Sissel Kyrkjebø

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Sissel Kyrkjebø (; born 24 June 1969 in Bergen), also simply known as Sissel, is a Norwegian soprano.

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She is best known for singing the Olympic Hymn (Hymne Olympique) at the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway, for duets with Plácido Domingo, Charles Aznavour, José Carreras, Neil Sedaka, Warren G, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Josh Groban, Diana Krall, Russell Watson and The Chieftains, and her participation on the Titanic film soundtrack.

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Sissel received her first U.S. Grammy nominations on Dec 6th, 2007 for a collaboration with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Spirit of the Season, a collection of songs from the choir's 2006 Christmas concert featuring Norwegian recording artist Sissel and the Orchestra at Temple Square, was nominated for the Best Classical Crossover Album of the Year, as well as Best Engineered Classical Album.

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Sissel is considered as one of the world's top crossover sopranos. Sissel's musical style runs the gamut from pop recordings and folk songs, to classical vocals and operatic arias. She possesses a "crystalline" voice and wide vocal range, sweeping down from mezzo-soprano notes, in arias such as Mon c?ur s'ouvre à ta voix from Saint-Saëns's opera Samson et Dalila, to the F natural above soprano C. She sings mainly in English and Norwegian, but has also sung songs in Swedish, Danish, Gaelic, Italian, French, Russian, Icelandic, Faeroese, German, Spanish, M?ori, Japanese and Latin.

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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 4.7 million people. Quite a number of albums have been sold in Sweden and Denmark also. Coupled with her contribution to the Titanic soundtrack, Christmas in Vienna, and other collaborations, her record sales approach 35 million albums.

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Sissel was married from 1993 to 2004 to Danish-American comedian and singer Eddie Skoller. They have two daughters.

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The first name 'Sissel' is a Norwegian variant of 'Cecilia'. This first name has become popular after the martydom of Saint Cecilia, who is the patron saint of church music according to the Catholic Church.

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1994 Winter Olympic Games: REDIRECT 1994 Winter Olympics...