Bloodshy & Avant

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Bloodshy & Avant
Also known as Böz o lö
Origin Sweden
Genre(s) Dance
Electro
Synthpop
Electroclash
Occupation(s) DJ, Record producer, Songwriter
Years active 2000 - Present
Associated acts Britney Spears, Madonna, Kylie Minogue

Bloodshy and Avant are Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg, a music production and songwriting team from Sweden. The duo have worked with a number of high-profile artists, including Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Jennifer Lopez, Kelis, Christina Milian, Ms. Dynamite, Rachel Stevens and most famously, Britney Spears. Their most successful work thus far was the 2004 hit single "Toxic", which went on to win the Best Dance Record at the 2005 Grammy awards, and became one of the biggest selling singles of 2004 in the UK. In recognition of their success, they also received the ASCAP award for their work on Toxic both in 2004 and 2005.

Contents

[edit] Career

Bloodshy and Avant scored their first hit single working with US singer/songwriter Christina Milian for her debut album. The collaboration resulted in two worldwide hit singles, "AM To PM" and "When You Look At Me".

Following this, Universal Music UK sent two artists over to work with them; urban rapper/singer, Ms. Dynamite and Sugababes. The collaboration with Ms. Dynamite resulted in many tracks for her debut album, A Little Deeper, as well as her hit debut single, "It Takes More." They also produced tracks for her 2005 second release, Judgement Days. With Sugababes, the duo produced "Supernatural" for their album, Angels with Dirty Faces.

Bloodshy & Avant in studio with Britney Spears.
Bloodshy & Avant in studio with Britney Spears.

When working on Britney Spears's fourth studio album, Jive Records asked British production team Xenomania to produce a hit single. The submitted track was rejected, and the record company turned to Karlsson and Winnberg and British songwriter Cathy Dennis (who was also working with Britney and UK songwriter Guy Chambers) - the result was "Toxic" and "Showdown," both of which appear on Spears' album In The Zone. The song was chosen as the second favorite song of the world (all time) in a global survey made by Sony Ericsson, in which 700,000 music fans of 66 countries contributed, behind "We Are the Champions" by Queen. They also produced a track called "Chaotic" for the album, which was later used as the theme music to her reality TV show, Britney and Kevin: Chaotic and "I've Just Begun (Having My Fun)," which appeared on the overseas release of the In The Zone DVD and later on her greatest hits album. Following the success of "Toxic," Spears recruited the duo to produce tracks for her greatest hits project, including her cover of "My Prerogative" and a track called "Do Somethin'" which were both top 10 hits in the UK. They were again asked to help Spears out with her fifth studio album Blackout, for which they collaborated with Spears on four songs including "Radar", "Freakshow", "Toy Soldier", and the hit single "Piece of Me".

Whilst writing with Bloodshy and Avant, Cathy Dennis also wrote two songs (the first of which was intended for, but rejected by, Britney), which appeared on former S Club 7 star, Rachel Stevens's album; "Sweet Dreams (My LA Ex)" and "Glide." Christina Milian also collaborated with the duo again for her second album, It's About Time, and the production of "Glide" was re-used and transformed into album track, "I Need More."

The duo co-wrote and co-produced two tracks with Madonna for her 2005 album, Confessions on a Dance Floor, entitled "How High" and "Like It Or Not.". The album was a huge international success and sold over 9 million albums world wide. They also remixed Utada Hikaru's European debut single, "You Make Me Want to Be a Man", and co-wrote the tongue-in-cheek song "Buddha's Delight" for the movie Music and Lyrics starring Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore.

In 2007, Bloodshy & Avant have written and produced songs on Kylie Minogues' highly anticipated comeback album entitled "X". The songs "Nu-di-ty" and "Speakerphone" venture into heavy, dark club sounds but never losing track of their pop sensibility.

Philadelphia borne and up-and-coming soul star Kevin Michael is a debut artist who hired Bloodshy & Avants production and writing skills for 2007 release. Together Bloodshy & Avant and Kevin wrote "We All Want the Same Thing" and "Hoodbuzzin". On the title track on Jennifer Lopez album "Brave", (the second single from the album) the production mergers effectively a vulnerable lyric with a melancholic piano and under that, a club beat that is pure brilliance.

Bloodshy & Avant also return to the scene of the crime on the new album by Britney Spears, entitled "Blackout" where they have worked with writers such as Sean Garrett and Klas Ahlund on the songs "Radar", "Toy Soldier", "Piece of Me" and "Freakshow". They have also written and produced three songs on American Idol winner Jordin Sparks entitled "Young And In Love", "See My Side" and "Shy Boy".

Currently Bloodshy & Avant are in the studio with Sean Garrett.

Bloodyshy recently confirmed via his myspace that Britney Spears was working on a Sixth Studio Album, implying they were involved in production

[edit] Awards

  • Grammy Award - Best Dance - "Toxic", 2005
  • Ivor Novello Award - "Toxic", 2005
  • Ascap Award for achievement - "Toxic", 2004
  • Ascap Award for achievement - "Toxic", 2005
  • Swedish Government Award for Music Export, 2008

[edit] Discography

[edit] 2008

From Sean Garrett' "Turbo 919"

  • "Turbo 919"

[edit] 2007

From Britney Spears' "Blackout"

  • "Piece of Me" (UK #2, WW #6, US #18)
  • "Piece of Me" [Böz O Lö Remix] (US club play #1, WW club play #4)
  • "Radar" co-produced with The Clutch (US #107 - Not Yet Released As a Single)
  • "Freakshow" co-produced with The Clutch
  • "Toy Soldier" co-produced with Sean Garrett

From Jennifer Lopez's "Brave"

  • "Brave"
  • "Brave" [Bloodshy Radio Edit]

From Jordin Sparks

  • "See My Side"
  • "Shy Boy"
  • "Young And In Love"

From Kevin Michael

  • "We All Want The Same Thing"
  • "Hoodbuzzin"

From Kylie Minogue's "X"

  • "Nu-di-ty"
  • "Speakerphone"
  • "No more rain" (written by Bloodshy and Avant)
  • "Cherry Bomb" (b-side of Wow and In My Arms singles)

From Leon Jean Marie

  • "You must know"
  • "Bring it on"
  • "Fair"
  • "East end blues"
  • "Jumpin off the block"

[edit] 2006

From Kelis' "Kelis Was Here"

  • "Fire" feat. Spragga Benz

From Natalie

  • "Dance with me"

From Belinda' "Utopía"

  • "Good Good"

[edit] 2005

From Britney Spears' "Chaotic"

From Brooke Valentine's "Chain Letter"

  • "Blah-Blah-Blah"
  • "American Girl"
  • "Thrill of the Chase"

From Madonna's "Confessions on a Dancefloor"

  • "How High"
  • "Like It Or Not"
  • "Get Together (Demo)"

From Rob Thomas' "...Something To Be"

From Utada Hikaru

  • "You Make Me Want To Be A Man" [Remix]

[edit] 2004

From Britney Spears' "Greatest Hits: My Prerogative"

From Christina Milian's "It's About Time"

  • "I Need More"

From Ms. Dynamite's "Judgement Days"

  • "Not Today" (#7 UK)
  • "Shavaar" (#7 UK)

[edit] 2003

From Britney Spears' "In The Zone"

From Rachel Stevens' "Sweet Dreams"

[edit] 2002

From Christina Milian' Christina Milian

  • "AM To PM" (#3 UK, #27 US)
  • "When You Look At Me" (#3 UK)
  • "You Make Me Laugh"
  • "Got To Have You"
  • "Last Call"

'From, Ms. Dynamite

  • Ms. Dynamite - "It Takes More" (Bloodshy Main Mix) - (A Little Deeper) (#7 UK)
  • Ms. Dynamite - "Brother" - (A Little Deeper) (#7 UK)
  • Ms. Dynamite - "Put Him Out" - (A Little Deeper) (#7 UK)
  • Ms. Dynamite - "Crazy Crush" - (A Little Deeper) (#7 UK)
  • Ms. Dynamite - "Get up, Stand up" - (A Little Deeper) (#7 UK)
  • Sugababes - "Supernatural" - (Angels With Dirty Faces)

[edit] 2001

  • Samantha Mumba - "I'm Right Here"
  • Samantha Mumba - "Wow"
  • Samantha Mumba - "Shuttin' you down"
  • Samantha Mumba - "you're my boo"
  • Vitamin C - "Busted"
  • Vitamin C - "I Can't Say No"
  • Ultra Nate - "Get it up"
  • Ultra Nate - "I aint looking for nothing"