Hera and the Soulful Storytelling Folk Tunes

Another exciting week on Baliradio.net! For the first time ever, we have an Icelandic musician as Artist of the Week, who happens to be in Bali from New Zealand which is her current home! And both of those countries are totally new to us when associated to this section of featured artists! A great addition to the variety we have had here!

Hera is a soulful singer-songwriter who has toured the world for many years now. She has performed in Italy, Holland, Greenland, England, Scotland, Wales, Denmark, the United states at the SXSW music festival, the well-known Glastonbury festival in the UK and of course Iceland and New Zealand , and more! She has also performed on this very island earlier in this year, on the stage of the annual Bali Spirit Festival.

Hera started her story with the guitar when she was eight years old, when she started learning classical guitar which later on led her to learn jazz guitar. Her music career began at a young age and her first album, Homemade, was released when she was 16 years old. She has released nine albums by now and has a list of exciting achievements including a gold record in Iceland, and being named 'best female artist' at the Icelandic music awards in 2003. Her song entitled 'Makebelieve' from her third album Not Your Type! had also made it to the finals in the 2002 USA Songwriting Competition. Hera has also played as opening act for big well-respected names like Nick Cave and Joe Cocker.

Having a rich emotional bond to both of her cultural backgrounds, Hera’s music has this own particular sound that is obviously influenced by where she comes from, taking both her motherland and her current home into account. The nature of her being a singer-songwriter on acoustic guitar equals to a folk / acoustic pop sound indeed; yet the sounds that she blends and combines does result in this specific refreshing color of her music’s sound and style. Her songs are stories about life told through music and poetry recited through tunes. The lyrics are beautiful and heart-warming, and to most people easy to relate to.

Aside from her noticeably unique music, Hera is also known to have this unique personal touch in her physical characteristic; the pretty pattern of facial art! It has been a long time since she started always applying this facial art when making her appearances.

This facial art was inspired by moko and Celtic warrior paint. It represents both of her homes and people. Aside from that she considers it as her work uniform; something that states the difference between Hera when she is out simply being herself doing her daily things, and Hera performing as the artist of stage, sharing her music and lyrics in her honest soulful amazing way.

Tune in for Hera’s tracks on the radio for two full weeks starting from July 27 – August 10, 2015, at 7 am, 12 pm, 7 pm and 12 am Bali Time, daily! Also tune in for the interview and live session at our studio on August 2, 2024 at 10 pm Bali Time and catch the re-run on August 9, 2024 at the same time! Keep yourself updated through our Facebook and Twitter for the video too! Enjoy!