Silvía Night facts for kids

Silvía Night (Icelandic: Silvía Nótt) is a fictional, satirical character on Sjáumst með Silvíu Nótt (The Silvia Night Show), an Icelandic comedy show of the television channel Skjár einn. The character was invented by Gaukur Úlfarsson and Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir; the latter plays Silvía Night. Silvía Night interviews people in real-life situations.

Before the show made its début on TV, and when Silvía was still unknown, she used to upset the people she interviewed dramatically with her outrageous behaviour.

Silvía Night was Iceland's participant in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. Her antics, both onstage and offstage, created controversy and garnered international media attention. Her album Goldmine was released in April. It topped the Official Icelandic Albums chart on 23 April 2007.

The character

Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir, temporary singer of the band Ske and a young and unknown actress, and Gaukur Úlfarsson, decided to invent a character to adopt as an alter ego (cf. Ali G) that brought out all the worst elements of human behaviour in modern society. Silvía's personality is highly affected by narcissism, self-centeredness and she sees herself as the most famous and talented person walking on the planet Earth. Her full Icelandic name is Silvía Nótt Sæmundsdóttir (see Icelandic naming conventions) and she was born on 20 February 1973. Silvía originally means "wood nymph" and Nótt simply means "night". The name was probably not meant to have any learned connotations, but is rather typical for Icelandic pop culture Christening fashions of the new century. Silvía's boyfriend is the Argentinian alpha male Romario Hugo Estevez, performed by Icelandic actor Björn Thors. Silvía's favorite foods are sushi and feta cheese and she aims for a career as a model, singer and a movie star. Her use of language includes heavy slang and she frequently uses English words and phrases while speaking in Icelandic, not always correctly. (In her public appearances at the Eurovision Song Contest, she spoke entirely in English, exaggerating her Icelandic accent even more than usual.)

Eurovision Song Contest

Silvía Night was Iceland's participant in Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the song "Congratulations", after winning the Icelandic national finals.

The song was originally in Icelandic, called "Til hamingju Ísland" ("Congratulations Iceland"). The Icelandic lyrics, heavily filled with slang, talk about how lucky Icelanders are that she was born in Iceland and that she is going to win the contest, because she's better than all the other contestants (see 'The Character' above). The song was controversial because it was being distributed on the Internet before the competition, which was contrary to the rules of the competition. Silvía Night was nonetheless not banned from the competition. This decision by RÚV (The National Broadcasting Company) has been criticised, with one participating song writer filing a complaint, but the case was dismissed.

Silvía's song came 13th in the semi-final held on 18 May in Athens, leaving her out of the finals on 20 May.

Goldmine

Silvía's debut studio album was titled Goldmine. According to her official website she signed one of the largest record contracts in Icelandic music history. Goldmine topped the Official Icelandic Albums chart for two weeks, starting on 23 April 2007. The album also produced two charting singles, "Thank You Baby" and "Goldmine".

See also

In Spanish: Silvía Night para niños