Nina Persson

Nina Persson (Wikipedia) : Nina Persson (born Nina Elisabet Persson September 6, 1974 in Örebro, Sweden) is the lead singer of the Swedish pop group The Cardigans. She has also worked as a solo artist, releasing an album as A Camp and appearing on the tribute album to Serge Gainsbourg entitled Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited. She has also worked with rock group Sparklehorse.

Cardigans (Official Website): The five-piece met as teenagers in Jonkoping, a small Swedish town in which the only distinguishing feature is its fifty-two churches. In October 1992, bonded by their mutual love of hard rock music, guitarist Peter Svensson and bassist Magnus Sveningsson conceived The Cardigans. As their hometown was hardly a Mecca of musical enterprise, the group packed up and moved to the somewhat more central fishing port of Malmo, Sweden's third largest city, to seek their fortune. With Peter writing most of the music and the band as a whole composing the lyrics, the quintet set out to find a deal. After an early recording of "Rise & Shine" appeared on a local independent label in 1994, The Cardigans were swiftly signed to Stockholm Records. The same year the band made their debut for the label with Emmerdale and later won the accolade of "Best Album of 1994" from Slitz, at the time Sweden's leading music magazine. The rise of The Cardigans has since been gradual, allowing them the time to develop naturally as their sales and positive exposure grew with each release. Their second long-player, Life, which followed in 1995, featured the hit singles "Carnival" and the re-recorded "Rise & Shine", and witnessed the band's first international chart success. Prior to the First Band On The Moon album in September 1996, The Cardigans released "Lovefool". Although the first response to the single was very positive and landed them in the Top 40, it achieved nowhere near the impact that awaited it the following Spring.

Nina Persson (IMDb Biography): With 'First Band on the Moon', released in 1996, the band developed into a more complex, darker animal, the songs were about heartbreak, infidelity and despair. The album also contained Persson's first solo writing credit, the plaintive `heartbreaker'. After being featured in Baz Luhrmann Romeo + Juliet (1996), the song `Lovefool' rocketed the band to international stardom. However it was unrepresentative of the album and though it helped it go gold in America many critics branded them saccharine soft-pop on the basis of 'Lovefool'. Annoyed by this inaccurate description, the band reappeared in 1998 as a souped-up rock beast with 'Gran Turismo'. The video for `Favourite Game' featured a tattooed Persson in a Thelma & Louise (1991) esque role as a criminal on the run. It was the band's most consistent album to date, with several tracks written by Persson individually. It spawned the European hit singles `My Favourite Game' and `Erase/Rewind' and sold 2.5 million copies worldwide, however it failed to make a dent in the American market. After touring and promoting the album, the band decided to take a hiatus. In 1997 Persson had formed the experimental indie act `A Camp' with Swedish musician Niclas Frisk. `Cardigans' business occupied Persson for the next couple of years, however in 2000 they reconvened. Long a fan of alternative singer / songwriter Mark Linkous of `Sparklehorse', she got him in for production duties and her boyfriend `Shudder to Think' guitarist Nathan Larson. Their catchy, melodic lead-off single `I Can Buy You' was released in September 2001. The self-titled album, 'A Camp' (2001), was a wonderful piece of work, showcasing both Persson's lyrical and vocal talent as well as her own musical affinities. She brought this musical influence and lyrical confidence to the next `Cardigans' album, `Long Gone Before Daylight'. The album chronicles Persson's disillusionment, disappointment and her ultimately finding love with Nathan Larson (who she married on June 16th 2001). Under-promoted and not commercially successful, it is `The Cardigans' most accomplished album.

Cardigans (Wikipedia): After their success with Life, The Cardigans signed to Mercury Records, under which they released First Band on the Moon worldwide in 1996. With this album, the band had developed into a more complex, darker animal, the songs included themes of heartbreak, infidelity and despair. "Lovefool" was a hit across the globe, especially in the United States and again in Japan, where the album reached platinum in only three weeks. However, it was unrepresentative of the album as a whole and, although it helped it achieve gold sales status in America, many critics branded them saccharine soft-pop on the basis of "Lovefool". The song was shown on MTV in the late 90s as a music video with clips from the 1996 hit film Romeo + Juliet starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. 1998's Gran Turismo was darker and more moody, and was followed by a long hiatus during which the band members pursued solo side projects. The same year they also released a compilation of rare B-sides called The Other Side of the Moon as a Japan-only release which makes this album somewhat rare outside Japan. The video of the song "My Favourite Game" was censored by MTV for showing reckless driving. That year also saw their song "Deuce" appearing on The X-Files: The Album.