Official homepage: www.eirikur.info Current bands/projects: Ken Hensley's Live Fire, Magic Pie, Trond Holter Project, A Rock 'N' Roll Adventure, Artch. Eiríkur Hauksson (born July 4, 1959) is an Icelandic heavy metal vocalist that is educated as a teacher. Eiríkur is considered to be a talented vocalist, able to adopt various styles. He has been commended by metal enthusiasts for his ability to adopt the styles of various legends of metal, including, but not limited to Bruce Dickinson, Graham Bonnet, Ronnie James Dio and Joey Belladonna. He can also sing in a variety of styles suitable to pop and rock. Eiríkur's career as a vocalist began in earnest when the song "Sekur" he wrote and performed with the Icelandic rock group Start was voted the Icelandic song of the year in 1981. In 1984 Eiríkur's metal group Drýsill, released the album "Welcome to the show" which was released in 1000 copies, which was a considerable feat for a group that published on their own and played music outside the mainstream. In 1985 Eiríkur recorded two songs, "Gaggó-Vest" and "Gull", written by Gunnar Þórðarson that both became wildly popular in Iceland. Almost overnight he had become one of the most popular singers in Iceland. Although his interest went with the heavy metal genre, he unpretentiously participated in the pop music scene in Iceland, participating in many group efforts in the 1980's. In 1988 Eiríkur moved to Østfold in Norway to become the vocalist of the power metal group Artch. Their first album, released in 1988, Another return (to Church Hill) received much acclaim by magazines such as Kerrang (5 K's out of 5) and Metal Forces (100 out of 100). Their second album, For the sake of Mankind, was released in 1991 and was well received by the metal community as well. In 1993 Artch drifted apart. In 1999 they teamed up again for an anniversary of the Norwegian Scream Magazine, held some concerts, released a DVD titled Another Return: Live... and Beyond. Metal Blade Records remastered and rereleased Artch's two albums in 2000. Artch's bassist, Bernt Jansen, is also known as Flash, Wig Wam's bassist. Through this connection Eiríkur has performed backing vocals for Wig Wam. Eiríkur was among Iceland's "national team" of singers who recorded Hjálpum þeim, Iceland's equivalent of Do They Know It's Christmas? and We Are the World. Eiríkur has also had more of a history with the Eurovision Song Contest than most heavy metal vocalists can claim. In 1986 Iceland participated in the ESC for the first time and the Icelandic nation was taken with Eurovision fever for the first time. Eiríkur performed three songs in the finals on the 15th of March: Þetta gengur ekki lengur written by Ómar Halldórsson Gefðu mér gaum written by Gunnar Þórðarson and Ólafur Haukur Símonarson Mitt á milli Moskvu og Washington written by Ragnhildur Gísladóttir, Jakob Frímann Magnússon and Valgeir Guðjónsson The night's winner was the song Gleðibankinn, written by Magnús Eiríksson and performed by Pálmi Gunnarsson. Since this was Iceland's first participation it was decided that a team of prominent singers would be sent with the song to Bergen. Eiríkur and Helga Möller joined Pálmi, forming the vocal trio ICY. Icelanders had high hopes for the song, and official pointers predicted good going, so it came as quite the shock when Gleðibankinn wound up in 16th place with only 19 points. The following year Eiríkur performed the song "Lífið er lag" written by Gunnlaugur Briem and Friðrik Karlsson in the Icelandic national finals. The song wound up in second place, with Hægt og hljótt performed by Halla Margrét being sent to Brussels. As a member of the composite Icelandic group Model Eiríkur recorded Lífið er lag. The song was released on Model's eponymous album in 1987 and went on to enduring popularity in Iceland. By the year 1991 Eiríkur had taken up residence in Norway. Norwegians did not hold a national final that year, but rather approached four artists, Eiríkur among them, and asked them to perform at the ESC in Rome. This quartet participated under the name Just 4 Fun with the song Mrs. Thompson. They placed 17th with 14 points. Between the years 2004 and 2006 Eiríkur was one of a board of Eurovision specialists that presented the participant songs in the ESC to the Nordic nations. In 2007 Eiríkur performed the song Ég les í lófa þínum written by Sveinn Rúnar Sigurðsson and Kristján Hreinsson at the Icelandic nationals. The song won the finals with approximately 60% following by televote. Eiríkur will represent Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki in 2007 with the song, though rumour currently has it that the song will be performed in English rather than Icelandic, and then under another title. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.