Martin Halla

Martin Halla (born in Aurskog, Norway, on June 4, 1988) is a Norwegian singer who - on May 25, 2012 - won the inaugural series of the Norwegian version of The Voice. He was part of "Team Magne", mentored by Magne F (Furuholmen) of A-ha fame. At his audition, Halla sang "Somewhere Only We Know", originally by Keane, seeing mentors Sondre Lerche and Furuholmen hitting the button. Halla chose to be on Magne's team. In the Battle round, his mentor paired him against contestant Ruben Gundersen, chosing to keep Halla after their duet "Keep On Walking" by Salem Al Fakir. In the sing-off round, Halla was spared by his mentor Furuholmen, going directly to the semi-finals, where he advanced further after singing "Release Me" by Oh Laura. Halla won the final, performing "We Found Love" by Rihanna and his winning song "Take It With Me", originally a Tom Waits song. After the win on May 25, 2012, the winner song "Take It With Me" was released as Martin Halla's debut single hitting #3 of VG-lista the official Norwegian Singles Chart on its first week of release. His semi-final rendition "Release Me" also peaked at #7. Halla has experience from boy choir St. Hallvard-guttene, he has studied performing arts at Jessheim videregående skole (high school), and has a Bachelor (A) in Performing jazz music from The Grieg Academy in Bergen. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.