Early years and debut Vegard Urheim (b. 19 May 1979 in
Trondheim) and Bård Urheim Ylvisåker (b. 21 March 1982 in
Bergen) were born to parents (Hans Terje Ylvisåker and Helga Urheim) from the
Sogn district of Western Norway, the older two of three brothers. The youngest brother is Bjarte Urheim. Their early childhood years were spent in
Angola and
Mozambique, where their father was an engineer during the civil wars there. After a few years in
Africa, the family moved back to Bergen, where the brothers received a musical upbringing and were trained in classical instruments. Vegard played the
viola and Bård the
violin. However, both quit during their youth, Vegard instead focusing on guitar, voice, piano,
double bass and comedy, and Bård on guitar, voice, comedy and acrobatics such as
aerial silk. While attending high school at
Fana gymnas, they were heavily involved in school and variety shows as well as the school choir. During a performance, they were spotted by impresario Peter Brandt, who orchestrated their debut as professional variety artists at Ole Bull Teater in Bergen in 2000. Their debut show was called "" ("Ylvis: A Cabaret") and was followed in 2003 by "" ("Ylvis: A Concert").
2006–2009 In 2006, the brothers debuted as hosts on national broadcasting with the radio show
O-fag (,
theoretical subject, named after a subject previously taught in Norwegian primary schools, a combination of science and social studies) on NRK Radio. In January 2007, they appeared onstage at Ole Bull Theater with a new variety show,
Ylvis III. They toured with the show for almost three years, the last show being played in
Odda in western Norway in December 2009. The show was also recorded and published on
DVD. Also in 2007, they debuted as hosts on national television with the show (''Norway's Most Wonderful
), a version of the Swedish show (100 Highs''). This was released on DVD as well as broadcast on Swedish TV. In 2008, they released a second series of the radio show
O-fag and also a new TV show based on their stage show on
TVNorge, a
game show concept inspired by the "
Brain Wall", a feature in the Japanese game show on
Fuji TV. This was followed up by another game show, (
Who can beat Ylvis?) in 2009, based on the German show (
Beat Raab). Members of the public were invited to try to beat the brothers at various tasks, with a reward of up to one million
Norwegian kroner.
2010–present In 2010, they hosted (
The Nordic’s Most Wonderful), a pan-Nordic version of the show. In 2011 they reprised their variety stage show with "Ylvis 4", premiering at the Ole Bull Theater with the entire run sold out before opening night. That year, the brothers also launched a comedy
talkshow (
Tonight with Ylvis) on TVNorge, with Calle Hellevang-Larsen from comedy trio as a
sidekick. Upon being renewed for a second season, the brothers created a production company, Concorde TV, in order to retain rights and creative control of their work. The second series was broadcast in 2012, with
David Batra replacing Hellevang-Larsen in the role of sidekick. In the Fall of 2013, Hellevang-Larsen returned for the third series of . Despite technical difficulties during the broadcast, the first episode took the top ratings spot. A number of comedy and parody music videos, either originally featured on or used to promote the show, have been released onto YouTube and other streaming media. "
The Fox" and "Stonehenge" have also been released as singles. "The Fox", produced by StarGate and M4SONIC, which was released on 3 September 2013 to promote the upcoming third series of , went
viral on
YouTube and received 31 million views in its first two weeks. It was the most watched video on YouTube worldwide in 2013, and , the video has over 1.1billion views. They also made an appearance at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas the next day. On 9 October 2013,
Jimmy Fallon brought them to his late night show to perform live. On 11 October 2013, they performed on
The Today Show outside the studios. On 15 November 2013 they performed on
BBC Children in Need where they were joined on stage by
Jedward,
The Cheeky Girls and
Bucks Fizz. On 22 November 2013 Ylvis attended
Mnet Asian Music Awards for the first time, and received the International Favorite Artist award. On 12 December 2013, they appeared on
Live! with Kelly and Michael to promote their new children's book titled "What Does the Fox Say?" and later to perform. The book
What Does the Fox Say? debuted as no. 1 on
The New York Times Best Seller list. On 15 October 2014, Ylvis released on
iTunes a single titled "I Will Never Be A Star", which was recorded by their younger brother, Bjarte Ylvisåker. On 19 November 2015 Ylvis released their first album
Ylvis: Volume I on iTunes, which is a collection of some of their popular YouTube hits. On 5 January 2016, Ylvis revealed the music video and song "
a capella" on
I kveld med YLVIS on
TVNorge. "a capella" parodies
a cappella groups like
Pentatonix. In 2015, Ylvis received a nomination at the Berlin Music Video Awards for Best Animation with their music video
Ytterst på tissen” (On the Tip of the Willy). The video was made by Julian Nazario Vargas from Animaskin. On 1 November 2017, it was revealed that the brothers would start a new television show entitled
Stories from Norway. The show, which blends the
documentary and
mockumentary genres with musical numbers, In 2019, both brothers appeared on the first season of
Kongen Befaler (Norway's version of
Taskmaster), and the series overall winner was Vegard. On 6 October 2022, the brothers announced a new show entitled
Ylvis i Sogn. In the ten-episode series, Bård has challenged himself, Vegard, and younger brother Bjarte to write eight songs in two weeks, with the eighth song being a modern remake of
Stao no Pao. ==Filmography==