Soluna Samay

Soluna Samay
Background information
Born (1990-08-27) 27 August 1990 (age 34)
Guatemala City, Guatemala
OriginBornholm, Denmark
GenresPop, rock, acoustic pop, acoustic rock, pop rock, soft rock, folk rock
Years active2001 (2001)–present (present)
LabelsBaltic Records
Websitesolunasamay.com

Soluna Samay Kettel[pronunciation?] (born 27 August 1990, Guatemala City, Guatemala) is a Guatemalan-Danish singer of Swiss and German origin based in Denmark. Samay represented Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan with her entry "Should've Known Better."

Early life

Soluna Samay Kettel was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala to a German father, musician Gerd G. Kettel (stage name Gee Gee Kettel) and a Swiss mother, artist Annelis Ziegler. She grew up on the shores of Lago de Atitlán, Guatemala and attended the Robert Muller LIFE school. Soluna moved to Denmark in 2000 when her parents purchased a small farm on Bornholm, a Danish island in the Baltic Sea. Soluna is multilingual speaking fluent English, Danish, Spanish and German. Her name is derived from the Spanish words sol and luna, meaning Sun and Moon. Soluna has a Swiss passport, so, officially she is Swiss.[1]

Music career

Soluna's music career began aged 5 when she joined her father on drums and soon after began singing along. At the age of 10 she switched to electric bass, at 16 to upright bass. With her parents she spent her summers touring and playing music on the streets of Europe, and winters living in Guatemala. Soluna started to learn guitar around the age of 12, when she also wrote her first songs.

National final and Eurovision 2012

Main articles: Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 and Eurovision Song Contest 2012

Soluna was chosen as a wildcard entry by DR1 for the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix (Danish Eurovision Song Contest), singing a song called "Should've Known Better" written by Remee, Isam B (Outlandish) and A Sulaiman and produced by Chief1. She won the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2012 on 21 January over Jesper Nohrstedt and Christian Brøns & Patrik Isaksson, and won the right to represent Denmark at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012.

Results from the voting of the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2012[2]
# Artist Song Norway
Norway		 Russia
Russia		 Germany
Germany		 Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan		 Denmark
Denmark		 Televoting Total
01 Soluna Samay "Should've Known Better" 10 10 10 12 12 56 110
02 Jesper Nohrstedt "Take Our Hearts" 12 12 12 10 10 46 102
03 Christian Brøns & Patrik Isaksson "Venter" 8 8 8 8 8 48 88

The song performed 13th in the first semi-final and finished 9th to qualify for the Eurovision final where she finished 23rd.

Debut album

Soluna recorded her debut album "Sing Out Loud" over a two-year period, produced by Jesper Mejlvang and Michael Friis. It was released by Baltic Records on 23 September 2011.

Discography

Gee Gee & Soluna

  • The Beat Goes On (Ozella Music; 2001)
  • Thinking Of You (Ozella Music; 2004)
  • Movin’ On (Chocolate Factory; 2006)
  • Lucky Seven (Funky Farm Records; 2007)
  • Just Passing Through (Chocolate Factory; 2008)
  • Streetwise (Funky Farm; 2009)
  • The Best & the Rest (Chocolate Factory; 2011)

Soluna Samay

Albums

Title Album details
Sing Out Loud
Soluna Samay
Golden

Singles

Year Title Peak chart positions Album
DEN
[3] 		AUT
[4] 		GER
[5] 		SWI
[6]
2003 "I Wish I Was a Seagull" — — — — Non-album single
2011 "Two Seconds Ago" — — — — Sing Out Loud
"Should've Known Better" 1 51 51 67 Soluna Samay
2012 "Come Again (The Quetzal)"[7] 18 — — —
"Humble" — — — —
2013 "L.O.V.E (If Women Ruled the World)"[8] — — — —

References

  1. ^ "Soluna Samay Interview: Meet Denmark's Eurovision 2012 Contestant". 8 February 2012.
  2. ^ First an international jury gave points to each of the final three contestants and afterwards the points from the Televoters were given.
  3. ^ "Soluna Samay - Danish Charts". danishcharts.dk/ Hung Medien.
  4. ^ "Soluna Samay - Austrian Charts". austriancharts.at/ Hung Medien.
  5. ^ "Soluna Samay - Music Charts". αCharts.us.
  6. ^ "Soluna Samay - Swiss Charts". hitparade.ch/ Hung Medien.
  7. ^ "Stories".
  8. ^ "L.O.V.E. - Single by Soluna Samay". iTunes. 29 April 2013.
Preceded by Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest
2012 		Succeeded by