Draft:Soffia

Soffía
Born	Soffía Björg Óðinsdóttir
Origin	Borgarnes, Borgarfjörður, Iceland
Genres	Folk Americana Alternative country
Occupations	Singer songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	2014–present

Soffía Björg Óðinsdóttir, known professionally as Soffía (formerly Soffía Björg), is an Icelandic singer-songwriter from Borgarfjörður. Her music draws on folk, Americana and alternative country, and critics have compared her voice to those of Norah Jones and Neko Case. She has released two studio albums, Soffía Björg (2017) and The Company You Keep (2021), and has performed at the Iceland Airwaves festival on several occasions.

Early life and education

Soffía grew up on the farm Einarsnes near Borgarnes in Borgarfjörður, one of eight siblings in a musical family. Her mother is the soprano Björg Karitas Jónsdóttir, and her grandmother is the actress and singer Soffía Karlsdóttir. She has worked as a guide for the company Into the Glacier, leading tours into the artificial ice tunnel in the glacier Langjökull, and has also worked as a music teacher.

She studied singing at the Reykjavík Singing School (Söngskólinn í Reykjavík) and jazz and blues singing at FÍH, and entered the composition program at the Iceland Academy of the Arts in autumn 2011, graduating in 2014. She received her first guitar as a Christmas present in 2010, taught herself to play, and soon began writing songs.

Career

2014–2017: "I Lie" and debut album

After graduating, Soffía performed with the bluegrass band Brother Grass, with which she released two albums, and worked as a musician full time. After about ten years in Reykjavík she moved back to the family farm in Borgarfjörður, saying she had tired of the city's rental market and pace. In summer 2014 she sang in New York at a release concert for the off-Broadway musical Revolution in the Elbow of Ragnar Agnarsson Furniture Painter, and she performed at the Reykjavík Folk Festival. She also composed a choral work for the Reykjavík Cathedral Choir (Dómkórinn). Nordic Music Review first wrote about her in late 2014 after finding demo recordings.

In 2015 she released the single "Back & Back Again" and played three shows at Iceland Airwaves, including one at Harpa. Iceland Review also named her among Icelandic acts to see at that year's festival.

Her single "I Lie", produced by Ben Hillier and unveiled in July 2016, was her international introduction. The Line of Best Fit described it as a driving Americana-influenced debut and compared her vocal to Neko Case, and Northern Transmissions named it its song of the day.

Her self-titled debut album, Soffía Björg, was recorded at Sundlaugin Studio in Iceland in spring 2016 with Ben Hillier producing, and featured guitarist Pétur Ben, drummer Kristofer Rodriguez Svonuson and bassist Ingibjörg Elsa Turchi. Her band had formed shortly before Iceland Airwaves 2015. The album's songs were released online in three installments of four, on 13 January, 13 February and 13 March 2017, with CD and vinyl editions following in the spring. In January 2017 she performed at the Eurosonic festival in the Netherlands, and that year she was nominated for Rás 2's Krókurinn award for outstanding live performance and received three nominations at the Hlustendaverðlaunin (Listener Awards). Icelandic broadcaster RÚV later wrote that the album brought her to wide attention and was well received.

2018–2020: Touring

Soffía toured in Poland and the Faroe Islands. She has also performed in the Netherlands and Los Angeles. She also played the Nordklang festival in St. Gallen, Switzerland, in February 2020, and a solo off-venue set at Iceland Airwaves in November 2019. In 2020 she released "Heyholt", an Icelandic-language ballad.

2021–present: The Company You Keep

In June 2021 Soffía released "Judgement Day" as the first single from her second album. The album, The Company You Keep, followed in October 2021, and Nordic Music Central reviewed it favorably.

According to RÚV, which featured it as its album of the week, the album's seven original songs were composed and arranged by Soffía for piano, cello, trumpet and voices, a process she said took about 18 months and was largely done in solitude on her parents' farm. Krummi Björgvinsson sings on "Rodeo Clown" and Pétur Ben on "Play the Game". She taught herself piano during this period and wrote most of the album on it.

Morgunblaðið critic Arnar Eggert Thoroddsen reviewed the album favorably. He wrote that it was heavy and dusk-toned, with songs such as "Sour Dream" and "Judgement Day" telling their own stories, but that, unlike the largely stripped-back debut, these songs burst out with a bigger, more epic sound, helped by trumpet and cello. He singled out the duet with Krummi on "Rodeo Clown" and compared its feel to George Jones and Tammy Wynette. The review noted that she had returned to attention in summer 2021 through performances on RÚV's television magazine Landinn. She held a release concert at Iðnó in Reykjavík on 29 April 2022, with Pétur Ben and Krummi as guest singers.

In 2022 she composed the music for Tindátarnir (The Tin Soldiers), a children's shadow-puppet play by the theatre company Kómedíuleikhúsið, which toured schools and played at Gaflaraleikhúsið in November that year.

Her third album is being produced by Pétur Ben, with Magnús Trygvason Eliassen on drums. Its first single is "Promises", released under the name Soffía, followed by "Redwing".

Musical style

RÚV described her influences as indie rock, folk and alternative Americana. Reviewers have compared her early work to Norah Jones, while Nordic Music Review's writer argued that she has a style of her own, mainly indie-folk but able to rock when needed. Nordic Music Central later described her as moving further toward alternative country.

Discography

Studio albums

• Soffía Björg (2017)
• The Company You Keep (2021)

Selected singles

• "Back & Back Again" (2015)
• "I Lie" (2016)
• "Heyholt" (2020)
• "Judgement Day" (2021)
• "Promises"
• "Redwing"