Venke Knutson

Last updated

Venke Knutson
Venke knutson commons.jpg
Live in Bergen, Norway, 2008.
Photographer: Pascual Strømsnæs.
Background information
Born (1978-10-20) 20 October 1978 (age 42)
Birkeland, Norway
GenresPop
Occupation(s)Singer, songwriter, school teacher
InstrumentsVocals, guitar, drums
Years active2003–present
Labels Universal

Venke Knutson (born 20 October 1978) is a Norwegian singer. Since 2003, she has had six top 10 hits in Norway.

Contents

Life and career

Venke Knutson was born in Birkeland, in 1978. She was the youngest of three sisters, in a musical family, and she got inspired to sing by her elder sisters.

Early in her life she lived with her family in the United States.

She joined the school choir. Inspired by two older sisters, she applied for music at the Vågsbygd skole (Vågsbygd High School), when the family was about to go back home to Norway.

She used to be an elementary teacher in Norway. She was earlier married to Svenn Kåre Liodden, but they divorced. She married Thomas Wold in 2008.

She debuted in 2003 with the single "Panic", followed by her first album Scared and the singles "Scared" and "Kiss". [1]

Venke Knutson entered the qualifying rounds of the Melodi Grand Prix 2010 (the Norwegian selection process for the Eurovision Song Contest) on 16 January and was voted through to the national "second chance" program, with the song "Jealous 'Cause I Love You", where she was voted through to the national final.

Discography

Albums

YearTitleChart positionsSales
NO
2004Scared5Norwegian sales: 30.000
2005Places I Have Been7Norwegian sales: 20.000
2007Crush14Norwegian sales: 10.000
2010Smiles – The Very Best Of9Norwegian sales: 10.000+

Singles

YearTitleChart positionsAlbum
NO
2003"Panic"10Scared
2004"Scared"10
"Kiss"1
"In2u"1
2005"Just A Minute"1Places I Have Been
"When the Stars Go Blue"
(featuring Kurt Nilsen)
14
2007"Holiday"4Crush
"Walk the Walk"5
"Win With Your Hands Down"1
2010"Jealous 'Cause I Love You"5Smiles – The Very Best of

1 Released as airplay singles

Related Research Articles

Anni-Frid Lyngstad Swedish female singer

Princess Anni-Frid, Dowager Countess of Plauen, better known by her nickname Frida, is a Norwegian-Swedish singer, songwriter and environmentalist. She is best known as one of the founding members and lead singers of the Swedish pop band ABBA.

Alsou

Alsou Ralifovna Abramova, better known as just Alsou, is a Russian singer and actress. She represented Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 in which she received the 2nd place with the song Solo right after Denmark, giving her recognition across Europe. Alsou hosted the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 held in Moscow.

Wendy Wilson American singer

Wendy Wilson is an American singer and television personality and member of the pop singing trio Wilson Phillips. She is the daughter of Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson and his first wife Marilyn, who was a member of girl group the Honeys, and she is the younger sister of Carnie Wilson.

SPAN was a Norwegian rock band that formed in 2000 from the ashes of two other outfits; Explicit Lyrics and Squid. Self-proclaimed as "Norwegian Turbo-Rock 'n' Roll Commandos", the band was made of Jarle Bernhoft on lead vocals and guitar, Fridtjof Nilsen on guitar, Vemund Stavnes on bass and Fredrik Wallumrød on drums. When Vemund Stavnes left in 2003, he was replaced by Kim Nordbæk.

Louise Mandrell

Thelma Louise Mandrell is an American country music singer. She is the younger sister of fellow country singer Barbara Mandrell, and older sister of actress Irlene Mandrell. Louise had a successful singing career in country music from the 1970s, with a string of hits during the 1980s.

Stella Mae Parton is an American country singer and songwriter, widely known for a series of country singles that charted during the mid- to late-1970s, her biggest hit being 1975's "I Want to Hold You In My Dreams Tonight". She is the younger sister of country music entertainer Dolly Parton, and the older sister of singer Randy Parton and actress Rachel Dennison.

Carlene Carter American country singer and songwriter

Carlene Carter is an American country singer and songwriter. She is the daughter of June Carter Cash and her first husband, Carl Smith.

Sandra Lyng Haugen is a Norwegian singer.

Jorun Stiansen is a Norwegian pop singer and artist. She won the Idol version of Pop Idol in 2005.

Maria Arredondo Norwegian singer

Maria Sødal Arredondo is a Norwegian pop singer. Her surname Arredondo comes from her Chilean stepfather.

The Melodi Grand Prix Junior 2007 was Norway's sixth national Melodi Grand Prix Junior for young singers aged 8 to 15. It was held on June 2, 2007, in Oslo Spektrum, Oslo, Norway and broadcast live presented by Stian Barsnes Simonsen. Nine participants participated and the contest was won by 11-year-old Celine Helgemo with her song Bæstevænna (Bestfriends). She received the award out of the hands of Ole Runar, who won the 2006 contest with his song Fotball e supert.

Allison Ann Giles, who performed as Allison Ann Durbin, is a former New Zealand Australian pop singer, known for her success in the late 1960s and 1970s as the "Queen of Pop". Durbin's visual trademark at that time was her lustrous waist-length auburn hair. She is a relative of Canadian-born actress and lyric soprano Deanna Durbin.

Maria Haukaas Mittet

Maria Haukaas Mittet also known as simply Maria is a Norwegian recording artist. She gained national recognition in 2004 for her participation in the Idol reality television series, and international recognition in 2008 as Norway's representative in the 53rd Eurovision Song Contest.

Norway hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 at the Telenor Arena in Oslo, after Alexander Rybak won the 2009 Contest with "Fairytale".

Knutsen is a Norwegian surname. Its origin was as a patronymic name (-sen/-søn/-son/-zen) derived from the first name Knut. Notable people with the surname include:

Else Germeten, née Knutson was a Norwegian women's group executive and film censor and a member of the Labour Party.

Stella Mwangi

Stella Nyambura Mwangi is a Kenyan-Norwegian singer. Much of her music concerns the situation in her home country Kenya, and discrimination her family had to endure after moving to Norway in 1991. Her work has been used in films such as American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile and Save the Last Dance 2, and also in TV-series such as CSI: NY and Scrubs. In Norway, she won the Melodi Grand Prix 2011, and in that same year represented Norway at The Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf, Germany.

The Moir Sisters were a Scottish-Australian pop and folk vocal trio which formed in 1970 by the eponymous sisters, Jean, Margot and Lesley. Their debut single, "Good Morning " (1974), which featured their distinctive high-pitched harmonies, peaked at No. 8 on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart. The group released two albums, Lost: Somewhere Beyond Harmony (1974) and State of Shock, In 1989 Margot Moir released a solo single, "Scarlet Skies" and followed with her album, Strong and Mighty, in 1996. Margot died in 2015 from complications of her diabetes.

Simone Eriksrud is a Norwegian musician, singer and composer from Volda, and a member of D'Sound. She was earlier in her career known as Simone Larsen or just with the mononym Simone.

Paal Flaata

Pål Flåta is a Norwegian vocalist, known from the band Midnight Choir and as a solo artist.

References