Emiliana Torrini - Brief Article

LOVE LEFT HER SPEECHLESS, BUT FULL OF GORGEOUS POP

Emiliana Torrini will tell you that falling in love is a frightening thing. "It confused the hell out of me," says the twenty-three-year-old Icelandic singer in an accent that sounds alternately Mediterranean and Teutonic. "Everything I said was stupid. I couldn't speak without being red in the face. Love is so beautiful, and yet so terrible and paranoid." Appropriately, Torrini titled her gorgeous debut album Love in the Time of Science; its sophisticated pop songs sound like a cross between Portishead and early Bjork.

Originally, the chanteuse had dreams of becoming an opera singer. But she lacked the discipline and started singing at parties and restaurants around Iceland before moving to England. Tears For Fears' Roland Orzabal heard her demos and offered to produce. She opened for Sting at the Royal Albert Hall, then was invited to join cooler-than-cool trip-hop outfit Sneaker Pimps, an offer she declined.

Torrini insists that success has not changed her. "I'm still the same freckled woman," she laughs, adding that she is plagued by occasional bouts of stage fright. "I used to get nosebleeds and fits of vomiting before going on stage. Fortunately, it's getting better now, because I really love singing live. I do it with everything I have."

Ernesto Lechner is a frequent Interview contributor.

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