Robyn

Robin Miriam Carlsson aka Robyn (born June 12, 1979) is a Swedish singer and songwriter from Stockholm, Sweden. She scored massive successes in the summer of 2007 with her hit single "With Every Heartbeat" which was most notably #1 in the UK, but also had chart success in her native Sweden, the Netherlands, Ireland and Germany. She is best known in the USA for her 1997 song "Do You Know (What It Takes)". Her debut single "You've Got That Something" was released in Sweden in 1995. Later the same year, her Swedish breakthrough came with the single "Do You Really Want Me (Show Respect)". It was slightly less successful in the USA in its 1997 release. These singles became part of the album Robyn Is Here. Robyn had her North American breakthrough in 1997 when the singles "Show Me Love" and "Do You Know (What It Takes)" were released. These singles ended up on the Billboard top 10, and both made #2 in Canada. She followed those two singles with the slightly less successful "Do You Really Want Me (Show Respect)", which was the lead-off single for the 1995 Swedish release. It was ineligible for the Billboard Hot 100 at the time since it was not released as a retail single in the U.S., but did reach #32 on the Hot 100's Airplay chart, and #6 in Canada. The album offered the standard version and a remix causing the album to be re-released with this remix on it. Her following album My Truth was released in May 17, 1999, but not in the US (though it was promised to be) because her American record company RCA didn't think the album contained any potential hits. The album won rave reviews and is referred to by fans as her best album to date, even garnering her a Grammy (as did Robyn is Here both in the US and Sweden). In 2000, Povel Ramel gave her the Karamelodiktstipendiet; a scholarship for her musical achievements where most of the reward lies in the prestige and honor, not the money. In 2001, she contributed the song Say You'll Walk The Distance (written by Jörgen Elofsson) to the soundtrack On The Line. In November 2002, she changed labels (from RCA to JIVE) and released the album Don't Stop The Music in Sweden. This album was also promised a US release after a few minor changes were made to it. These changes were never made and it has yet to see an American release. The title track was later covered by Swedish girl group Play, and album track "Keep This Fire Burning" was a single for British soul singer Beverley Knight. In May 2004, the CD Robyn's Best was released by BMG. It is a shortened version of her first album and contains no material from her other two albums that had been previously released. It is considered by fans to be a poor attempt by her past record label to pass the album off as a greatest hits album. In 2005, Robyn released her new single "Be Mine", and a month later the album titled Robyn. This music was released by Konichiwa Records, a record label she started in 2004 for the sole purpose of releasing her music. Konichiwa (Misspelling of Japanese 'Konnichi wa', which means "Hello") is a reference to the phrase "Konichiwa bitches!" by the comedian Dave Chappelle. It is also the name of a rap song in the end of her self-titled album, which is considered to be a little controversial for this young pop singer. The album entered at No. 1 on Swedish charts on May 5th, 2005. In December 2006, Robyn released The Rakamonie EP in the UK as a preview to her more recent material. This was followed by the release of "Konichiwa Bitches" in March 2007. The revised edition of Robyn was released in the UK on April 2, 2007. The UK release contained new tracks "With Every Heartbeat" and "Cobrastyle" (a cover of a 2006 single by Swedish rockers Teddybears) alongside two slightly altered versions of the original songs. The second single from the UK release was the Kleerup collaboration "With Every Heartbeat" which reached number 1 in the singles chart in the UK on August 12, 2007. She is also present in EA GAMES " Fifa 08" with the song "Bum Like you".