Jonna Lee
Jonna Emily Lee (born October 3, 1981 in Linköping ) is a Swedish singer, producer and creative director. Lee is the founder and singer of the audiovisual online project iamamiwhoami , under which she has been putting her audiovisual series online via her YouTube channel iamwhoami since 2009 and has around 120,000 subscribers (as of May 2019). Since her first solo album, she has worked with music producer and artist Claes Björklund, who is also a member of iamamiwhoami . Lee started a new solo project in 2017 under the name ionnalee. In February 2018 she released her debut solo album Everyone Afraid to Be Forgotten . With the same album she then went on a world tour, which was co-financed by her fans. The tour was sold out worldwide in 2018. In February 2019 her second solo album Remember the Future was announced with the release date May 31, 2019.
Childhood and path to becoming a musician
Lee was born in Linköping and grew up with her mother and siblings in the village of Fågelsta. Lee became interested in music as a child and traveled to London as a teenager. In 2002 Lee moved to Stockholm where she became part of the underground indie scene. She began to record her own records and published them on her website until she was signed to the Swedish indie label Razzia Records in spring 2007. She released two solo albums and an EP via Razzia Records between 2007 and 2009 , but left the label in 2010 and began releasing iamamiwhoami's audiovisual projects via the independent label To whom it may concern .
Jonna Lee's career
Lee released her first solo album 10 Pieces, 10 Bruises on October 10, 2007 on the Swedish label Razzia Records. The first single was Dried Out Eyes , followed by And Your Love , a duet with Ed Harcourt, who produced three tracks on the album. Lee produced the rest of the record with her collaborator Claes Björklund, who is a member of Travis in London. The Supergrass -member Danny Goffey plays drums on this record. Some songs were recorded in Goffey's home in England. In September 2008 she released a five-track EP called This War . Her second studio album This Is Jonna Lee , produced by Claes Björklund and Lee, was released in February 2009.
In October 2009 she released a version of the song Violent Playground by the industrial electro band Nitzer Ebb . The band posted Lee's version on their website along with an interview. From December 2009 to December 2016 Lee published music and films under the pseudonym iamamiwhoami together with producer Claes Björklund and his colleagues .
iamamiwhoami
In March 2010, there was speculation that Lee was the artist featured in the viral marketing videos uploaded by iamamiwhoami to YouTube, despite her management denying it. According to rraurl.com and MTV Brasil, the music video for iamamiwhoami's title "o" was shot by Viktor Kumlin, who is also the director of Lee's music video Something So Quiet . This later turned out to be wrong.
Lee was eventually unofficially identified as iamamiwhoami when she posted the music video titled "t" on her channel. She can also be seen in the later music videos and performed live at the 2011 Way Out West Festival in Gothenburg, Sweden. The project has been nominated for numerous prizes and in 2010 it received a Swedish Grammi Award for Innovator of the Year . iamamiwhoami s debut album kin was released in June 2012 under the label whom it may concern . The Co-Operative Music label listed Lee as the artist, co-producer, songwriter and visual producer of iamamiwhoami . Lee finally conducted an interview with The Guardian in August 2012 and confirmed that she was in the "process of developing iamamiwhoami" and stated that she was still "the same person" but "different sides of [herself] have found.
Ionnalee
On February 24, 2017, whom it may concern announced the release of the new single Samaritan , which should be released under the new artistic pseudonym ionnalee . After the announcement, an Instagram account was set up for the project. The single was released on March 10, 2017. The iamamiwhoami YouTube channel uploaded a teaser for the accompanying music video. The official music video was also released on the same channel on March 10th.
The second single Not Human followed on June 2, 2017 with the accompanying music video. A third single, Simmer Down , was released on October 6, 2017. A fourth single, Gone , was released on November 24, 2017, followed by the announcement of Ionnalee's third studio album, Everyone Afraid to Be Forgotten . The album was released on February 16, 2018 by their label whom it may concern . On the same day, she unveiled a feature film directed by Lee alongside the director and chief producer John Strandh, which accompanies the album.
On February 2, 2018, ionnalee launched a campaign on Kickstarter to fund a world tour for anyone who is afraid of being forgotten. The commitments ranged from tickets for the city of choice, ionnalee goods, props from iamamiwhoami and ionnalee visual projects to a unique, life-size, handcrafted bust made by ionnalee himself. The campaign achieved 100% funding in five days and raised SEK 375,000 (EUR 35,303). Other destinations were added later to bring the tour to more cities. The campaign ended on March 15, 2018 for a total of 750,187 SEK (70,622 euros). The tour began on May 9, 2018 in Heaven in London and took place throughout Europe, North and South America during 2018.
On February 3, 2019, ionnalee announced the release of a new single Open Sea , which will be released on February 8, 2019. On February 4, 2019 it was announced that ionnalee's upcoming second solo album Remember the Future will be released on May 31, 2019.
Style direction
Jonna Lee's early projects have been described as folk pop . Her and Claes Björklund's project iamamiwhoami was considered an act of electronic music that draws a mix of styles, including electro-pop , synth-pop , art-pop and avant-garde . Their music under ionnalee has been referred to as electropop, indie pop and art pop.
Influences
Lee stated that she is influenced by Kraftwerk, Cocteau Twins, Depeche Mode, Christopher Nolan, Air and Vangelis. She added that she enjoys listening to Blood Orange, Arca, Denis Villeneuve, Chromatics, Björk, Todd Terje, Disasterpeace and Mozart.
She named Madonna and Chaka Khan's albums, which belonged to her mother, as her favorites when she was young.
Prizes and awards
- This Is Jonna Lee was named the Next Big Thing on the front cover of iTunes USA in May 2009 .
- According to the Texas radio station SXSW, it was among the top 5 on SXSW's Next Big Sound 2010 list, which records how quickly music artists add fans across various social networking platforms.
- In 2010, Lee received a Manifest Award nomination for best singer-songwriter.
- In December 2018 Jonna Lee received an award for cultural achievements from her hometown Linköping.
- Lee was nominated for the best synth album of the year at the Swedish Independent Music Award Manifestgalan in 2019
- Lee has won three awards as an iamamiwhoami.
Individual evidence
- ↑ ionnalee; EVERYONE AFRAID TO BE FORGOTTEN - 2018 world tour. Accessed May 31, 2019 .
- ↑ ionnalee; REMEMBER THE FUTURE. Accessed May 31, 2019 .
- ↑ TRAVIS | 'The Man Who' In Concert 2018. Retrieved May 31, 2019 (American English).
- ↑ GRAMMIS-VINNARE GENOM ÅREN 1969-2018. In: https://grammis.se/om-grammis/ . Retrieved June 22, 2019 (Swedish).
- ↑ Iamamiwhoami - iamamiwhoami | Release info. Retrieved June 22, 2019 (American English).
- ↑ Michael Cragg: The ethereal world of Jonna Lee . In: The Guardian . August 10, 2012, ISSN 0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed June 22, 2019]).
- ↑ Ksenia Rundin: IONNALEE - A SEARCHER WHO EXPLORES. April 14, 2018, accessed June 22, 2019 .
- ↑ SGN - Seattle Gay News - Page 22 - Remember the future: AQ & A with ionnalee - Friday, May 3, 2019 - Volume 47 Issue 18. Retrieved June 22, 2019 .
- ↑ Manifestgalan.se. August 12, 2010, accessed June 22, 2019 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lee, Jonna |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lee, Jonna Emily |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swedish singer, producer and creative director |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 3rd October 1981 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Linkoping |