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María Ólafs
Maria Ólafs is 22 years old, and was born on 2nd
February 1993 in Blönduós, North Iceland. She has been
singing as long as she can remember and comes from
a musical family. Her father sings in a male voice choir
and her oldest sister competed in Pop Idol when Maria
was ten. She lived in Mosfellsbær, a suburb of Reykjavík,
at the time. Maria started singing in a school choir and
took some acting lessons at the local theatre company.
Singing and acting both come naturally to Maria who
started performing professionally in children‘s plays and
musicals at the tender age of ten.
María Ólafs
Maria has already had more stage experience than most of her friends. In 2007 she had a small role in children‘s
play Skilaboðaskjóðan, which was staged by The National Theatre in Reykjavík. She played the role of Louisa von
Trapp in the Sound of Music in the Municipal Theatre in Reykjavík in 2009 – the original movie of the show is one
of her all-time favourites. In the same year she played the part of a young Michael Jackson in a tribute show at
Reykjavík‘s Broadway Club. In 2014 Maria took the leading role of Ronja the Robber‘s Daugther in Mosfellsbær
Theater Group‘s production of Astrid Lindgren‘s play of the same name.
Maria has written some songs but she‘s not prepared to let anyone outside her family hear them quite yet. She plays
the piano and is currently trying to master a guitar she recently bought. Maria is a great admirer of Whitney Houston,
Celine Dion and many more and she adores the Eurovision Song Contest. She is currently studying to become a
music, entertainment and teacher at the University of Iceland and aiming at working as a singer and actress in the
future.
Maria started working with the StopWaitGo songwriting team in 2012 when still a student at Verzlunarskóli Íslands
high school. Ever since then, SWG and Maria have been creating all kinds of musical work together. Maria has
recorded the vocals for a large variety of demos the songwriting team has been working on, but this is the first time
she has featured in the finished version of one of their songs. When the StopWaitGo threesome wrote the song
Unbroken for this year‘s Söngvakeppnin the guys had Maria in mind and the song perfectly fits her vocal range. She
agreed to sing the song but did not expect to win the contest, so the victory came as a total surprise. This is the first
time Maria has competed in a song contest and she is exited to be participating in Eurovision Song Contest 2015
in Vienna in May.
StopWaitGo
The songwriting and production company StopWaitGo
was founded in 2010 by Ásgeir Orri Ásgeirsson (born
1990), Pálmi Ragnar Ásgeirsson (born 1989) and Sæþór
Kristjánsson (born 1990). StopWaitGo has established
itself as a leading music production company in Iceland
and abroad, producing pop music, commercial jingles
and music for TV shows and films.
The brothers Ásgeir and Pálmi started writing songs soon after they
taught themselves to play guitar and keyboards when they were ten.
Ásgeir Orri and Pálmi Ragnar formed a rock group when they were
thirteen and made an album produced by Ólafur Arnalds.
StopWaitGo
The brothers knew Sæþór Kristjánsson from an early age and they started making music together after hearing a
recording on the internet which featured Sæþór playing guitar. The guys formed the hip-hop unit Kicks! which had a
radio hit with the song Party Department. The collaboration continued at their high school, Verzlunarskóli Íslands, which
is known for putting on very high quality music shows every year. The guys were involved in a wide variety of musical
activities and got their big break when they were asked to write songs for the TV series ‘Steindinn okkar‘. One of these
songs, “Geðveikt Fínn Gaur”, was pretty successful, spending two weeks on top of the Icelandic Charts. Since 2010
they have had seven number 1 singles including this year’s Eurovision entry “Unbroken”. They also hold the record for
most consecutive weeks at number 1 with the song “Louder”, performed by comedian and entertainer DJ MuscleBoy.
The production trio has written songs for Iceland’s biggest pop artists and also helped to bring new talent such as Maria
Olafsdottir onto the pop music scene. They also had a UK hit with the song Disco Love in 2013; it was a hit for The
Saturdays all over Europe and peaked at No.5 on the official UK singles charts.
They currently live in Los Angeles where they have been writing songs for different artists.
StopWaitGo wrote the song “Dönsum Burtu Blús” for Söngvakeppnin 2014, performed by Sverrir Bergmann, singer and
radio show host. They decided to participate in Söngvakeppnin 2015, submitting two songs which were both selected
to compete in the semi-final heats to choose the finalists for Söngvakeppnin.
According to the Söngvakeppnin rules all songs have to be performed in Icelandic in the semi-final heats. StopWaitGo
usually write their songs in English so they had to translate the lyrics for the songs to be able to qualify. Their first song
“Once Again” became “Í Síðasta Skipti”. It was composed for singer Friðrik Dór and was one of three songs competing
in the first heat that got through to the finals. The other song, “Unbroken”, became “Lítil skref” in Icelandic. It was
composed one evening especially for Maria Olafs, taking the range of her voice into special consideration.
Both songs received top votes from the jury and televoters, making StopWaitGo the first composers ever to have both
songs in the last head-to-head duel section of the Icelandic Eurovision final. The song Unbroken, performed by Maria
Olafs, won the contest. She will be performing it in Vienna and Friðrik Dór will be among those singing backing vocals.
Hera Björk Þórhallsdóttir
Hera Björk was born in Reykjavík on March 29th
1972. She started performing at a young age and had
already recorded some children’s songs and appeared
in television commercials before her twelfth birthday.
She won her first singing competition in 1988 aged
just sixteen, and was the second runner-up in the 1991
nationwide College Singing Competition. This led to her
being offered roles in various musicals, including The
Rocky Horror Show, Evita, Little Shop of Horrors and Kiss
Me Kate. She participated in the ‘Sirkus Skara Skrípó’
(‘Skari’s Comedy Circus’) variety show in 1996-1997,
Hera Björk
and joined a number of ephemeral groups, namely Orgill,
Sweetý and 17 Vélar, before releasing two acclaimed
albums ‘Ilmur af jólum’ (‘The Perfume of Christmas’)
in 2000 and her eponymous album‘Hera Björk’ in 2006,
which includes an Icelandic language cover version of
2006 Norwegian Eurovision entry ‘Alvedansen’ (‘Dance
of The Elves’).
Hera Björk competed in the Icelandic Eurovision preselection contest in 2007, and sang backing vocals for the
Icelandic Eurovision entries in 2008 and 2009. She also participated in the Danish Eurovision preselection (‘Melodi
Grand Prix’) in 2009, finishing in second place with the fan favourite ‘Someday’. In 2010 Hera Björk went to Oslo
with the song Je Ne Sais Quoi one of fan favorites that year and she has traveled around the world singing from that
time. In 2013 she was the winner of Vina del Mar song competition in Chile with the song Because You Can. She
now lives in Santiago and works from Chile. She is a touring artist and a world class vocal coach today and will be
singing backing vocals for Maria Olafs as well as being her vocal coach.
Alma Rut
Alma Rut has worked as a professional singer for 11
years. She sang backing vocals for Iceland in the 2012
Eurovision Song Contest in Azerbaijan and has worked
with many of the top music artists in Iceland. She is a
member of three bands and is currently recording an
album with one of them. She has worked in numerous
big shows as a solo singer and as a backing vocalist.
Alma is highly experienced on stage at concerts, dances,
musicals, in the studio and more.
Alma Rut
Íris Hólm
Íris is a 24 year old singer raised up in a town called
Mosfellsbær in Iceland. She competed in a singing
competition held by middle schools in Iceland. The year
2003 she got “the best written song” and in 2004 she
got 2nd place. She competed in Idol 2006 and got to top
35. The year after, or in 2007, she competed in X-Factor
in a duet called GÍS and they got 4th place. In 2008 Íris
took the role of a front lady in the band Bermuda. She
was known for surprising people with her angelic and
beautiful voice in Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins 2010
(Pre Selection in Iceland for Eurovision) with the song
´The One´. Íris has also been in backing vocals in many
songs in Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins; ´Nótt´performed
by Yohanna, ´Elísabet´ performed by Pétur Örn, ´Ég lofa´
performed by Jógvan Hansen, and many more. In 2012
Íris performed the song ´Leyndarmál´ in Söngvakeppni
Sjónvarpsins. Íris in now working on a band project.
Íris Hólm
Friðrik Dór Jónsson
Singer/songwriter Friðrik Dór released his first single,
“Hlið við hlið”, in late 2009. The song became a huge
success and since then Friðrik’s songs have hit the
charts on a regular basics. Friðrik Dór has realeased two
albums, the first, “Allt sem þú átt”, came out in 2010 and
the second, “Vélrænn”, came out in 2012. Both albums
recieved raving reviews. Friðrik has worked with some
of the best music producers in Iceland such as Kiasmos,
Redd Lights and Stop Wait Go.
Friðrik Dór
Ásgeir Orri Ásgeirsson
As one of the members of StopWaitGo, the songwriting
team behind the “Unbroken” song, Ásgeir brings in the
songwriter’s vision to the performance of the song.
Although he hasn’t got a whole lot of experience singing
live, he performs most of StopWaitGo’s male demos
alongside Maria Olafs who performs most female demos
for the team. Him and Friðrik Dór have also featured
together on popular pop songs in Iceland.
Ásgeir Orri
Unbroken
One step at a time
out of the darkness
one foot in front of the other.
One step at a time
into the distance
a new path I need to uncover.
I‘m letting go.
Go.
One step at a time
get out of the darkness
and into the light forever.
One step at a time
I pick up the pieces
try putting them back together
till I‘m unbroken.
Unbroken.
One step at a time
get out of the darkness
and into the light forever.
One step at a time
and I got a feeling
it‘s either now or never.
I‘m letting go.
Go.
One step at a time
get out of the darkness
and into the light forever.
One step at a time
I pick up the pieces
try putting them back together
till I‘m unbroken.
Unbroken
One step at a time
get out of the darkness
and into the light forever.