Sara Maria Forsberg (; born 2 May 1994), formerly known professionally as SAARA, Smo, Smoukahontas, or Smokahontas, is a Finnish singer, songwriter,

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

personality, and television presenter. As a singer, Forsberg was signed to

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

in 2014 and released her debut single " Ur Cool" in April 2015, which went on to become a top ten hit in her home country of Finland. She left in early 2016 after disagreements with the label and her producer. Forsberg has continued to release music as an independent artist in affiliation with

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

. As of November 2017, her YouTube channel has more than a million subscribers and over 100 million views.

Early and personal life

Forsberg was born on 2 May 1994 in

Jakobstad Jakobstad (; , ) is a town in Finland, located on the west coast of the country. Jakobstad is situated in Ostrobothnia (administrative region), Ostrobothnia, along the Gulf of Bothnia. The population of Jakobstad is approximately , while the Jako ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. Her father was born in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. Her native language is Finnish, although she spoke mainly English in the first six years of her life as she lived abroad with her family; due to her parents' careers as

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

missionaries, she moved frequently as a child, living in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

for five years and the United Kingdom for a year, before returning to Finland permanently.Ellen DeGeneres wants the Finnish woman as her guest
YLE, Finland, 14 March 2014. Forsberg spent a few years in a music academy in

and later studied to become a chef before embarking on a singing career. In October 2023, Forsberg revealed that she was born

intersex Intersex people are those born with any of several sex characteristics, including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binar ...

and had been diagnosed with Swyer syndrome as a teenager. Earlier in 2016, she revealed she has breast implants.

Career

Starting from YouTube

Since her video "What Languages Sound Like to Foreigners" was posted on YouTube on 3 March 2014 on her channel Smoukahontas Official (which subsequently has been changed into SAARA), it has been seen over 20 million times as of June 2018. Her ability to mimic accents and speech melodies of different languages, which included Japanese,

Estuary English Estuary English is an English accent, continuum of accents, or continuum of accent features associated with the area along the River Thames and its estuary, including London, since the late 20th century. In 2000, the phonetician John C. We ...

, American with California accent, Swedish, French, Arabic and Spanish, using mainly nonexistent words, was praised by media in a number of countries.Girl Speaks Gibberish With Perfect Accents To Show What Languages Sound Like To Foreigners
The Huffington Post, 6 March 2014.
L'Huffington Post, Italy, 9 March 2014.
The Huffington Post, Germany, 11 March 2014.
The Telegraph, 10 March 2014.What languages sound like to foreigners: YouTube video by Sara 'smoukahontas'
, News.com.au, Australia, 12 March 2014.Suomalaistytön kielivideosta tuli Youtube-hitti – katso!
MTV Finland, 5 March 2014. In the first sequel, she re-impersonated some of the languages from the initial video and added new ones, including "Something African" and "Scottish". In another sequel, her "One Girl, 14 Genres" video, a number of musical genres were mimicked.
The Huffington Post, 11 March 2014.

Musical career

In July 2014, it was revealed that Forsberg had signed a record deal with

with

Rodney Jerkins Rodney Roy Jerkins (born July 29, 1977), better known by his stage name Darkchild, is an American record producer, rapper, and songwriter. He has collaborated with a broad range of popular artists. Jerkins has won two Grammy Awards from 19 nomi ...

acting as her executive producer. Capitol Records chairman and CEO Steve Barnett said that the only artists that he had the same feeling about other than Forsberg were

Adele Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (; born 5 May 1988) is an English singer-songwriter. Regarded as a British cultural icon, icon, she is known for her mezzo-soprano vocals and sentimental songwriting. List of awards and nominations received by Adele, ...

and

Sam Smith Samuel Frederick Smith (born 19 May 1992) is an English singer and songwriter. In 2012, they rose to prominence when they featured on Disclosure (band), Disclosure's breakthrough single "Latch (song), Latch", which peaked at number eleven on ...

. She is the first Finnish person to be signed to a major American record label. Her debut single " Ur Cool" was released on 21 April 2015 and became a Top 10 single in Finland. In February 2016, Forsberg left Capitol Records. She told in her YouTube video that the producer Jerkins had left Capitol Records and she was left stranded, contractually not being allowed to work without him. Owing to the unwillingness of the producer to let her out of the contract, Capitol Records agreed to terminate her contract and let her go create freely again. Saara also said in the video that she felt bad promoting a single she absolutely hated. In April 2016, Saara's manager Johannes Ylinen announced that Saara had signed with Universal Music Group, with which she would continue releasing music independently. Forsberg released her debut EP ''Hello I'm Saara'' on 27 May 2016. The EP's lead single, "The Urge", was released in June 2016. In 2017, Saara published three singles: in February, "Permission to Love"; in March, "Superpowers"; and in October, the single "All the Love ft. Jillionaire". On 2 May 2018, her birthday, Saara released her second album ''Almost Acoustic EP'' with four new songs and one remix. On the same day she also had her first YouTube live concert. Forsberg also writes music for other artists. In July 2015, it was revealed that Forsberg has writing credit for the K-pop band

Girls' Generation Girls' Generation (), also known as SNSD, is a South Korean girl group formed by SM Entertainment. The group is composed of eight members: Taeyeon, Sunny, Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona, and Seohyun. Originally a nine-piec ...

song " You Think" in their album '' Lion Heart''. The song charted on Billboard's digital song list at nr. 3 September 2015. In 2016, Forsberg co-wrote the song "

My Heart Wants Me Dead "My Heart Wants Me Dead" is a song by Swedish singer Lisa Ajax. The song was released in Sweden as a digital download on 28 February 2016, and was written by Anton Hård af Segerstad, Linnea Deb, Joy Deb, Nikki Flores, and Sara Forsberg Sa ...

" by

Lisa Ajax Lisa Kristina Ajax (born 13 August 1998) is a Swedish singer. She began her career after winning '' Idol 2014'', and is also known for her five Melodifestivalen participations, having qualified to the final on four occasions. Career After par ...

for

Melodifestivalen 2016 Melodifestivalen 2016 was the 56th edition of the Swedish music competition Melodifestivalen, which selected Sweden's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016. The competition was organised by (SVT) and took place over the six-week period betw ...

, as well as the song "Drip Drop" by

Taemin Lee Tae-min (; born July 18, 1993), better known mononymously as Taemin, is a South Korean singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor. He debuted as a member of the South Korean boy band Shinee in May 2008 and the supergroup SuperM in 2019, both un ...

from his second solo album ''

Press It ''Press It'' is the debut studio album by South Korean singer Taemin. It was released on February 23, 2016, by SM Entertainment. The title song for the album is "Press Your Number". Background and release On February 15, 2016, SM Entertainment ...

''. In June 2015, Forsberg was featured on the song "

Vauvoja "Vauvoja" () is a song by Finnish singer Kasmir (singer), Kasmir from his forthcoming second studio album. The song features Finnish singer Sara Forsberg, Saara. It was released on 15 May 2015 through Universal Music Group, Universal Music Finland, ...

" by Finnish singer Kasmir. The song went on to reach number-one on the Finnish downloads and airplay charts. In the summer of 2017 Saara was featured on the song "Can't Buy Love" by THRDL!FE.

In TV and film

In April 2014, Forsberg signed a development deal with production/distribution company Omnivision Entertainment/ My Damn Channel. In May 2014, Forsberg relocated to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

to perform on a YouTube channel affiliated with My Damn Channel called "WestToastTV" in addition to maintaining her own personal channel. In October 2014, it was revealed that Forsberg has a small role in the Hong Kong-Chinese-American film ''

Skiptrace Skiptracing is the process of locating a person's whereabouts. Skiptracing tactics may be employed by a skip tracer, contact tracer (in a public health context), debt collector, process server, bail bondsman or bail agency enforcer (bounty hun ...

'' directed by Finnish director

Renny Harlin Renny Harlin (born Renny Lauri Mauritz Harjola; 15 March 1959) is a Finnish film director, Film producer, producer, and screenwriter who has worked in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood, Europe, and Cinema of China, China. His best-known film ...

. In December 2015, the news broke that Forsberg had spent the last 18 months working with

Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company founded by filmmaker George Lucas in December 10, 1971 in San Rafael, California, and later moved to San Francisco in 2005. It is best known for creating and producing th ...

and was the creator of an alien language used in '' Star Wars: The Force Awakens''. In July 2016, it was revealed that Forsberg had created another alien language for a Hollywood film, this time for the film ''

Star Trek Beyond ''Star Trek Beyond'' is a 2016 American science fiction film, science fiction action film directed by Justin Lin, written by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung. It is the 13th film in the ''Star Trek'' franchise and the third installment in List of Star ...

'', in which she has also a minor voice role as an alien named Kalara. In 2016, Forsberg worked as a judge on the fifth season of ''

Talent Suomi ''Talent Suomi'' ("Finnish Talent" or "Talent Finland") is the Finnish version of the ''Got Talent'' format of the program and airs on Nelonen. The idea behind the programme is to search for the most talented and promising entertainment. Talent ...

'', the Finnish version of ''

Got Talent ''Got Talent'' is a British talent show TV format conceived and owned by Simon Cowell's Syco Entertainment. It has spawned spin-offs in over 60 countries, in what is now referred to as the 'Got Talent' format, similar to that described by Frema ...

''. On 5 February 2017, a new Finnish game show called ''Kaikki vastaan 1'' ("Everyone Against 1") began airing live on Sunday evenings on the Finnish network, Nelonen TV, with Forsberg as a co-host. The first season ran until 9 April 2017. Also, in February 2017, Forsberg began hosting ''

Remotely Funny ''Remotely Funny'' is a British children's game show hosted by SAARA. The show is produced by Twenty Twenty Kids for CBBC. The show features three children from across the United Kingdom connected remotely via webcam competing in various chal ...

'', a British game show on

CBBC CBBC is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 to 12. Its sister c ...

. In 2018, Forsberg went on appearing on Finnish TV, in spring on the contest ''Pallon ympäri'' ("Around The Globe"), where she has been travelling around the world by performing tasks as one of the three competitors. She has been told to go on co-hosting again the studio contest ''Kaikki vastaan 1'' in autumn 2018.

In media

Forsberg was interviewed on British

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

, Finnish public radio

Yle Yleisradio Oy (; ), abbreviated as Yle () (formerly styled in all uppercase until 2012), translated into English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founded in 1926. It is a joint-stock comp ...

and Swedish TV in which she confirmed that she was contacted by a producer from ''

The Ellen DeGeneres Show ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' is an American first-run syndicated talk show that was hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. The show ran for nineteen seasons from September 8, 2003, to May 26, 2022, in which it broadcast 3,339 episodes. It was produced by ...

''. For approximately 180 seconds, she was a guest on the show on 7 April 2014 and she took home a tripod and a camera as a gift from DeGeneres. The trip was documented in a short series titled ''Sara Goes LA'' which was produced by Finnish broadcaster MTV and has also been published on YouTube since.

Other projects

Forsberg announced her new clothing line FRSBRG in May 2015 and advertised it to her Finnish viewers with a number of well known celebrities from her home country. It was planned to be released in November the same year.

Discography

Extended plays

* ''Hello I'm Saara'' (2016) * ''Almost Acoustic'' (2018)

Singles

Featured

Writing credits

Filmography

References

External links

* *
Sara Forsberg on Spotify

Sara Forsberg on Facebook
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Forsberg, Sara 1994 births Living people 21st-century Finnish actresses 21st-century Finnish LGBTQ people 21st-century Finnish women singers Capitol Records artists English-language mass media in Finland English-language singers from Finland English-language YouTube channels Finnish expatriates in the United States Finnish female models Finnish intersex people Finnish LGBTQ actors Finnish LGBTQ artists Finnish LGBTQ broadcasters Finnish LGBTQ models Finnish LGBTQ singers Finnish multi-instrumentalists Finnish people of Swedish descent Finnish pop singers Finnish television presenters Finnish women fashion designers Finnish women pop singers Finnish women television presenters Finnish YouTubers Intersex musicians Intersex women LGBTQ fashion designers LGBTQ women singers LGBTQ YouTubers Lucasfilm people People from Jakobstad