| Whigfield | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Charlotte Carlson |
| Born | April 11, 1970 Skælskør, Denmark |
| Origin | Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Genres | Eurodance, dance |
| Occupations | Singer, actress, songwriter, record producer |
| Years active | 1992–present |
Sannie Charlotte Carlson (born 11 April 1970), best known as Whigfield and also as Naan, is a Danish Eurodance singer best known for the song "Saturday Night" which was a worldwide hit during the summer of 1994.
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Whigfield was born in Skælskør, Denmark. She spent several years in Africa as a child before returning to her native country. Before singing Sannie worked as a very successful model and studied music. When she met the producer Larry Pignagnoli, who also produces Benny Benassi, Katla, In-Grid, Ally & Jo, Ann Lee, Spagna, J.K., Dhany and others, the artist "Whigfield" was born. The name "Whigfield" is a tribute to Sannie's piano teacher.[1]
She rose to prominence when her single "Saturday Night" became the summer smash hit of 1994, thanks to extensive play in the clubs of the Mediterranean and the fact that it had a dance which many found easy to learn. It was also the single which prevented Wet Wet Wet from reaching a record-equalling 16th week at number 1 in the UK.[2] She became the first ever non-UK or American artist to debut at No.1 in her first week in the UK Singles Chart. Her music was also very successful in Australia, Brazil, Venezuela, Canada, France, India, the Netherlands, the Nordic countries, The Philippines where it became a hugely popular and smash hit summer song of 1994 gaining a very decent cult status in recent years along with the songs of Ace of Base and Los del Río, and Spain during the 1995 Eurodance phenomenon. Her role in the Eurodance scene has been very significant and has played an important role in music coming from Italy and Scandinavia.
Later singles include "Think of You", "Close To You", "Last Christmas", "Gimme Gimme" and "Sexy Eyes". "Gimme Gimme" and "Sexy Eyes" reached #14 and #6 in Australia, respectively, and they were the only two significant charting hits in that country.[3]
Like the group Milli Vanilli, Whigfield was accused of not singing her own songs. This was because she did all her live performances lip synching (miming to a backing track). "Saturday Night" was produced by Larry Pignagnoli and Davide Riva, two Italian producers known for a variety of Eurodance projects, who usually worked with vocalists such as Daniela Galli (better known as Dhany), Annerley Gordon (aka Ann Lee) and Sandy Chambers. Another Pignagnoli project, Ally & Jo, featured a similar voice to Whigfield's but different faces in the CD cover and led to the accusations. Sannie has performed live more recently, therefore proving her voice is her own.
In October 2007, Whigfield released "All In One", a greatest hits album with past hits being resung with newer, modern beats. The album includes updated versions of "Think Of You", "Gotta Getcha", "Sexy Eyes", "Givin All My Love", "No Tears To Cry", "Was A Time", "Close To You", "Out Of Sight", "Another Day", and of course her biggest hit "Saturday Night". The album also includes 2 brand new songs titled "Rainbow" and "Right in the Night", a cover version from Jam & Spoon. On 18 December, she released her first single in 3 years, "Think of you", which contains mixes from Mathieu Bouthier & Muttonheads and Gabry Ponte. A second single Right In The Night was released in May 2008 which peaked at #4 on the Eurodance.com Interactive Chart. A third singles has been released "Saturday Night (Klm Mixes)" in late 2008 which contains 20 new mixes.
However successful Whigfield became on the international marketplace, the only place where she has yet to achieve major commercial success, like many European artists, is the United States (Even though she placed both "Saturday Night" and "Another Day" on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 1995, with "Night" peaking at #19 and "Day" coming in at #21, respectively). In the years 1994-1997 Whigfield sold more records than Oasis and Blur combined, although in a 1998 interview she accepted that she was not a bigger influence on mainstream music than either band.
Whigfield has since written and performed many dance songs for groups like Benny Benassi, changed her performance name to Naan, and is still involved in the industry.[4] In 2005, Sannie appeared on the Benassi Bros album 'Phobia' writing and singing on two songs, 'Feel Alive' and 'Rocket In The Sky'. Sannie choose to record these under the name Naan, and also used that name to record 'Come A Little Closer' with Malomodo, and 'Yes U R' and some vocals in 'People Of The Night' with European DJ 'Favretto'. Sannie also wrote the lyrics for 'It's Summertime' performed by Spanish singer Katla which was released in October 2005.
Sannie is still currently involved in writing, producing and recording. Most recently she wrote the lyrics for the hit 'Who's Your Daddy' performed by Benny Benassi. 'Feel Alive' was also released in Spring 2006 however the vocals on the single release are performed by Sandy. Also vocals were re-recorded by Dhany for the single release of 'Rocket In The Sky'. She also wrote "Put 'Em Up" for singer Edun, which has gone on to become a major hit on the Billboard Hot Dance Airplay chart, where it peaked at number 3 in August 2007.
"C'est Cool" (which is French for "It's Cool") released in June 2011 is Whigfield's most recent/successful single reaching no.9 in Denmark.
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUS [5] |
FIN [5] |
GER [6] |
NED [5] |
SWI [5] |
UK [7] |
|||||||||
| Whigfield |
|
19 | 30 | 43 | 23 | 37 | 13 | |||||||
| Whigfield II |
|
— | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| Whigfield III |
|
— | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| Whigfield 4 |
|
— | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | ||||||||||||||
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) |
Album | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUT [5] |
CAN [8] |
DEN [5][9] [10] |
FRA [5] |
GER [11] |
IRE [12] |
ITA [13] |
NED [5] |
NOR [5] |
SWE [5] |
SUI [5] |
UK [14] |
||||
| 1994 | "Saturday Night" | 4 | 31 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 9 | 1 | 1 | Whigfield | |
| "Another Day" | — | 27 | 3 | 24 | 12 | 5 | 3 | 41 | 9 | 39 | 9 | 7 | |||
| 1995 | "Think of You" | — | 66 | 4 | 25 | 25 | 4 | 4 | 6 | — | — | 17 | 7 | ||
| "Close to You" | — | — | — | — | 90 | 18 | — | — | — | — | — | 13 | |||
| "Big Time" | — | — | — | — | 50 | 24 | 13 | 20 | — | — | — | 21 | |||
| "Last Christmas" | — | — | — | — | — | — | 34 | 53 | — | ||||||
| 1996 | "Sexy Eyes" | 7 | — | — | — | 14 | — | — | 21 | — | — | 12 | 68 | ||
| "Gimme Gimme" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 84 | — | — | — | — | Whigfield II | ||
| 1997 | "Baby Boy" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "No Tears to Cry" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 60 | — | — | |||
| 1998 | "Givin' All My Love" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1999 | "Be My Baby" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Whigfield III | |
| 2000 | "Doo-Whop" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Much More" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| 2002 | "Gotta Getcha" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Whigfield 4 | |
| 2003 | "Saturday Night 2003" | — | — | 19 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Single only | |
| 2004 | "Was a Time" | — | — | — | — | 74 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Whigfield 4 | |
| 2007 | "Think of You 2007" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Singles only | |
| 2008 | "Right in the Night" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2009 | "No Doubt" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2011 | "C'est Cool" | — | — | 9 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||||||||||||