Sweetbox

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Sweetbox
Origin Asia
Genre(s) Pop, dance, rock, classical, Rap
Years active 1995–present
Label(s) Avex Trax, Sony BMG, Universal
Website sweetbox.com
Former members
Kimberley Kearney (1995-1996)
Dacia Bridges (1995-1996)
Tina Harris (1997-1999)
Jade Villalon (2000-2007)
Jamie (2007 - present)

Sweetbox, is a pop band that was formed in 1995 by producers Heiko Schmidt and Roberto "Geo" Rosan. The group first became famous with vocalist Tina Harris, and when she left a year after she started, vocalist and writer Jade Villalon joined became an international star with Sweetbox. In 2007, because of disagreements, Jade and Geo left Sweetbox to start Jade's solo career under "Jade Valerie". Sweetbox is now fronted by Jamie, who has been recording in the studio for the upcoming Sweetbox album. Although generally belonging to the pop genre, Sweetbox incorporates many other sounds in its music, such as classical, rock, dance, rap, soul, acoustic, and country.[citation needed]Sweetbox is most famous in many Asian counties though Jade's lyrics are entirely in English[citation needed]. To date, Sweetbox have sold over 3 million albums and 2 million singles worldwide [{http://www.sweetbox.com/en/2.html}]. Jade is widely noted in video gaming culture as being the singer of the English dubbed songs of "Real Emotion" and "1000 Words" which appeared in the popular video game Final Fantasy X-2.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Beginnings

In 1995, Sweetbox released their first song, "Booyah Here We Go", performed by Kimberley Kearney, bringing an urban R&B feel. A year later, Sweetbox released their second song, “Shakalaka”, which was performed by Dacia Bridges, as Kimberly Kearney left. Dacia Bridges also left, forcing producer Geo to find a new vocalist.

In 1998, Tina Harris became the front woman of the group and their first hit single, “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright”, was released. The song features a sample of Johann Sebastian Bach's Air on the G String with a hip hop beat, and the chorus is apparently from a part of Bob Marley's No Woman, No Cry. The single received placement in ten different European Top Ten charts and Harris was awarded two Japanese Grammies for the song.[citation needed] Later that year, a self-titled album was released. In some regions the album was released as Everything’s Gonna Be Alright. Despite the bands success, in 1998, Harris left the band, and the urban R&B feel Sweetbox had left along with her. But one idea stuck with Geo: to mix classical music with modern sounds. Again, he searched for a front woman who could devote herself to the project.

[edit] Jade Villalon

[edit] 2001–2004

A year after Tina Harris' departure, Geo met with aspiring vocalist, Jade Villalon, who was invited to join the band. With this, the band's musical style changed from that of an R&B, hip-hop sound to dance and pop, with many songs created around classical music pieces.

Villalon and Geo released their first album, Classified in 2001. The general sounds of the album were dance, pop, and rock, with songs incorporating classical pieces by Beethoven, Ennio Morricone and others. Slower tempoed romantic songs were also present on the album. It received gold certification in Japan.[citation needed]

The second album with Villalon frontlining, Jade, was released in Asia in 2002. The song, "Lighter Shade of Blue", also known as "Here On My Own" because of its similar music video version of the song, was released as a single in Europe and remained number one on some charts for four consecutive weeks. The 2nd was "Read My Mind".[citation needed]

An acoustic version of the album Jade was released in 2003, under the name Jade - Silver Edition.

Later in 2003, Jade Villalon was approached by Square-Enix to sing the 3 vocal songs for the English version of the video game, Final Fantasy X-2. Jade accepted, and under the name "Jade from Sweetbox", Jade recorded the songs "real Emotion", "1,000 Words", and "1,000 Words (Orchestrated Version)" for the game. The songs are made available on the CD "Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission OST" and longer versions of "real Emotion" and "1,000 Words" are featured on the Japanese release of Jade's album "Adagio".

[edit] 2004

Sweetbox's fourth studio album, and third with Jade, Adagio, was released in 2004. Although of a more upbeat nature than the Jade album, Adagio had a deeper and darker theme, similar to the sometimes chilling classical passages of which the album's songs are based on. Also on the Japanese release of this album, longer versions of "real Emotion" and "1,000 Words" are included as bonus tracks.

Also in 2004, the group released 13 Chapters, which contained half of the songs from Adagio, and half from the upcoming album After the Lights, which was released shortly after.

The After the Lights album, released in 2005, saw a very matured side of Sweetbox. Changes also were that in the album, there were no already-written classical pieces of which the songs were based on. Any classical elements that were used were now composed solidly by Jade Villalon and Geo.[citation needed] Also, gone were vividly up-beat songs, except for one of the singles, "Killing Me DJ", and the song "Girl From Tokyo". The album also featured strong guitar back-up, as well as many songs being romantic pop-ballads. Since the album was released around Christmas, Jade decided to also cover a few Christmas carols, and write one of her own, for the album.

[edit] 2006–2007

In 2005 Sweetbox released their first greatest hits album, known as Greatest Hits in Japan, and The Best of Sweetbox 1995-2005 in Europe, Taiwan, and South Korea. It contained a new version of Sweetbox's first hit, "Everything's Gonna Be Alright", re-titled as "Everything's Gonna Be Alright -reborn-", and sung by Villalon, with all new lyrics, vocal style, and a guest singer. Greatest Hits sold 205,507 copies and became the 73rd best selling album of 2005.

Later in 2005, the music magazine FONO awarded Sweetbox the "No. 1 Cross-Border Artist” title,[citation needed] and two Sweetbox songs, “Addicted” and “Hate Without Frontiers” (turned to "World Without Frontiers”), were featured in a Japanese commercial for the Subaru Legacy[citation needed]. A new album, Raw Treasures Volume 1, featuring demo versions of Sweetbox songs, and unreleased songs the band had recorded, was released in late 2005.

Sweetbox's next full length studio album, Addicted was released at the very beginning of 2006, bringing back a strong, up-beat dance style in many songs, and famous classical pieces to base them upon. This album is Sweetbox's best-selling so far,[citation needed] reaching many status positions,[citation needed] and giving Jade Villalon many new TV spot-lights, performing the single "Addicted". A music video was also made for this song. Addicted sold 121,397 copies and became the 111th best selling album of 2006.

August 2006 saw the release of Sweetbox's first ever live album containing the DVD and CD of a major Sweetbox tour performance of 2006. Also a remix album, featuring many songs from before Villalon became lead vocalist for the group, was released shortly after.

[edit] Jade embarks on a solo career

On September 4, 2007, it was publicly announced that Jade Villalon had quit Sweetbox, to focus on her new solo singer career under the name "Jade Valerie", and to sign onto Univesal J Records. Geo (Founder and Mastermind) also permanently quit Sweetbox some time later to further his dedication to produce Jade's future albums.[citation needed] Jade stated that troubling issues with the people who owned the trademark Sweetbox made her to leave the stagename behind and change it to Jade Valerie. Jade also said that while she may not write as many songs with classical compositions in them as she did with Sweetbox, she still will do this in some songs, and that her other new songs will sound similar to Sweetbox, keeping the same unique and in-depth songwriting that Sweetbox fans are used to.

[edit] Sweetbox, the next generation

As of November 4th 2007, the official Sweetbox website (www.sweetbox.com) came back online with an official message from Sweetbox executive producer Heiko Schmidt, this message included details of the future of Sweetbox and can still be found in the "News Section" of the current website. He said that they have already found a new frontwoman, but they have yet to disclose her name. And that they are working on the new Sweetbox album called "Sweetbox-The Next Generation" which will be released in 2008.

AVEX's latest Sweetbox release, The Complete Best, twice topped the International Oricon Charts, and has sold 81,578 copies for now, and is still charting.

As of March 5, 2008, the new www.sweetbox.com website is available, showing details (pictures, biography etc.) of the new frontwoman, Jamie and also providing clips of new songs they're producing. Jamie is 19 years old and is a model and a singer from Clifornia, United States which is also the birth place of former singer Jade Villalon.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] Singles

Kimberley Kearney
  • Booyah (Here We Go)
  • Never Alone
Dacia Bridges
  • Shakalaka
  • Wot
Tina Harris
  • Shout (Let It All Out)
  • U Make My Love Come Down
  • I'll Die For You
  • Everything's Gonna Be Alright
  • Don't Go Away
Jade Villalon

[edit] External links