Silvía Night
Silvía Night (Icelandic: Silvía Nótt) is a satirical comic character in Sjáumst með Silvíu Nótt, an Icelandic semi-reality show on the TV channel Skjár 1. The character was invented by Gaukur Úlfarsson and Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir; the latter plays Silvía Night. Silvía Night interviews real Icelandic people; before the show made its début on TV and when Silvía was still unknown she used to upset the people she interviewed due to her outrageous behaviour.
The character
Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir, singer for the band Ske and a young and unknown actress, and Gaukur Úlfarsson decided to invent a character that brought out all the worst elements of human behaviour in modern society. Silvía's personality is highly affected by narcissism 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 is 22 years old. Silvía means goddess of silver and Nótt simply means night.
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 blends English into almost every single sentence.
Influence on audience
Silvía Night has influenced Icelandic youth quite a bit and youngsters imitate her unique style in their everyday demeanour. Many get irritated by her behavior and find it offensive and vulgar; her fans claim that such behavior constitutes a satire on the greed in modern society rather than simply a comical character.
Trivia
It took a while for the Icelandic audience to realize that Silvía Night was a fictional character and not just a mad woman in search for attention. The actress, Ágústa Eva, is more often referred to as Silvía Night than with her real name.
In February 2006, Silvía was voted Iceland's sexiest woman by the audience of national radio station Rás 2. Also, Ágústa Eva came in fourth place.
Silvía Night received the Edda (Icelandic Film and TV Awards) in 2005 for the Best Comical Show of the Year and as the TV Personality of the Year.
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 finals took place on the 18th of February 2006. The song was controversial because it was being distributed on the Internet before the competition had taken place, as that was not allowed by 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 was performed in English in Athens and has now been translated, see the lyrics [1]here. See Silvia's Congratulations music video here, here or here.
Congratulations came 13th in the semifinal held on May 18 in Athens, leaving her out of the finals on May 20.
Silvia Nights tantrum also made the number 1 most watched clip on youtube.com getting 300,000 views within 4 days.
Controversies
During her presence in Athens, and according to her role's character, Silvia behaved provocatively and rudely to technicians and journalists, calling them “fucking amateurs”. In addition she was particularly mean shouting on stage "Fuck you, you fucking retards". The participants, not knowing that Silvia Night was actually there as a performed role and not as the actual person, mistook her behaviour for real, not to mention that the phrase "fucking retards" was misheard for "fuckin' Greeks". The media criticised and attacked the singer, thinking that she was actually problematic and rude (a reaction similar to how she was first received in her country before becoming famous) and that she had offended Greece and its people. During the press conference she ordered the journalists not to look her in the eyes. One of them did and she ordered her "bodyguard" to take her out. The bodyguard obeyed and carried the "journalist" (who was an actress, part of the "show") on his shoulders.
Another controversy is the English lyrics to her Eurovision song, “Congratulations”. On the first verse the lyrics go “The vote is in, they say I win”, however in the video and at rehearsals she sang “The vote is in, I'll fucking win”. According to Eurovision rules, songs shouldn't contain swearwords. [2] Silvía Nótt has personally responded on her website, that she will “fucking say what [she] fucking [wants]”. In the preliminary contest, known as the Semi Final on May 18 she did not use the expletitive, instead she sang "I'll freaking win". In her appearance for the semi-finals, a great part of the audience and artists from the other countries reacted by booing her [3] not tolerating her supposedly provocative and unprofessional behavior.
The song didn't make it to the finals. Silvia, being true to her role, had some performances to indicate her 'regret'. She pretended to slap her boyfriend, and then 'threatened' to jump from a bridge. In addition she started yelling foul language and spitting at the journalists and called Lordi 'ugly people from Finland without a real make-up artist', Treble the group from the Netherlands (who she had previously upstaged on Icelandic TV) 'sluts', and Swedish singer Carola Häggkvist an 'ugly fucking old bitch'. She also threatened to sue the journalist (calling her 'slut'), TV station and the competition for 'spreading lies' about her that she hated Greeks.
External Links
Eurovision
- Silvia Night on ESC 2006 Semi Final
- Footage of Silvia's tantrum after Eurovision Semi Final
- Iceland's promotion video Congratulations for ESC 2006
- Silvia about her song Congratulations
- Silvia steals the show on 6 til sjö from Treble promoting themselves for Eurovision in Iceland
- Til hamingju Ísland by Silvia Night in Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins 2006 on 4.2 (semi final) and 18.2 (final)