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.
Career
Upon leaving school, Nilsen made his living as a plumber. . Nilsen
became the lead singer in the Norwegian band
Fenrik Lane.
He appeared on and won
Pop Idol with 54% 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." 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 left-handed and plays his guitar with the strings upside
down. He is one of only seven contestants in the
Idol 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. 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.
In 2009 "The New Guitar Buddies" will be back with a new tour and a
new album, tour start is scheduled to be May 9, Rockefeller
Oslo.
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).
Nilsen has
received national attention for his guitar-shaped alpine hut,
in the Hardangervidda
in Norway.
Discography
The following is a discography of albums and singles released by
Norwegian music artist Kurt Nilsen.
Albums
| Statistics |
Singles |
I
- Released: September 8, 2003
- Released: March 15, 2004 (International version of I,
includes "Beautiful Day")
- Peak chart positions:
- Label: SonyBMG
|
|
A Part of Me
- Released: November 8, 2004
- Peak chart positions:
- Label: SonyBMG
|
- "My Street"
- "Before You Leave"
- "Never Easy"
|
Push Push
- Released: October 2007
- Peak chart positions:
- Label: Sony BMG
|
- "Push, Push"
- "Silence"
- "Reality Kicks"
|
Rise To The
Occasion
- Released: April 2008
- Peak chart positions:
- Label: Sony BMG
|
|
|
Singles
| Year |
Title |
Chart positions |
Album |
| NO |
BE |
NL |
NZ |
AT |
CH |
PL |
| 2003 |
"She's So High" |
1 |
9 |
16 |
38 |
42 |
91 |
- |
I |
| 2004 |
"Here She Comes" |
12 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| "All You Have to Offer" |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| "My Street" |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
A Part of Me |
| "Before You Leave" |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| 2005 |
"Never Easy" |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| 2006 |
"When the Stars Go Blue" (featuring
Venke Knutson) |
14 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Venke
Knutson's Places I've Been |
| "Push, Push" |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Push Push |
| 2007 |
"Silence" |
9 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
23 |
| 2008 |
"Reality Kicks" |
20 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
48 |
| "Lost
Highway" (featuring Willie
Nelson) |
1 |
TBR |
TBR |
TBR |
TBR |
TBR |
TBR |
Rise to the Occasion |
| "Rise to the Occasion" |
- |
TBR |
TBR |
TBR |
TBR |
TBR |
TBR |
|
Other releases
- 1998 Shoe (with former band Breed; later Fenrik
Lane)
- 2002 Come Down Here (EP) (Norwegian album charts: #2)
(with Fenrik Lane)
- 2003 Idol '03 (Norwegian album charts: #1)
- 2006 Hallelujah - Live (Norwegian album charts: #1)
(Kurt Nilsen, Espen Lind, Askil Holm and Alejandro Fuentes)
#1 Singles in Norway
References
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search
