Indra (singer)
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| Indra | |
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| Background information | |
| Born | July 20, 1967 Sweden |
Indra (born 20 July 1967 in Sweden) is a singer, best known in France.
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[edit] Background
Indra was born in Sweden to Estonian parents. Following her model boyfriend to Paris in the late 1980s, she was discovered dancing in a Parisian night club, and was soon offered a recording contract.
[edit] Early musical career
She worked with the producer Orlando, brother of French superstar Dalida, and released her début single Let's Go Crazy in late 1990. Very much in the current club/house-style, the song was a rap track, and crossed over from the underground to the mainstream, appearing at #11 in the French single chart.
In 1991 Indra's second single, the dance song Misery hit #7 in France. The song remains Indra's biggest hit to date.
This was followed by another Top 10 track, Temptation, and her debut album also called "Temptation" later in the year. The album went Gold in France and was later released in some foreign countries but Indra never managed to find abroad the success she had in France. The album's fourth and last single was released in early 1992, and the song, Tell Me, was a Top 20 hit.
In autumn 1992, Indra released Gimme What's Real, the first single from her second album. The single peaked at #16 in the French single chart, becoming Indra's 5th consecutive Top 20 hit.
At that time, Indra was very popular in France and managed to establish herself as the 'Queen Of Dance Music' with a big club impact in addition to her chart success.
When Indra's second album, "Together Tonight", was released in January 1993, it also went Gold in France. After a collection of dance singles, Indra surprisingly released the ballad Rescue Me as her sixth single, it reached #38 in France. A third single from the "Together tonight" album was released later in 1993, Yesterday Is History (Tomorrow is a mistery) but it did not manage to chart in the Top 50 despite a bunch of new remixes.
After only two albums, 1994 saw the release of a "Best Of" collection, which yielded two brand new singles, Hollywood and Save My Life. Both failed to make the French Top 50, but the album again reached Gold status.
DJ Bobo and Masterboy produced her third studio album, "Anywhere", which was released in July 1995. The album was also released in Germany where DJ Bobo is a huge superstar. Both the album and its two singles, Anywhere and We Belong Together did not chart high. Anywere was though a Top 20 dance hit in the French official club play chart.
In 1995, Indra also participated on the Dalida remix album "Comme si j'étais là". She did a rap on the track Jusqu'au bout du rêve... which is a remake of the classic Dalida disco anthem Laissez-moi danser (Monday, Tuesday). The song was planned to be released as a single and a video made of archive footages from Dalida mixed with images of Indra's Gimme what's real video was even shown on TV but the song remained only available on promo CD and 12".
After a break of two years, Indra returned in 1997 with the single Message for you but it also flopped.
[edit] Later musical career
After some TV presenting work in France on the channel France 3 on the show Ce soir, je passe à la télé in 1998; Indra returned to the music industry in 1999 with her fourth studio album, "You & Me".
The lead single Never never spent only one week (#99) in the French single Top 100! The album was a complete failure in terms of sales and no other single was released from that album. However, another single in summer 1999 saw her teamed up with Michael Damian from The Young And The Restless, but the song, Reggae Life, became a further addition to her string of flops totally missing the Top 100.
Indra's recording contract was over at the end of 1999. She married model Guy Paillet, moved to Switzerland, and had a son, Ollie, in 2000.
Indra returned to music in 2004. Still produced by Orlando, she started to sing in French in order to get more radio airplays on the French territory. Her come-back single was the pop/rock song Besoin De Vous, a duet with Frederic Lerner. The track made the French top 50 (#47), and for the first time saw Indra enter the official Swiss singles chart.
Then, in 2005, she released her 'real' solo come-back single with Oublie-Moi, a pop/R'n'B track penned by Tragédie who had a string of Top 10 hits in France. With that song, Indra found herself back in the French Top 40 (the song peaked at #39).
In 2006, Indra appeared in the French version of reality show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! - Je suis une célébrité, sortez-moi de là!. While still in the show, a new single was released in April 2006 called Sois beau et tais-toi which reached number 16 in France and made Indra's return in the Top 20 after 14 years. She also released a self-titled album which included her last three singles, some of her biggest hits from the early 1990's and a couple of brand new songs. However the album did not sell very well reaching number 63 on the official French album chart.
Indra was supposed to release a new single in late 2006 which was planned to be either another new song from the "Indra" album called A cause de toi or a brand new remix of her 1991 smash Misery, but it seems that those projects were abandoned and Indra is currently working on some new material.
Throughout her career, Indra sold more than one million records in France and is in the Top 500 of the best-selling artists of all time in France.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
- Temptation (1991) (this album was also released in Germany in 1992 under the title "Temptation - The Album" and was set to be released in Taiwan in 1994 but only a few promotional copies were actually available there) (France: #19)
- Together Tonight (1992) (France: #24)
- Best Of (1994) (France: #30)
- Anywhere (1995)
- You & Me (1999)
- Indra (2006) (France: #63)
[edit] Singles
- From Temptation:
- Let's Go Crazy (1990) (France: #11; French Club Play Chart: #1)
- Misery (1991) (France: #7; French Club Play Chart: #1)
- Temptation (1991) (France: #7; French Club Play Chart: #1)
- Tell Me (1992) (France: #17; French Club Play Chart: #7)
- From Together Tonight:
- Gimme What's Real (1992) (France: #16; French Club Play Chart: #5)
- Rescue Me (1993) (France: #38)
- Yesterday Is History (Tomorrow is a mystery) (1993)
- From Best Of ...:
- Hollywood (1994)
- Save My Life (1994)
- From Anywhere:
- Anywhere (1995)
- We Belong Together (1995)
- Jusqu'au bout du rêve... (1995) (Dalida with Indra; taken from Dalida's remix album "Comme si j'étais là") (unreleased, promo only)
- From You & Me:
- Message For You (1997)
- Never Never (1999) (France: #99)
- Reggae Life (1999) (with Michael Damian)
- From Indra:
- Besoin De Vous (2004) (with Frederic Lerner) (France: #47, Switzerland: #88)
- Oublie-Moi (2005) (France: #39)
- Sois Beau Et Tais-Toi (2006) (France: #16)
