Erlend Bratland

Erlend Bratland (born October 27, 1991 in Kvinnherad) is a Norwegian singer who is known for winning Norske Talenter, a Norwegian television talent series, on May 9, 2008 at the age of 16. Bratland is originally from Kvinnherad, but now lives in Haugesund. He was a student in a food and restaurant management program in Haugesund, but dropped out the first year in order to continue his music career. Bratland is recognizable and known for his "emo style" which is particularly unusual among artists in his genre. When Bratland was 13 years old, he performed in the musical Oliver together with the local Blanda Choor in Husnes. After this he performed in the musical Chess in Bømlo. Bratland performed in Ungdommens Kulturmønstring (UKM) and made it to the semi-finals. He attended the Bergen auditions for Norske Talenter. Wearing a black Marilyn Manson T-shirt, he sang "O Holy Night". At the semi-final he sang "Nella Fantasia" as the last contestant, and won the public vote. In the final, he sang "Lost" by Anouk as the last contestant, and won the series with 36% of the votes, ahead of runner-up Vegard F. Dommersnes, an 8-year old hula hoop artist. Bratland was in the Norwegian Idol tour during the summer of 2008 together with Norwegian Idol winner Glenn Lyse and other contestants. After that, he recorded his first single, "Lost", which he had sung on the Norske Talenter final. The single was produced by Sony BMG. On May 16, two weeks after he won Norske Talenter, his version of "Lost" was available for download from Telenor. The next week, the single hit #4 on VG's single list. Two weeks after that, the song was #1 on VG List Top 20. In the end of June, Norske Talenter judge Jan Fredrik Karlsen became his manager. On October 27, Sony BMG released his debut album True Colours, which hit gold status in short time. After the album was released, he was nominated for the 2008 Spellemannsprisen best new artist award, and "Lost" was nominated for song of the year. After years of speculation of his sexual orientation, he admitted that he was homosexual during and interview with God Kveld,Norge in 2010.