Silvia Night

Silvia Night is a fictional pop singer character from Iceland, played by the real actress and singer Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir. Ágústa Eva was born on July 28, 1982, in Reykjavík, Iceland. She is best known for portraying Silvia Night in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest. The character of Silvia Night became famous for her outrageous and controversial behavior at Eurovision, which attracted international media attention. This biography will cover both the fictional pop star Silvia Night and the real-life performer Ágústa Eva, focusing on their music career, Eurovision performance, and later projects.

Ágústa Eva grew up in Iceland and developed a passion for acting and music. She studied acting at the École Philippe Gaulier theatre school in Paris, preparing for a career in the performing arts. She also sang in local bands (such as Kritikal Mazz and Ske) and started a solo music career in 2005, gaining experience as a singer. In 2005, Ágústa Eva teamed up with writer Gaukur Úlfarsson to create the character Silvía Nótt, known in English as Silvia Night. This character was developed for an Icelandic comedy TV show called Sjáumst með Silvíu Nótt (“The Silvia Night Show”). Silvia Night was designed as a satirical “diva” persona – essentially a parody of a self-obsessed celebrity who behaves in extreme, comical ways. Ágústa Eva played Silvia as a vain, rude, and overly dramatic pop star who believes she is the most talented person on Earth. The over-the-top humor made the character very popular in Iceland. Ágústa Eva’s performance as Silvia Night even won a 2005 Edda Award (an Icelandic film and TV award) for Best TV Personality/Character. The TV show, built around Silvia’s wild interviews and antics, aired from 2005 to 2007 and made Silvia Night a household name in Iceland.

Silvia Night’s biggest moment was representing Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the pop song “Congratulations”. She had won Iceland’s national selection to attend Eurovision with the Icelandic version “Til hamingju Ísland”. The contest took place in Athens, Greece, and Silvia’s appearance quickly became infamous. In character, Silvia behaved like a spoiled superstar. During rehearsals, she used foul language in her song lyrics (singing “I’ll fucking win” instead of the clean version “I’ll win”), which broke Eurovision rules. This had to be corrected before the live show. On stage, her flashy performance included dramatic props and self-confident poses. Many audience members and other countries’ fans reacted negatively. In the semi-final, the crowd booed Silvia Night loudly, upset by her seemingly arrogant and unprofessional behavior. Silvia failed to advance to the Eurovision final. After learning she didn’t qualify, Silvia (still in character) had an angry outburst. She yelled insults at journalists and fellow contestants and used vulgar words in public. For example, she accused other singers of cheating and shouted at reporters, calling them rude names. This was widely reported in the media and even became a hit on the internet (a video of her meltdown gained over a million views in a few days). While these antics were meant as satire, they caused a lot of controversy. Eurovision fans and media across Europe talked about Silvia Night’s behavior, giving Ágústa Eva and her character an unexpected level of international fame (and notoriety).

Despite the mixed reception at Eurovision, the Silvia Night character had some real musical success in Iceland. In 2007, Silvia Night released a pop album titled Goldmine. The album was very popular in Iceland – it reached number one on the official Icelandic albums chart and stayed at the top for two weeks. Goldmine included catchy singles like “Thank You Baby” and the title track “Goldmine,” which received radio play in Iceland. According to Silvia’s official website at the time, she had signed one of the biggest record deals in Icelandic music history. The success of the album showed that even though Silvia Night was a fictional persona, she had a genuine fan base in her home country. However, after the Goldmine album and the Eurovision chapter, Silvia Night largely disappeared from the spotlight. After 2007, there were no new major projects for the character, and Silvia Night went quiet publicly. Ágústa Eva retired the Silvia persona, moving on to other work in her career.

After the Silvia Night era, Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir continued to establish herself as a versatile actress and singer in Iceland. She appeared in several Icelandic films, often taking on serious acting roles very different from the silly Silvia character. For example, Ágústa Eva played a key role (Eva Lind) in the 2006 crime drama film Mýrin (known in English as Jar City). She also starred in other local movies such as Sveitabrúðkaup (Country Wedding, 2008) and Bjarnfreðarson (2009). In addition to on-screen acting, Ágústa Eva became known for her voice acting in animation. Notably, she was the Icelandic voice of Princess Rapunzel in Disney’s Tangled (2010) and of Queen Elsa in Disney’s Frozen (2013) and its sequels. Her ability to sing and act made her a great choice for dubbing these famous musical characters. Ágústa Eva also remained involved in music and stage performance, though more on a national level. In 2018, she recorded a duet song in Icelandic with singer Magni Ásgeirsson, showing she still enjoys singing beyond the Silvia Night persona.

In recent years, Ágústa Eva has reached international audiences through acting. She had a role in the Norwegian TV series Beforeigners (2019), an HBO-distributed science fiction drama, where she played a character named Urðr. This show introduced her to viewers outside of Iceland. Ágústa Eva even made a brief appearance in a Hollywood film – she played a small part as a “Young Icelandic Woman” in Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021), a blockbuster superhero movie. These projects demonstrate that Ágústa Eva’s career evolved well beyond her Silvia Night fame.