 2 in the mid
eighties. He subsequently became a recording studio engineer in 1990 at
the age of 23. Working as a chief producer, engineer and programmer at
Sýrland Studios in Iceland for almost 5 years, he produced a number of
Icelandic best selling albums. When moving to London 1995 it only took
him two weeks to get a job in the London studio circuit assisting producer
Trevor Horn. To his surprise Óskar Páll found himself immediately busy
working with Genesis and other big names in the music industry. After
changing agencies he started working with Simon Fuller the manager of
Spice Girls and S Club 7 who was responsible for launching the Pop Idol
contest. Óskar Páll successfully produced S Club 7 no. 1 smash hit
‘Never Had a Dream’ and some tracks for their follow-up album. He co-
wrote and produced the single ‘Turn Around’ by Steps as well as Pop Idol
Will Young’s no. 1 record breaking single ‘Anything is Possible’ and has
written and produced several other successful songs. He has worked with
Robbie Williams, Mike and the Mechanics, Marc Almond, Seal, Depeche
Mode, Secret Garden and Ian McCulloch. Óskar Páll was signed as a
songwriter to Sony Publishing U.K. and he currently runs his own studio
in the countryside in Iceland.
Legendary record producer Christopher Neil is known in the U.K. and the
U.S.A. as the producer’s producer. Over the years he has recorded hit
records for an amazing list of global talent that include A-ha, Celine Dion,
Cher, Rod Stewart, Sheena Easton, Moody Blues, Bonnie Tyler, Marillion,
Johnny Logan and Mike and the Mechanics. It was with this last band
that he started writing songs as well as producing the records, which put
him firmly on the map as a composer. Recently he has written for LeAnne
Rimes, British T.V. show Britannia High (with Gary Barlow) and is
currently writing with Mike Rutherford of Genesis.
Born in Soviet Georgia and raised in Moscow, songwriter and artist
Tinatin Japaridze is on her way to scaling the heights of two careers: as a
writer and a musician. Heralded by Billboard Magazine as one of the
“fresh faces to keep an eye out for in 2008,” she became a finalist in the
worldwide John Lennon Song Contest and her song ‘Wild’ was hailed as
a 2007 year-end Billboard Top 10 Critics’ Pick. Also a United Nations
Radio Correspondent for American and Russian media, Tinatin is
currently working on two literary projects encompassing of both fiction
and non-fiction genres. A Russian citizen and a permanent resident of the
United States, she has collaborated with some of the industry’s top
producers and songwriters on both sides of the Atlantic.
Her song ‘Thinking of Someone Else’ written with Christopher Neil and
Ben Robbins reached #13 in the pop club charts in UK’s Music Week.
Her song ‘We the Peoples’, based on the United Nations Charter, was
recently reviewed by Billboard senior correspondent Chuck Taylor, who
called it “a penultimate, contemporary anthem honouring the mission of
the United Nations, perhaps more relevant than ever, given the flux of
worldwide politics… a resonant affirmation that politics actually have the
potential to unite.”
EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 2009
ICELANDIC ENTRY
Yohanna performer
Óskar Páll Sveinsson composer
Christopher Neil co-writer
Tinatin Japaridze co-writer