Thursday 24 June 2010

Eiríkur Hauksson

Eiríkur Hauksson (born July 4, 1959) is an Icelandic heavy metal vocalist who is educated as a teacher. Eiríkur is considered to be a talented vocalist, able to adopt various styles.

Eiríkur's career as a vocalist began when the song Sekur which he wrote and performed with the Icelandic rock group Start was voted the Icelandic song of the year in 1981. In 1984 Eiríkur's metal group Drýsill released the album Welcome To The Show.

In 1985 Eiríkur recorded two songs, Gaggó-Vest and Gull, written by Gunnar Þórðarson that both became wildly popular in Iceland. Almost overnight he had become one of the most popular singers in Iceland. Although his interest went with the heavy metal genre, he unpretentiously participated in the pop music scene in Iceland, participating in many group efforts in the 1980s.

In 1988 Eiríkur moved to Østfold in Norway to become the vocalist of the power metal group Artch. As their vocalist he's known as Eric Hawk.

Eiríkur was among Iceland's "national team" of singers who recorded Hjálpum þeim, Iceland's equivalent of Do They Know It's Christmas? and We Are the World.

In 1999 Eiríkur sang vocals on the album Soulburner by Swedish melodic death metal band Gardenian as a guest.

Since 2005, Eiríkur tours Europe as the vocalist of Ken Hensley's live band called Live Fire. In late 2007, Eiríkur was announced as the new lead vocalist of Magic Pie, a Norwegian prog rock band.

Eiríkur has also had more of a history with the Eurovision Song Contest than most heavy metal vocalists can claim. In the Icelandic national final of 1986 Eiríkur sang 3 songs which weren't very successful but the night's winner was the song Gleðibankinn written by Magnús Eiríksson and performed by Pálmi Gunnarsson. Since this was Iceland's first participation it was decided that a team of prominent singers would be sent with the song to Bergen. Eiríkur and Helga Möller joined Pálmi, forming the vocal trio ICY. Icelanders had high hopes for the song, and official pointers predicted good going, so it came as quite the shock when Gleðibankinn wound up in 16th place with only 19 points. In 1987 Eiríkur participated as a member of the band Módel who came 2nd with the song Lifið Er Lag. In 1991 Eiríkur was asked to represent Norway as a member of the group Just 4 Fun. In Rome they came 17th with the song Mrs. Thompson. In 2007 Eiríkur won the Icelandic national final with the song Ég Les í Lófa þínum. At the ESC he sang the English version of the song called Valentine Lost which didn't qualify for the Grand Final.




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