Bryn’s Music Selection // Emilíana Torrini
Emilíana Torrini (born 16 May 1977) is an Icelandic singer and songwriter. She is best known for her 2009 single “Jungle Drum”, her 1999 album Love in the Time of Science and her performance of “Gollum’s Song” for the 2002 film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Emilíana was born in Iceland, where she grew up in Kópavogur. At the age of seven, she joined a choir as a soprano, until she went to opera school at the age of 15. Her father, Salvatore Torrini, is Italian (from Naples), while her mother, Anna Stella Snorradóttir, is Icelandic. Because of name regulations in Iceland at the time, her father had to change his name to “Davíð Eiríksson”, which also meant that Emilíana had to use the surname after her father in the traditional way. A few years later, the name regulations were changed, and she was again allowed to use her original surname. After being discovered singing in a restaurant in Iceland by Derek Birkett, the owner of One Little Indian Records, Emilíana was asked to visit London to record a song. She decided to stay in London.
Emilíana has been a member of Icelandic artist group GusGus and contributed vocals to several songs on their debut Polydistortion (1997), most notably “Why”. She co-wrote Kylie Minogue’s “Slow” and “Someday” from her Body Language album in 2003. She also produced “Slow” along with Dan Carey; the two were nominated for a Best Dance Recording Grammy Award in 2005 for their work on the track. Prior to these, Emilíana contributed vocals to songs on Thievery Corporation’s 2002 album The Richest Man in Babylon and was credited with composing the songs “Resolution”, “Until The Morning” and “Heaven’s Gonna Burn Your Eyes” from that album. Also in 2002, she sang vocals on Paul Oakenfold’s song “Hold Your Hand” taken from his Bunkka album.