Ida Maria biography
Ida Maria Bí¸rli Sivertsen (born 13 July 1984), is a Norwegian rock musician and songwriter known primarily by the stage name Ida Maria, (pronounced 'Ee-da'). Her first album, Fortress Round My Heart was released in 2008. In November 2010 she released her second album Katla in Norway; the album was released internationally on 7 June 2011.
Ida Maria was born and raised in the small town of Nesna in Helgeland, Norway]. She currently lives in Nesna.
She specializes in fiercely energetic and exciting alternative pop-punk music with catchy melodies and witty lyrics. Ida taught herself to play guitar and began performing at local concerts at age fourteen.
Ida Maria gained considerable success in Norway in 2007 after winning two national competitions for unknown artists - Zoom urí¸rt 2006 and Urí¸rtkonkurransen 2007 - and playing successful shows at the annual Norwegian music industry festival 2007 and 2008. Her singles "Oh My God" and "Stella" were both played regularly on Norwegian national radio station NRK P3.
Ida Maria later expanded her popularity outside of her native country, namely in the United Kingdom, where she appeared on Later... with Jools Holland, was interviewed by The Times, and performed at the Glastonbury Festival.
In September, 2009 Ida released a remix of her debut single "Oh My God" with punk rock icon Iggy Pop singing backing vocals.
Having performed at various festivals, including Reading, and being nominated for Best Rock/Indie Artist category at the BT Digital Music Awards 2008, Ida Maria has toured in Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.
Ida Maria performed her song "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked" on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 2009.
According to her Twitter account, she is currently recording her third album.
Ida Maria is reported to have the neurological phenomenon of synesthesia which, in her case, means she envisions colours when she hears music.
"˜I don't know what life's like without it, as I've always had it,' she says. "˜As I've gotten older, I've seen that it has definitely been a bonus in terms of what I do. When I started to play guitar, I made this colour sheet for all the chords. I didn't know what they were called, but I knew exactly what colours and shades they were. So I made songs with colour palettes which was really cool.'
Ida Maria's song "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked" was featured in episode 8 of My Life As Liz entitled "A Prom to Remember Part 2". It was played during the dancing sequence at the prom. Her song "Louie" is being used for some commercials for the FX TV show Louie. The song "Oh My God" was one of the first songs confirmed to be featured in Rock Band 3.
Ida Maria's song "Keep Me Warm" was featured in the season 4 finale of the ABC drama Grey's Anatomy and during some Nivea commercials during the Fall of 2009.
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