Charlotte Perrelli

Charlotte Perrelli
Charlotte Perrelli (2011)
Background information
Birth name	Anna Jenny Charlotte Nilsson
Also known as	Charlotte Nilsson
Born	(1974-10-07) 7 October 1974
Origin	Hovmantorp, Sweden
Genres	Dansband music (up to 1999), Disco, Pop, Schlager
Instruments	Singing
Years active	1987–present
Labels	Stockhouse (1999-2008, 2009 - ) Universal Music (2008)
Associated acts	Wizex, Anders Engbergs
Website	Myspace site Official Website

Charlotte Perrelli (born Anna Jenny Charlotte Nilsson on 7 October 1974,^[1] in Hovmantorp, Kronobergs län, Sweden) is a Swedish singer and occasional television host, perhaps most famous for winning the 1999 Melodifestivalen and subsequently that year's Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Take Me to Your Heaven."

Since then she has released seven albums and multiple singles. Perrelli once again won Melodifestivalen 2008 and represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with her song "Hero".

She is one of Sweden's most popular female singers, often performing at Sweden's top shows. Throughout her career, she has worked with different types of music, ranging from dansband and schlager, via modern pop, to soulful ballads and jazz melodies.

Biography

1987–1998

At thirteen Perrelli joined a local dansband in Hovmantorp in the Småland-province in southern Sweden. The band Bengt Ingvars became "Bengt Ingvars med Charlotte". After finishing her compulsory school education, Perrelli moved from Hovmantorp to the neighbouring town of Växjö where she attended the High School of Performing Arts. She also became the lead singer of the band Kendix.

In 1994, Perrelli started singing with the well-established dansband Anders Engbergs. After two albums, Perrelli left the band and joined the highly successful dansband Wizex in 1997. The years with Wizex gave Perrelli the opportunity to develop her skills as a performer. Larger venues and professional management produced results. In 1998 the band was nominated for a Swedish Grammis (Grammy) for the album Mot nya mål, and the album Tusen och en natt sold gold. Perrelli was ready to go solo. Between 1997–1998 Perrelli also starred as the training instructor "Millan Svensson" in the Swedish soap opera Vita lögner.

1999–2000

After being selected as the Swedish contestant for the 1999 Eurovision Song Contest by winning that year's national Melodifestivalen contest, Perrelli went to Jerusalem in late May to compete with her song "Take Me To Your Heaven". She won and her solo career really took to the skies. The following months were hectic for Perrelli, she toured Europe and the Middle East, promoting her Take me to your heaven and started working on her first solo album, the self-titled Charlotte. Later that year Perrelli was voted Sweden's sexiest woman by the magazine Café. She later released I write you a lovesong, together with debut album Charlotte, which was well received. Throughout the rest of the year, she toured Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia in support of her album. For the Eurovision Song Contest 2000, Perrelli did not make an appearance due to a conflict between her and the SVT.

2001–2003

In 2001 she released her second album, Miss Jealousy, a pop/rock album which included the top 20 hit single "You Got Me Going Crazy", written by Johan Åberg and Paul Rein, known for their work with Christina Aguilera and Victoria Beckham. This song would later become the debut single for Spanish singer Natalia, whose Spanish version of the song "Vas a volverme loca" in 2002 sold over 200,000 in Spain alone, a record for that year. The album also contained the radio hit "Light of my life". During the months after the release, she promoted the album throughout Europe, and also travelled to New Zealand, to promote her work.

Perrelli hosted the first semifinal of Melodifestivalen 2003 together with Mark Levengood and Lena Philipsson. In April 2003 she performed in Jesus Christ Superstar. In September she released the new single "Broken Heart", which was followed up by the album Gone Too Long in June 2004, containing hits like Gone too long, Flashdance and Million miles away.

2004–2007

After the success in Melodifestivalen 2003, Perrelli was once again offered to host Melodifestivalen 2004. Perrelli, Peter Settman and Ola Lindholm hosted the entire tour together. After the festival, Swedish TV4 offered her an own show on the channel. The show was called Super Troupers which was a talent-show for kids. One of the contestants was Amy Diamond, who is now a successful and singer also Alice Svensson who later came first runner-up in Idol 2008.

In mid-2004 she released her, until then, most successful album, Gone Too Long, which included songs by some of Sweden's top producers, including Jörgen Elofsson. The album topped the Swedish top for weeks and contained hits like "A million miles away" and "Gone too long". In the summer, she joined Robert Wells, Jill Johnson and others on the Rhapsody In Rock-tour in mid-2004. In the spring of 2005, she was a judge on Inför Eurovision, a TV show which previewed that year's Eurovision songs.

In 2006, she released the album I din röst, in honour of the famous jazz singer Monica Zetterlund, which contained Monica's most famous songs, along with some personal favorites and the soul-ballad I din röst, written by Charlotte for the album. The album was successful, and she performed many of the songs in Sweden's top shows like Allsång på Skansen and Nationaldagen. She also co-hosted the TV-show 'Tillsammans för världens barn' in October, where she also performed The Greatest Love of all.

In May, 2007 Perrelli was the Swedish expert in the Nordic preview show panel discussion about the Eurovision Song Contest. The contestants and their songs and chances to win were commented on. She was also a part of the panel in 2005.

In mid-2007 Perrelli toured Sweden with the yearly successful Diggiloo. She was joined by singers such as Linda Bengtzing, Lasse Holm, Molly Sandén, Lotta Engberg and Jan Johansen. During the summer she released the love ballad "Som du" which she performed att the popular show Sommarkrysset. During the autumn she released the single disco song "Jag är tillbaks" which she performed at the show Babban & Co. Both singles had moderate success.

2008-2009

Perrelli performing at Överby Köpcenter, 5 April 2008.

On 15 March 2008 Perrelli performed and won Melodifestivalen 2008 again with her song "Hero" at the Stockholm Globe Arena. Hero became an enormous hit in Sweden, topping the charts for several weeks and becoming the most sold single of 2008 for a Swedish artist. She went on to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Belgrade, Serbia, where she advanced to the finals. Before Eurovision, she went out on an enormous tour, performing at popular TV shows in 17 nations, in order to promote Hero.

On 14 April Perrelli filmed the music video for "Hero" on location in Stockholm. She also released her album titled Hero, which went on to sell platinum in Sweden. Although "Hero" was one of the favourites to win the Eurovision Song Contest 2008,^[2] it ended 18th out of 25 entries in the final, with 47 points in total. After Eurovision, the song Bullet was released as a single, and it performed moderately on the Swedish charts. Perrelli started rehearsals for Rhapsody in Rock along with Robert Wells, with whom she toured with during that summer. Perrelli and Robert did a concert in Beijing, China during the 2008 Summer Olympics. In August, it was revealed that Charlotte had signed a record deal with a Chinese record label. As a result, her album "Hero" was released inside China.

During the autumn, she worked on her Christmas album Rimfrostjul, which was released in November. She also performed at several of Sweden's top TV-shows, such as Sommarkrysset, Victoriadagen and Nationaldagen. On 31 October 2008 Perrelli was a guest judge and coach for the remaining contestants on Idol 2008. In November and December, she promoted her Christmas album and toured Sweden in a set of Christmas concerts.In the beginning of 2009, she travelled to Beijing to perform in a series of TV-shows. She worked as a judge on the Swedish show Talang 2009.

2010-present

At the Schlager pride in Stockholm in July 2009, she announced that she will release a new album in 2010. This was later changed to 2012. Perrelli recorded a new single for the Swedish Royal Wedding in June 2010 together with pop singer Magnus Carlsson titled Mitt livs gemal, which was very well-received and performed throughout Sweden. In August, she released her first fitness book titled Kan du Kan jag. In December 2010, she toured Swedish churches with her material from her Christmas album Rimfrostjul. Perrelli was also a judge on Talang 2010. Perrelli returned as a judge for Talang 2011 which is the series fifth season. During the Summer, she toured with Diggiloo once more. In November 2011, she confirmed that she would play Eva Peron in the musical Evita at the Malmoe Opera, something which she described as a dream come true.

In November 2011, it was announced that she would once again participate in Melodifestivalen 2012 with the entry "The Girl" by Fredrik Kempe in hopes of representing Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan. In the fourth semifinal of the show, she came 5th, and failed to qualify to the final. Nonetheless, she released her seventh album titled The Girl, which contained 8 new tracks. One of the tracks was called Little Braveheart, which was a duet with the successful Belgian singer Kate Ryan. She also released her own perfume and shimmering lotion titled The Girl, which was an enormous success. In the summer of 2012, she will once again tour with Diggiloo. After this, she will release her second fitness book, and then play Eva Peron' in the musical Evita at the Malmö Opera.

Personal life

In 2003, Perrelli married Stockholm-based Swedish-Italian restaurateur Nicola Ingrosso, brother of Emilio Ingrosso who had been married to another Swedish singer, Pernilla Wahlgren. Following a feud with Ingrosso's family, Charlotte and Nicola decided to change their last names to Perrelli. They have two sons; Angelo (born in 2004) and Alessio (born in 2005). After speculations in Swedish media that their relationship was on the rocks, the couple officially announced their separation in June 2008. It is believed that Charlotte's heavy workload was a contributing factor to the couple's split.^[3][4] On 24 September 2009, the couple filed for divorce.

Perrelli has been dating Anders Jensen since 2012. On July 30, 2013, Perrelli gave birth to the couple's first child, Adrian Romeo Perrelli-Jensen.^[5]

Discography

Albums

All regularly released albums and their chart positions in the Swedish Top 60 (SWE).

Singles

Soundtracks

Soundtracks containing Charlotte Perrelli songs.

• 2000: Livet är en schlager Soundtrack - "Jag vill bara älska med dig"

Compilations

Compilations containing Charlotte Perrelli songs.

• 1999: Absolute '99: The Best of 1999 - "Take Me To Your Heaven"
• 1999: Mr Music Hits - Vol 7, 1999 - "Take Me To Your Heaven"
• 1999: Maximum Dance - Vol 7, 1999 - "Take Me To Your Heaven"
• 1999: Absolute Music 30 - "Take Me To Your Heaven"
• 1999: 100% Semester - Vol 4 - "Take Me To Your Heaven"
• 2000: Eurovision Song Contest 1956-1999 - "Take Me To Your Heaven"
• 2000: Barn 2000 - "Behöver Dig Nu"
• 2000: Schooldays - "Tusen och en Natt"
• 2001: Melodifestivalen 2001 - "Tusen och en Natt"
• 2008: Melodifestivalen 2008 - "Hero"

References

External links

Wikinews has related news: Interview with Charlotte Perrelli in the run-up to Eurovision 2009

• Official website
• Charlotte Perrelli on Myspace
• Official YouTube Profile

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Dana International with "Diva"	Winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1999	Succeeded by Olsen Brothers with "Fly on the Wings of Love"
Preceded by Jill Johnson with "Kärleken är"	Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999	Succeeded by Roger Pontare with "When Spirits Are Calling My Name"
Preceded by The Ark with "The Worrying Kind"	Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008	Succeeded by Malena Ernman with "La voix"

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Charlotte Perrelli.