Ace of Base
| Ace of Base | |
|---|---|
 The founding members of Ace of Base (from left to right: Jonas Berggren, Jenny Berggren, Malin Berggren and Ulf Ekberg) |
|
| General information | |
| origin | Gothenburg |
| Genre (s) | Electronic pop , reggae |
| founding | 1990 |
| Founding members | |
| Jonas Berggren | |
synthesizer |
Ulf "Buddha" Ekberg |
| Malin "Linn" Berggren (until 2007) | |
singing |
Jenny Berggren (until 2009) |
| Current occupation | |
synthesizer |
Jonas "Joker" Berggren |
synthesizer |
Ulf "Buddha" Ekberg |
| former members | |
singing |
Malin "Linn" Berggren (1990-2007) |
singing |
Jenny Berggren (1990-2009) |
singing |
Clara Hagman (2009-2012) |
singing |
Julia Williamson (2009-2012) |
Ace of Base was a Swedish Reggae - Pop - band from Gothenburg , which has been successful worldwide in the charts in the 1990s. Her best-known hits include All That She Wants , Happy Nation , The Sign , Beautiful Life and Cruel Summer .
history
Origins
The main initiator of the founding of Ace of Base was Jonas Berggren . He had worked for a few years in a band called G Konrad and then in 1987 with two friends founded a techno band inspired by The KLF , which changed names several times, without international success. For this he was able to win his two sisters Malin and Jenny as singers. The band fell apart with the departure of the two partners. Jonas was able to win his friend Ulf Ekberg for a new start. This completed the quartet, which formed in 1990 as the Ace of Base .
Ekberg had previously worked for the neo-Nazi band Commit Suiside [sic] , among others . Pictures from the time show him with a Hitler salute and a Nazi party eagle on his T-shirt. At that time he was also a member of the right-wing populist party Sverigedemokraterna . Ekberg has repeatedly distanced himself from this period of his life and expressed his regret about it. Whether Berggren or the other band members knew about this prehistory at the time is controversial.
Ace of Base's career began in 1991 when the record label Mega Records signed the band. In mid-1992, Wheel of Fortune was the first single to hit the charts in Scandinavia . The band then received a Europe-wide record deal with Metronome Records .
1992 to 1999: successes
At the end of 1992, the single All That She Wants was released . It was a sales success in ten European countries, topped the charts in Germany for eight weeks and in Great Britain for three weeks . The debut album Happy Nation , released in the spring of 1993, also reached top positions in the charts. All That She Wants was then covered by the German punk rock band WIZO and the German rock band Knorkator .
With some delay, the band also made their breakthrough in the USA . All That She Wants rose to number two on the Billboard charts . Their debut album was released there in late 1993 with four additional songs under the title The Sign . The album's title track topped the US charts in March 1994 and held that spot for six weeks.
That year, Ace of Base was nominated for three Grammys . Her debut album sold 24 million copies worldwide, with over nine million copies in the US alone. Thus was Happy Nation / The Sign for hitherto best-selling debut album in 1995 and made an entry in the Guinness Book of Records .
Her three songs All That She Wants , The Sign and Don't Turn Around were in the Billboard top ten for a total of 48 weeks in a row in 1993/94. This enabled them to set a record that was only broken in 2011 by Katy Perry , who was in the top ten with her songs for a whole year without a break.
On the night of April 27, 1994, Jenny Berggren and her mother were attacked by a female, apparently mentally ill German fan in their home in Gothenburg and injured with a knife. Jenny Berggren processed the event in the song Ravine , which is included on the album The Bridge .
The second album The Bridge was released in autumn 1995. Lucky Love , the first single, premiered at the Gothenburg World Athletics Championships . The record sold around 5 million times worldwide. The singles Beautiful Life and Never Gonna Say I'm Sorry were also released from it . With The Bridge , the band also achieved platinum status in the US and in a few other countries.
In spring 1998 the third album Flowers was released. The single Life Is a Flower , which was able to reach the top ten in many countries, was released in advance . On this album there is also Cruel Summer , a cover version, published in the summer of 1983 Hits of Bananarama . The single was again a huge hit for Ace of Base in the US, where it reached number ten on the Billboard charts. The next single releases were Always Have, Always Will and Everytime It Rains in late 1998 and early 1999 , both of which made it into the top 20 in the UK charts. The band was able to sell more than two million copies of Flowers worldwide.
Malin Berggren, the band's main singer at the time, withdrew from the public at that point and her sister Jenny became the sole front woman.
In autumn 1999 Ace of Base reached number 1 in the Spanish single charts with C'est la vie , the follow-up single Hallo Hallo came in at number 21 in Spain and 11 in Finland. Both tracks come from the late 1999 compilation album Singles of the 90s .
Malin Berggren (2003)
Jenny Berggren (2008)
Jonas Berggren (2008)
Ulf Ekberg (2008)
2002 to 2009: comeback and separation
After a long break of four years, the fourth studio album Da Capo was released in autumn 2002 , with which the group celebrated chart successes in Asia - the album reached number 10 in Japan. The debut single Beautiful Morning (number 14 in Sweden) was followed by the time-critical ballad The Juvenile (only published in Germany) and Unspeakable (number 45 in Sweden) in the typical style of the four Scandinavians.
In October / November 2005, Ace of Base performed live for the first time in a long time, including at the Night of the Proms in Antwerp. However, the band performed without Malin Berggren.
Since November 2007 Ace of Base have given concerts in Northern and Eastern Europe as well as in Asia. It was the band's first tour in many years; this took place for the first time without Malin Berggren. On December 3, 2007 it was announced that she had left the band for good.
In October 2008, Ace of Base released a remake of their first single Wheel Of Fortune as a newly sung version (Wheel Of Fortune 2009) . Shortly thereafter, on November 14th, a greatest hits album followed, which was released in two versions for the German market: version 1 of the album is a normal greatest hits album, version 2 has the subtitle "Classic Remixes". Many previously unreleased remixes of their greatest hits are published on this.
On August 21, 2009, the Italian DJ Rico Bernasconi published in collaboration with Ace of Base as "Rico Bernasconi vs. Ace of Base ”is a new edition of the hit Cruel Summer from 1998. Jenny Berggren's vocal parts were retained.
On November 30, 2009, Jenny Berggren announced the exit from the band on her Twitter account. There she also expressed her regret that Ace of Base did not manage to produce a new album in the time after Malin's departure. However, she wants to make music that everyone can hear, and therefore sees no other option than to go the way of the solo artist. She wished her brother and mutual friend Ulf Ekberg luck for the future with Ace of Base. Berggren and Ekberg then announced that they would continue the band with two new singers, Clara Hagman and Julia Williamson.
In October 2010, Jenny Berggren stated in an interview with the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that she had never wanted to leave the band. Rather, she was excluded from the other band members, which led to tensions between the previous trio.
Since 2010: new beginning
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In July 2010 Berggren and Ekberg announced the release of a new single and a new album. Shortly afterwards, an audio sample of the first newly composed single since 2003, entitled All for You, was published on the band's Facebook page and on their website.
On September 10, 2010 the single was released. The album The Golden Ratio followed two weeks later and entered the German album charts at number 20.
On July 22, 2014, a new edition of their first number one hit All That She Wants was released in ten new remixes exclusively as a download.
On October 29, 2014, Ace of Base announced on their Facebook page that new material under the title Hidden Gems would be released in early 2015. The group also announced that remaster albums with additional material would follow.
At the same time as the announcement of the new album, which should be physically available on CD and LP, it was announced that Ace of Base will now be covered by a new band. In the spirit of the A * Teens , who heralded the new ABBA generation in the early 2000s , Ace of Base has now been covered by the band A * Base . The Swedish teen band's first single, Never Gonna Say I'm Sorry , was released as a download version on November 14, 2014 and landed at number 1 on the DigiListan download platform .
In December 2014 and January 2015 all studio albums except The Golden Ratio were digitally released in a remastered version . Each of these albums also contains a demo song or a B-side track. It started with the new edition of the album Happy Nation , which contained the bonus track Moogoperator .
On March 6, 2015, the album Hidden Gems was released , which consisted exclusively of unreleased songs or B-side tracks. Would You Believe was released digitally as a pre-release track on February 27, 2015.
In October 2015, Ekberg stated in an interview that he thought a reunification of Ace of Base without Malin Berggren, as they had no interest in returning to the music scene, was not impossible, but Jenny Berggren said in July 2016 that it would be despite mutual family plans for the future won't give the band a reunion.
influence
Many musicians and singers refer to Ace of Base as a major influence on their own careers: Lady Gaga stated that her album The Fame Monster , with songs like Alejandro , was influenced by "great pop melodies of the 90s" by artists like Ace of Base. The song Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say) from The Fame also compared some critics with the songs of Ace of Base. Swedish singer Robyn used Ace of Base as inspiration for her song Dancehall Queen , which appeared on her album Body Talk Pt. 1 is included.
Katy Perry said the sequel to One of the Boys should sound like The Sign . “It's roller skating. It's the nineties. It's Ace Of Base. It's Cyndi Lauper . It's colorful and much, much more. "
The British pop group Steps was also inspired by the early albums of Ace of Base on their third album Buzz .
Ace of Base also stated in some interviews that they felt honored that stars like Lady Gaga and Katy Perry had been influenced by them.
Awards
- 1993: Swedish Grammi - Best Pop Group
- 1993: Swedish Grammi - TV audience price
- 1993: Bronze BRAVO Otto (Germany) - Best rock / pop group
- 1994: American Music Award - Favorite Band, Duo or Group - Pop / Rock
- 1994: American Music Award - Favorite New Artist - Pop / Rock
- 1994: Billboard Music Awards - No.1 single
- 1994: Billboard Music Awards - Top New Artist
- 1994: Billboard Music Awards - Artist of The Year
- 1994: World Music Award - World's Best-Selling Scandinavian Recording Artists of the Year
- 1994: Echo (Germany) - Group of the Year
- 1995: Grammy Awards - New Artist (nomination)
- 1995: Grammy Awards - Best Pop Album (nomination)
- 1995: Grammy Awards - Pop Vocal Group (nomination)
- 1995: World Music Award - World's Best-Selling Scandinavian Recording Artists of the Year
- 1996: World Music Award - World's Best-Selling Scandinavian Recording Artists of the Year
- 1997: World Music Award - World's Best-Selling Scandinavian Recording Artists of the Year
- 1999: RSH Gold
- 2007: BMI Award for over 3 million uses of The Sign on US television and radio
- 2011: The Scandipop Award - Best Group Album
Discography
- 1992: Happy Nation
- 1993: Happy Nation (US version) / The Sign
- 1995: The Bridge
- 1998: Flowers / Cruel Summer
- 2002: Da Capo
- 2010: The Golden Ratio
- 2015: Hidden Gems
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Anja Mummhardt, Jessica Dieckow: Ace of Base - The Jenny Source. Retrieved June 8, 2020 (UK English).
- ^ Ace of Base's Secret Nazi Past. In: VICE Noisey. Retrieved May 24, 2013 .
- ↑ Article on 20min.ch: Member of Ace of Base played in a Nazi band. Retrieved May 24, 2013 .
- ↑ Article on www.huffingtonpost.com: Ace Of Base's Nazi Past Revealed In Disturbing Lyrics Of Ulf Ekberg's Former Band. Retrieved May 24, 2013 .
- ↑ Katy Perry in the US charts for 52 weeks. (No longer available online.) Antenne Niedersachsen, May 13, 2011, archived from the original on March 8, 2014 ; Retrieved February 20, 2014 .
- ↑ Ninna Prage: "De ville inte ha med mig". In: Aftonbladet . October 18, 2010, accessed September 29, 2019 (Swedish).
- ↑ Michael Rothman: Where Are They Now: Ace of Base. In: ABC News. October 8, 2015, accessed September 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Cameron Adams: Seeing Ace of Base's Jenny Berggren is the closest you'll get to a return tour. In: News.com.au. July 7, 2016, accessed September 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Lady Gaga Talks Fame Monster , Freakishness . Billboard.com . November 25, 2009. Retrieved October 18, 2010.
- ↑ Matt Elias: Katy Perry Wants To Make New Music Her Fans Can 'Roller-Skate To' . MTV . September 23, 2009. Retrieved October 18, 2010.
- ↑ Katy Perry Excited For Her New Summer Record . FMQB . March 29, 2010. Archived from the original on April 5, 2010. Retrieved October 18, 2010.
- ↑ a b GRAMMIS VINNARE GENOM ÅREN 1969-2013 ( Memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Bravo magazine archive - Otto awards 1993 . BRAVO . Retrieved February 1, 2010.
- ↑ http://www.echopop.de/no_cache/pop-suche/?suche[action]=suche&suche[echo Autovermietung=18&suche[yo ]=1994&suche[win]&suche[name guard= Ace of Base (link not available)
- ↑ RSH Gold Award 1999
- ↑ BMI Awards . BMI . Archived from the original on October 25, 2009. Retrieved February 1, 2010.
- ↑ List of Scandy Pop awards 2011 winners