Sissel Kyrkjebø also simply known as Sissel, is a Norwegian soprano. She is considered one of the world’s top crossover sopranos. Her musical style ranges from pop recordings and folk songs, to classical vocals and operatic arias. She sings mainly in English and Norwegian and has also sung songs in Spanish, Swedish, Danish, Irish, Italian, French, Russian, Icelandic, Faroese, German, Neapolitan, Māori, Japanese and Latin.
In Norway she is mostly known as Sissel Kyrkjebø; she started using her first name mononymously abroad later in her career. Her first name Sissel’ is a Norwegian variant of ‘Cecilia’. This is a popular first name from Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of church music. Her last name means “church farm” or “church field”, and may be derived from an agricultural property owned by or located near the local church.
She rose to prominence in Norway in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and her cover version of Ole Paus’ song “Innerst i sjelen” gained wide popularity in the 1990s. She is well known for singing the Olympic Hymn (Hymne Olympique) at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway; for duets with Placido Domingo and Charles Aznavour at the “Christmas in Vienna” concert of 1994 and her participation on the Titanic film soundtrack.
Sissel received her first U.S. Grammy nominations in December 2007 for Spirit of the Season, a collection of songs from the choir’s 2006 Christmas concert at Temple Square, was nominated for the Best Classical Crossover Album of the Year, as well as Best Engineered Classical Album.
Sissel’s combined solo record sales (not including soundtracks and other albums to which she contributed) amount to 10 million albums sold, most of them in Norway, a country with 5 million people. Her albums have also sold well in Sweden, Denmark and Japan. Together with Odd Nordstoga, they are the only Norwegian artists to have an album go 11 times platinum in album sales for Strålande jul (Glorious Christmas).
