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FTDP is honored to have Elvis
Tribute Artist,
Kjell Bjornestad,
President and Founder of Golden Voice Professional Tracks of the King on our web site.
Excerpts of the following were taken from a Live interview conducted by
Joanna Johnson and Interview foreword written by Carol Hunter of
Lady Luck Music
Kjell speaks English with a bit of an American accent
which came from listening to Elvis Presley speak as he grew up. He first
became aware of Elvis at age 6 when he was watching “Love Me Tender” on
TV. He was struck by the effect Elvis had on his mother and her friends,
by Elvis’ look, and everything about Elvis.
As he grew up, Kjell sang in churches with his
family; Christian and gospel music was a family favorite. It was when he
was in the Norwegian army, at age l9, that his ETA career really
started.
He was out one night with his buddies in a
restaurant when he noticed a guitar on the wall – he jumped up onto a
table with the guitar, and started singing Jailhouse Rock. The owner of
the restaurant was so impressed he invited Kjell back to sing again, and
that is when he decided that this was what he wanted to do .......to
sing and entertain.
Kjell has always felt comfortable on the
stage and is an entertainer by nature. Of course it didn’t hurt that
,even in his army days, he was always told he looked a lot like Elvis.
After his army days, Kjell started training to be an auto mechanic and then
spent 5 years working in a factory but says he found it very boring. That
was when he decided to become a full-time professional entertainer – and he
has never regretted his decision.
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(Cont'd)
In 1996, after he’d spent 8 years working throughout Europe, a TV crew
approached Kjell and asked if they could “follow” him. They followed him for
3 years --through Europe, Norway and to his first contest in Memphis. The
documentary was later shown throughout Europe and he became “an overnight
success.”
Being an ETA in Norway has been a long, hard struggle and he is the only
one making a living imitating just one person in Norway. It was big
moment in Kjell's career when he became the 2006 Grand Champion at last
January’s “Walk a Golden Mile in My Shoes” contest in Blackpool, UK winning
over “50 good impersonators.”
Regarding contests, Kjell has fun competing and he enjoys
meeting other ETAs and, of course... being able to sell his Golden Voice
backing tracks.
Kjell started the process of making tracks when he was working on his first
album. He eventually met Cvan Avian out of Nashville and they began to
collaborate on producing the very best tracks, hiring top quality musicians
and vocalists. Kjell was use to quality and wanted his tracks to have the
same feeling and power as Elvis’ music had. He states that it costs $2-3,000
per track and that he and Cvan worked for 2 years on the Aloha album –
receiving extremely positive feedback from ETAs.
Photo courtesy of Michael King
Blackpool Contest Jan'06
theconcertyears@btinternet.com
Now Kjell is ready to take the next big step. He has
good contacts in Las Vegas and California and plans to take his show to
the next level, adding that he has worked all his life for this and is
now focused on heading for the top.
Website:
www.goldenvoice.net
http://www.ladyluckmusic.com/radio/interviews/kjell/
Kjell’s new website will be coming soon.
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08/27/08
