Jonna Lee (singer)

Jonna Emily Lee (born Jonna Emily Nilson Lee, October 3, 1981) is a singer-songwriter from Linköping, Sweden, currently residing in Stockholm. Lee is best known for being the creator and artist of iamamiwhoami. Lee started her own label, To whom it may concern, in 2010.

Early life

Born 1981 in Linköping, Lee grew up in the small village of Fågelsta with her mother and siblings. No one in her family had any musical background but Lee had an interest in music at the age of 16. Lee ran away from home to London in her teens due to trying conditions at home.

In 2002, Lee moved back to Stockholm where she became a part of the underground indie scene. She started recording her own records that were released only through her website until she was signed by the Swedish indie label, Razzia Records, in the spring 2007. She released 2 solo albums through Razzia Records between 2007-2009 but left the label in 2010 and started the independent label To whom it may concern. and started to release her music under the pseudonym iamamiwhoami.

Career

Lee released her first solo album 10 Pieces, 10 Bruises on Swedish label Razzia Records on 10 October 2007. The first single was "Dried Out Eyes," followed by "And Your Love," a duet with Ed Harcourt, who also produced three tracks on the album. Lee produced the rest of the record with her collaborator, Claes Björklund who is a member of Travis in London. Supergrass drummer Danny Goffey plays drums on the record. Some songs were recorded in Goffey's house in England.

In September 2008, she released a 5-track EP entitled This War.

Her second full length album This is Jonna Lee, produced by Claes Björklund and Lee herself, was released in February 2009. Her second album was described as a more "forward record" but is still "musically related to her previous recordings".

In October 2009, she released a version of the industrial electro band Nitzer Ebb's song "Violent Playground". The band celebrated it by uploading Lee's version on their website along with an interview with her.

Since December 2009, Lee has released music and films under the pseudonym iamamiwhoami together with producer Claes Björklund and their visual collaborators.

Lee has also worked as a presenter for live sessions at Sveriges Radio P3 between 2009 and 2011.^[1]

Awards, accolades and recognition

This is Jonna Lee was chosen as the "Next Big Thing" on iTunes USA's front page in May 2009.

Jonna Lee performed at SXSW in Austin, Texas in March 2010. After SXSW, she was in the Top 5 for the SXSW 2010 Next Big Sound list, which tracks how fast music artists are adding fans across various social networking platforms.^[2]

In 2010, Jonna Lee received a Manifest Award nomination for Best Singer-Songwriter.^[3]

Lee has won numerous awards as iamamiwhoami.

iamamiwhoami

In March 2010, there was considerable speculation that Lee was the artist featured in the viral marketing videos on YouTube uploaded by the mysterious iamamiwhoami, although her management claimed to be unaware of her involvement.^[4][5][6][7] According to rraurl.com and MTV Brasil, the music video for iamamiwhoami's track, "o" was directed by Viktor Kumlin, who's also the director of Lee's music video, "Something So Quiet".^[8] This later proved to be wrong.

Lee eventually came to be unofficially identified as iamamiwhoami, when she released the music video titled "t" on her channel.^[9] She also appears identifiable in the forthcoming music videos released and has performed live at the 2011 Way Out West Festival in Gothenburg, Sweden. The project has garnered award nominations and has won a Grammis Award in 2010 for being 'Innovator of the Year'. iamamiwhoami's debut album kin was released in June 2012 under the label To whom it may concern. via Co-Operative Music, and Lee was credited as the artist, co-producer, songwriter and visual producer of iamamiwhoami, officially confirming that she is iamamiwhoami (which was already known by then).^[10] Lee eventually did an interview with The Guardian in August 2012, and confirmed that she was in the "process of developing iamamiwhoami", also commenting that she was still the "same person", but "found other sides of [herself]".^[11]

Discography

Singles

Other

• "Violent Playground", compilation track (2009)

Albums

• 10 Pieces, 10 Bruises, album 2007
• This War, EP 2008
• This is Jonna Lee, album 2009

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jonna Lee.

• To Whom It May Concern