MUSIC
Since the seventies Elin Brimheim Heinesen has been well-known in the Faroe Islands as a singer/songwriter/composer. She performs and makes music as a soloist but has also worked with several other artists from time to time – the co-work with Faroese composer/producer Kári Linderoth Jacobsen being the most well known, with whom she published their debut album NALJA in 1988, and the co-work with the band Ad Libitum with whom she published the album “Yndisløg” (Treasured Songs) in 2010.
Although she in a long time didn’t release more than one album – the NALJA album – with five of ten tracks written and composed by her and the other five by Kári, these songs have none the less been very well received and popular in her home country and still get a lot of airplay. One could rightfully claim they have become classics.
In early 2018 Elin finally went to a studio to record her first solo album – “Handan stjørnurnar” (Beyond The Stars) solely with her own music.
And in December 2023 she released an album with contemporary classical symphonic music – “Eitt dýpi av dýrari tíð – A Chasm of Precious Time” – with music she set to her father, Jens Pauli Heinesen’s lyrics.
More details HERE.
EDUCATION
Elin holds a university degree (Cand.Mag.) in aesthetics and culture and also has an education in business economics from Copenhagen Business School as well as being an educated screenwriter from Den Danske Filmskole (the Danish Film School).
More details HERE.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Elin has wide-ranging experience in the fields of internet, marketing, media and culture and has worked in communication and marketing for many years as head of media and marketing, journalist and editor in chief in on-line and printed media.
In 2007 she went to the Faroe Islands to take the job as the Managing Director of SamVit – Faroe Islands Enterprise, the Faroese Trade and Tourism Council, which latr merged with the Faroese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The last 5 years before she moved to the Faroe Islands, she was the Managing Editor of KIWI magazine, a Danish women’s and consumer’s magazine, which she also helped launch. Elin was also the Marketing Coordinator of Copenhagen City of Culture 1996.
In 2009 she became Head of the Media and Development Department at Kringvarp Føroya – the Faroe Islands National Broadcasting Company.
In May 2012 she left Kringvarp Føroya to become an independent copywriter, journalist, editor and communication adviser. She ran an online music magazine and worked as a freelance journalist.
In 2015 she took a steady job again as Manager of the The Student Services Centre at Fróðskaparsetur Føroya, the University of the Faroe Islands, which is in charge of information, guidance, administrative, and academic tasks especially related to the studies of coming, current, and former students.
In 2018 she was offered the job as Manager of the National Library’s Audio Books Service in the Faroe Islands, whish is her current job. She is in charge of the production and distribution of Faroese audio books. The purpose of the Audio Book Service is to ensure that first and foremost people with special needs, have as much access as possible to reading material published in Faroese, also on media other than printed media.
More details HERE.
PRIVATE LIFE
Elin was born 25. June in 1958 in Tórshavn, the Faroe Islands, where she grew up with her parents, Jens Pauli Heinesen, author and teacher, and Maud Heinesen (born Brimheim), children’s book author and administration manager at the University of the Faroe Islands.
Elin went to Denmark to study in her mid twenties and stayed in the country for 25 years, most of the time living and working in Copenhagen, until she moved back to the Faroes in 2007, where she lives today.
Elin married a Danish man in 1989 with whom she had one daughter. They later divorced in 1997.
If you are interested in reading a more personal and thorough description of Elin’s life and career, you can learn more HERE.
THE DAUGHTER
Their daughter, Helena Heinesen Rebensdorff, born in 1990, went on to pursue a music career just like her mother. But Helena has taken it much further. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Songwriting from the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus and a Master’s Degreen in Music Creation from the Rhythmic Music Conservatory (RMC) in Copenhagen.
Helena is now a professional musician with the artist name BRIMHEIM, residing in Malmö, Sweden, with her wife Lorri Lin, but with Copenhagen, Denmark as her musical base. BRIMHEIM is quite well-known in Denmark, where her music gets a lot of airplay in Danish radio. She plays concerts at the main scenes and festivals with her band there, and has also toured other countries. BRIMHEIM has gotten a plethora of rave reviews for her published music and her concerts.
She has been nominated several times for the FMA – Faroe Music Awards and has won a total of six awards – in 2021 as New Artist of the Year, in 2022 as Female Singer of the Year, Band of the Year and for Song of the Year (Hey Amanda), in addition to the awards in 2024 for Song of the Year (Literally Everything) and for Visual Identity of the Year. Furthermore, she received the Carl Prize – the Danish music publishers’ award – as Talent of the Year in 2022, along with 30,000 DKK.
Check out BRIMHEIM’s webpage.
