Soluna Samay Kettel (born 27 August 1990,

Guatemala City Guatemala City (, also known colloquially by the nickname Guate), is the Capital city, national capital and largest city of the Guatemala, Republic of Guatemala. It is also the Municipalities of Guatemala, municipal capital of the Guatemala Depa ...

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

) is a Guatemalan-Danish singer of Swiss and German origin based in Denmark. Samay represented

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2012 The Eurovision Song Contest 2012 was the 57th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Baku, Azerbaijan, following the country's victory at the with the song "Running Scared (Ell & Nikki song), Running Scared" by Ell & Nikki, El ...

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

with her entry " Should've Known Better."

Early life

Soluna Samay Kettel was born in

to a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

father, musician Gerd G. Kettel (stage name Gee Gee Kettel) and a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

mother, artist Annelis Ziegler. She grew up on the shores of

Lago de Atitlán __NOTOC__ Lago, which means "lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie comple ...

, Guatemala and attended the Robert Muller LIFE school. Soluna moved to Denmark in 2000 when her parents purchased a small farm on

Bornholm Bornholm () is a List of islands of Denmark, Danish island in the Baltic Sea, to the east of the rest of Denmark, south of Sweden, northeast of Germany and north of Poland. Strategically located, Bornholm has been fought over for centuries. I ...

, a Danish island in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

. Soluna is multilingual speaking fluent English, Danish, Spanish and German. Her name is derived from the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

words ''sol'' and ''luna'', meaning

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

and

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

. Soluna has a Swiss passport, so, officially she is Swiss.

Music career

Soluna's music career began aged 5 when she joined her father on drums and soon after began singing along. At the age of 10 she switched to electric bass, at 16 to upright bass. With her parents she spent her summers touring and playing music on the streets of Europe, and winters living in Guatemala. Soluna started to learn guitar around the age of 12, when she also wrote her first songs.

National final and Eurovision 2012

Soluna was chosen as a wildcard entry by DR1 for the

Dansk Melodi Grand Prix Dansk Melodi Grand Prix (), also known as Melodi Grand Prix or simply DMGP, is an annual music competition organised by the Danish public broadcaster DR since 1957, which determines for the Eurovision Song Contest. The festival has produced ...

(Danish Eurovision Song Contest), singing a song called "Should've Known Better" written by

Remee Remee Sigvardt Jackman (né Mikkel Johan Imer Sigvardt; born 8 November 1974), better known as Remee, is a Danish rapper, songwriter, producer and composer. Career Remee has written more than 60 hits and has sold over 25 million records. He has c ...

, Isam B (Outlandish) and A Sulaiman and produced by Chief1. She won the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2012 on 21 January over

Jesper Nohrstedt Jesper Nohrstedt Boesgaard (born 20 September 1994) is a Danish singer. He made his debut on the Danish ''X Factor'' in 2010. Two years later he reached second place in the music contest Dansk Melodi Grand Prix; had he won, he would have represe ...

and

Christian Brøns Christian Brøns Petersen (born 1977) is a Danish singer. In 2001, Christian took part in the first season of TV Danmark's reality television series '' Big Brother'', but withdrew in protest. Shortly after he signed with Spin Music releasing ...

& Patrik Isaksson, and won the right to represent Denmark at the

. ; Results from the voting of the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2012First an international jury gave points to each of the final three contestants and afterwards the points from the Televoters were given. The song performed 13th in the first semi-final and finished 9th to qualify for the Eurovision final where she finished 23rd.

Debut album

Soluna recorded her debut album " Sing Out Loud" over a two-year period, produced by Jesper Mejlvang and Michael Friis. It was released by Baltic Records on 23 September 2011.

Discography

Gee Gee & Soluna

*''The Beat Goes On'' (Ozella Music; 2001) *''Thinking Of You'' (Ozella Music; 2004) *''Movin’ On'' (Chocolate Factory; 2006) *''Lucky Seven'' (Funky Farm Records; 2007) *''Just Passing Through'' (Chocolate Factory; 2008) *''Streetwise'' (Funky Farm; 2009) *''The Best & the Rest'' (Chocolate Factory; 2011)

Soluna Samay

Albums

Singles

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Samay, Soluna 1990 births Living people Danish child singers Danish women singer-songwriters Danish singer-songwriters Dansk Melodi Grand Prix winners Guatemalan emigrants to Denmark Guatemalan people of Swiss descent Guatemalan people of German descent Musicians from Guatemala City English-language singers from Denmark Spanish-language singers of Denmark 21st-century Danish women singers Eurovision Song Contest entrants