Rolf Undsæt Løvland (born 19 April 1955) is a Norwegian composer, lyricist, arranger, and pianist. Together with Fionnuala Sherry, he formed the Celtic-Nordic group Secret Garden, in which he was the composer, producer, and keyboardist. He began composing at an early age (he formed a band at the age of nine) and grew up studying at the

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a city and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality is the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 116,000 as of January 2020, following th ...

Music Conservatory, later receiving his master's degree from the Norwegian Institute of Music in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

Notable songs

Løvland has won the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

twice, resulting in Norway's first two titles. He composed the song "

La det swinge "La det swinge" (; "Let it swing") is a song recorded by the pop duo Bobbysocks! –Hanne Krogh and Elisabeth Andreassen– with music composed and Norwegian lyrics written by Rolf Løvland. It in the Eurovision Song Contest 1985 held in Gothenb ...

" in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

. He also composed the song " Nocturne" in

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

, as part of the duo Secret Garden. He also composed the song " You Raise Me Up". In an interview with Radio Norge in February 2010, Løvland stated that this song had been covered more than 500 times thus far.

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand ( ; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, songwriter, producer, and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success across multiple fields of entertainment, being the ...

asked Ann Hampton Callaway to write lyrics to a Rolf Løvland melody which she entitled " I've Dreamed of You", and sang to

James Brolin Craig Kenneth Bruderlin (born July 18, 1940), known professionally as James Brolin, is an American actor. Brolin has won two Golden Globe Awards, Golden Globes and an Emmy Awards, Emmy. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August ...

at their wedding. The song was later recorded on her CD, "A Love Like Ours", released as a single and selected for the album, The Essential Barbra Streisand. Streisand performed this song on her live double CD, Timeless.

Awards

* Spellemannsprisen (Norwegian Grammy equivalent) *Winner of the National radio chart "Song of the year-award" *Grand Prix winner of the

twice (1985 with "

" and 1995 with " Nocturne") *Four times winner of the Norwegian selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, the

Melodi Grand Prix Melodi Grand Prix (), commonly known as Grand Prix and MGP, sometimes as Norsk Melodi Grand Prix, is an annual music competition organised by Norwegian public broadcaster (NRK). It determines for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been sta ...

References

External links

Secret Garden
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lovland, Rolf 1955 births Living people Norwegian composers Norwegian male composers Norwegian songwriters Eurovision Song Contest-winning songwriters Musicians from Kristiansand