Utente:Vituzzu/Åse Kleveland

[[File::Aase_Kleveland_17Mai_Eidsvoll|thumb|Åse Kleveland]]

Åse Kleveland (Stoccolma, 18 marzo 1949) è una cantante e politica [[]]. | Background = solo_singer | Birth_name = Åse Maria Kleveland | Alias = | Born = 18 marzo 1949
in Stockholm, Sweden | Died = | Origin =  Svezia
 Norvegia | Instrument = Singer, guitarist | Voice_type = Contralto | Genre = Popular music, vispop | Occupation = Musician, politician, leader | Years_active = 1966 - present | Label = | Associated_acts = Ballade! | URL = | Current_members = | Past_members = | Notable_instruments = }}

is a Swedish-Norwegian singer and politician. A folk singer in Norway, she was appointed Minister of Culture in Norway from 1990 to 1996, representing the Labour Party under the Gro Harlem Brundtland administration. She was also president of the Swedish Film Institute from 2000 to 2006.

In June 2007 she became Chairman of the Board of Human-Etisk Forbund, the Norwegian humanist organization.

Personal life

Born in Sweden, she moved to Norway in 1956. In a 1977 interview she describes how her parents shared equally in the household chores, and that she and her then-husband Svenolov Ehrén, a Swedish artist, also did the same. She is currently married to film director and cinematographer Oddvar Bull Tuhus.

Kleveland is fluent in Norwegian, Swedish, English, French and Japanese. She has also studied Law.

Musical career

As a singer, she is famous for her very dark, soulful voice. Besides singing, she also plays the guitar and has composed songs in the singer-songwriter tradition. In addition to her solo career, she was also part of the vispop group Ballade!.

She began playing classical guitar at eight and two years later she debuted in a radio show. Her first bout as a singer of vispop was on an Erik Bye show when she was 13. Her first album was released when she was 15, and with her second album she was one of the pioneers ushering in the then nascent genre vispop, a blend of traditional folk song and pop. This lead to a series of engagements in Paris and for a period she commuted between performances in Paris and her secondary school in Lillestrøm, north of Oslo. At 17 she conducted a major tour of Japan which included several TV shows and the release of four singles in Japanese.

In 1966, she represented Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest with the entry "Intet er nytt under solen" (There's Nothing New Under The Sun), finishing in third place. She broke a tradition expected of female performers at the time in that she was the first woman to not to wear a dress, instead going for a pantsuit.

In 1986 she hosted the first Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Norway in Bergen following Bobbysocks' victory in 1985. From 1979 to 1987 she was the leader of the Norwegian association of Musicians.