Dagny

Dagny Norvoll Sandvik (born 23 July 1990), known mononymously as Dagny, is a Norwegian singer and songwriter.

She wrote songs and performed with friend June Cecile Egerton, forming the duo 'June & Dagny.' After building a solid reputation in her hometown, Dagny moved to the United Kingdom in 2010, with June remaining in Tromsø.

Dagny stated her move was in "the spirit of adventure."

In retrospect she stated she felt lucky to experiment with music in her hometown, "[playing] live in peace for years before getting exposed to outside pressure."

Dagny initially resided in Liverpool, before settling in London the following year.

She began performing at small club circuits and pop-up events with her partner at the time Richard Craker.

She released a handful of acoustic and folk-pop orientated songs under the EP Things We'll Never Say (2010).

By 2012 Dagny was traveling and performing between London and Tromsø, while also working part time in a clothes shop, wine bar and elderly home.

She garnered positive attention from local press.

The same year she landed significant roles as warm-up support for Elton John during the Vinter-Døgnvill festival and Sting for a performance in Bangkok.

In 2014 she went on to play at the UK's Isle of Wight festival, and also landed a supporting warm-up role for Bryan Adams during a tour of Austria.

By 2015 Dagny described how she felt her music career had stalled, stating "things weren't really going anywhere."

She subsequently enrolled in university in Tromsø to undertake a degree in digital media design.

After studying for six months, she returned to music following encouragement from her family.

In the autumn of 2015 Dagny recorded song "Backbeat."

Described as having a "pounding indie-pop vibe", it quickly caught the attention of Zane Lowe at Apple Music's Beats 1 station.

The song then appeared on Spotify's New Music playlist, achieving 300,000 plays in a few days.

She is known for her breakthrough single "Backbeat" (2016), EP Ultraviolet (2016) and debut studio album Strangers / Lovers (2020).

By mid-2016 the song had accrued over 20 million plays on Spotify.

The acoustic version of the song went on to feature in the Grey's Anatomy episode "True Colors."

As a result of the song's success, Dagny received contracts with the record companies Propeller (covering Scandinavia) and Republic (for the rest of the world).

Rob Stevenson said of her, "Backbeat immediately aroused our attention, and after a showcase in New York, our entire company fell in love with her."

Following this, she was handpicked to play at the industry festivals Eurosonic, by:Larm and Trondheim Calling.

In the same year, "Backbeat" was nominated for Song of the Year under Spellemann, while Dagny herself was nominated for Newcomer of the Year.

Later in 2016, Dagny released her follow-up single "Fool's Gold", which was the fourth most played on the Norwegian radio station P3.

The same year she released her EP, Ultraviolet.

The release won praise from both Norwegian and British publications, with The Guardian describing it as an "exuberant but pensive riot of pounding drums, live instrumentation and just enough electronic flourishes to give it a modern edge, combined with some truly extraordinary songwriting."

In 2017 Dagny released the additional singles "Wearing Nothing" and "Love You Like That," garnering her international recognition as 'One To Watch' for 2017 from both Billboard and VEVO.

Dagny also undertook a cover of Rachel Stevens's version of "More More More" which was used by Target in a commercial campaign introducing its line of new products in the fall of 2017.

Following her growing success, Dagny embarked on a number of collaborations, releasing singles with LCAW and NOTD.

Her songs have released to critical acclaim, with "Somebody" winning the P3 Gull 2020 Song of the Year.

She has amassed over 700 million streams on Spotify to date.

Her music is pop-based, incorporating elements of indie, dance, synth, electro and disco.

Dagny was born and raised in Tromsø in northern Norway.

She is the youngest daughter of vocalist Marit Sandvik and jazz musician Øystein Norvoll.

She has two older siblings, Juna and Bjørn.

In her early years Dagny described a love for performing, although was unsure about following a career in music.

Her interest was later sparked following a songwriting assignment at school.

Following encouragement from a teacher and her family, she began song writing and performing in her hometown.

Dagny began her music career performing locally in Tromsø.