Ace Of Base - Biography music portrait, pictures, VIDEO and more
Comprised of vocalists Jenny Berggren and Linn Berggren, and keyboardists Jonas "Joker" Berggren and Ulf "Buddah" Ekberg, the Swedish quartet Ace of Base became a phenomenally popular international act with their 1993 debut album, The Sign. Ace of Base's simple, melodic Euro-disco was equally popular on radio and in the clubs, earning the quartet three U.S. Top Ten singles -- "All That She Wants," "Don't Turn Around," and "The Sign," which spent six weeks at number one.
Before the quartet formed in 1990, sisters Jenny and Linn Berggren sang in local church choirs in Gothenburg, Sweden. Their brother, Jonas, played synthesizers and wrote songs with Ulf Ekberg. Eventually, Jonas and Ulf recruited Jenny and Linn to sing with them, and the quartet began playing dance music at local clubs in the late summer of 1990. Within a year, the group signed with Mega Records and released their debut single, "Wheel of Fortune," in 1992. By that time, the quartet had joined forces with John Ballard, who produced their recordings and wrote the majority of their songs; occasionally, Ballard co-wrote with Jonas Berggren. "Wheel of Fortune" became a hit across Scandinavia, and soon the German-based record label Metronome signed a European distribution deal with the group. "All That She Wants" was Ace of Base's first single in Europe and, thanks to heavy exposure on MTV, the song became a number one hit in ten different countries. In the spring of 1993, Ace of Base released their European debut album, Happy Nation.
"All That She Wants" was released in America in the fall of 1993 and quickly went platinum, beginning a string of platinum Top Ten singles in the U.S.. Released in the fall of 1993, Ace of Base's American debut album The Sign -- a reconfigured version of Happy Nation, featuring four new songs - - quickly sold nearly two million copies in the U.S.. Throughout 1994, Ace of Base dominated radio in America and Europe as "All That She Wants," "Don't Turn Around," and "The Sign" received heavy airplay on a number of radio formats, including Top 40, adult contemporary, urban, and, bizarrely, modern rock. By the end of the year, The Sign had sold over eight million copies in the U.S. alone. Ace of Base was nominated for three Grammys that year, including Best New Artist.
Ace of Base released their second album, The Bridge, in the fall of 1995. Although it went platinum in its first six months of release, the record failed to duplicate the remarkable multi-platinum success of The Sign. After a three-year-hiatus, the duo
returned with Cruel Summer, which suffered a similar fate. 2000 saw the release of Greatest Hits, a blend of original singles and remixes. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
If you’ve heard “Alejandro” (and who hasn’t), then you know that Lady Gaga is a huge fan of Ace of Base. Katy Perry has expressed her love for the Swedish quartet too, but they are only two of the millions of fans who will be ecstatic to hear the first new studio album by Ace of Base in eight years, “The Golden Ratio.” The first taste of the album, the new single, “All for you,” is now availabe.
“We are extremely honored to have two of the biggest and most creative artists in the world saying those nice things about us,” says Ulf Ekberg, who founded Ace of Base with Jonas Berggren. “I listen to Lady Gaga and Katy Perry and find myself in turn being inspired by them. In many ways their singles ‘Just Dance’ and ‘I Kissed A Girl’ opened up radio for pop and dance again. We did a little of that in the early ’90s in the U.S., so it’s amazing they are inspired by us and we’ve come back.”
“The Golden Ratio” is the end result of three years of work in the studio for Ulf and Jonas. Their main challenge was to find what the Ace of Base sound would be in the second decade of the 21st century. After a year of experimenting, they realized they wanted to embrace and preserve the original Ace of Base sound and make it contemporary at the same time.
“I bought my first Kraftwerk album when I was eight,” says Ulf. “Our music came from that and the first new wave of Depeche Mode, OMD, Human League and Eurythmics. We asked ourselves how would we sound now if we did exactly the music that we love, so we experimented with analog synthesizers, Pendell basses and live drums. Of course, we have matured a little bit, so we wanted to present that side of us as well and do some songs with only live instruments and show a more mature side of our songwriting. So take music from the early ’80s, mix it with Ace of Base from the early ’90s and bring it up to 2010 – that was the challenge and it took the first two years spending every day in the studio mixing, fixing, changing and producing before we started to feel that we were on the right path.”
Jonas and Ulf had another challenge: to find two new female vocalists. Jonas’ sisters, Malin and Jenny, were charter members of Ace of Base. But Malin didn’t want to continue and Jenny wanted to focus on a solo album.
“We did a very discreet search because we wanted to find the two best girls for the band without calling a lot of attention to it,” says Ulf. Martin Dodd, who signed Ace of Base to the Danish label Mega in 1991 and who was a close associate to the famed Cheiron Studios in Stockholm with Max Martin and Denniz PoP, suggested Julia Williamson. “She came to our studio, and when she opened her mouth and sang the first tune, it took us one second to realize she was exactly what we needed for our new songs,” says Ulf. “We still needed to find someone with a different style of voice for other songs so we continued to look.” Filling in as a judge on the Swedish version of “Idol,” Ulf met Clara Hagman, a finalist who had been eliminated before she made the top 10. “She was breathtaking, and when she sang ‘Warwick Avenue,’ I fell in love with her voice,” says Ulf. “I was afraid she would win ‘Idol’ and not be available to us but fortunately she didn’t!”
By December 2009, “The Golden Ratio” was complete – or so Jonas and Ulf thought. “We wrote ‘All for you” to bridge the dance world of 2010 to our hit ‘Beautiful Life.’ It was one of the first songs we recorded with Clara, who joined the group some time after Julia,” Ulf explains. “We were so inspired by ‘All for you´ that we went into the studio and recorded another song, ‘The Golden Ratio,’ which became the title track.”
“All for you” is set to join the list of Ace of Base classics that includes “All That She Wants,” “The Sign” and “Don’t Turn Around.” Those best-selling singles and all the Ace of Base history that followed wouldn’t have happened if Jonas and Ulf had not met just over 25 years ago in Gothenburg, on the West Coast of Sweden. Ulf was two years younger, a big difference when you are a teenager. But they shared a love of music and became friends, traveling to Stockholm and cities in the South of Sweden as well as Copenhagen to see their favorite bands.
They formed separate groups themselves and didn’t work together until they shared a rehearsal studio and decided to form a synth band as a side project. A reggae band playing four rooms away in the studio influenced their sound. With Jonas’ sisters on board, they called themselves Tech Noir after a disco in the film “The Terminator,” until they discovered another Swedish band using the name.
Ulf was watching MTV on New Year’s Day and saw Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades.” He played around with the name, thinking there were four people in their band and the studio was their base. “We were the ‘four aces’ in the studio and we all thought ‘Ace of Base’ sounded great.”
Their first album, “Happy Nation,” had sold six million copies before being released in the U.S. as “The Sign,” where it sold 10 million copies. After the American success, the album sold another eight million around the world, making Ace of Base’s first release one of the most successful debuts in history.
Ace of Base released three more studio albums: “The Bridge,” “Flowers” (retitled “Cruel Summer” in the U.S.) and “Da Capo,” then went silent. A one-year break stretched to three years. Ulf and Jonas were certain that was the end of Ace of Base, until they received an invitation in 2005 to do 20 shows with Donna Summer in Antwerp, Belgium. They played with a 150-person classical orchestra for the “Night of the Proms” series, with 18,000 people in the audience every night. “We really felt like we had been missing this,” says Ulf, and by 2007, he and Jonas were back in the studio, ready to begin again. And now, the result – the pop smash “All for you” and the forthcoming full-length album, “The Golden Ratio.”
Katy and Gaga and everyone else, rejoice, because Ace of Base are back.
Happy Nation / The Sign is one of the best-selling debut albums of all time, and was certified nine times platinum in the United States.It was the first debut album to produce three number 1 singles on the Billboard Mainstream Top 40 chart: "All That She Wants", "The Sign" and "Don't Turn Around".
Following the formal departure of singer Linn in 2007, the band performed a series of concerts as a trio in Europe and Asia from 2007 through 2009, before Jenny revealed in November 2009 that she would be taking indefinite leave from the band to focus on her own solo career. Jonas and Ulf have since recruited two new female vocalists, Clara Hagman and Julia Williamson. The new line-up released their first album together The Golden Ratio in September 2010.
Formation
In 1987, following a number of years as part of a new romantic and punk covers band called G Konrad, Jonas Berggren formed a band with two friends, Johnny Lindén and Niklas Tränk for a school project; his sisters Linn and Jenny joined as singers. The new band went through several names: Kalinin Prospect (after an avenue in Moscow); CAD (Computer-Aided Disco); and Tech-Noir (French for black technology, after a nightclub in the film The Terminator). They toured the clubs of Sweden with their new self-written material, techno inspired by the likes of The KLF and Snap!. Johnny left the group in 1989. Niklas made his departure known by failing to appear at a gig at Bältesspännarparken on 6 August 1990; he preferred to attend a Rolling Stones concert on the other side of town. Jonas asked his friend Ulf Ekberg to stand in for Niklas. The new quartet sought a new name to make a fresh start; Linn was reported saying: "No one could pronounce the name of the group and nobody could remember it". They settled on Ace of Base, because they were the "masters of their studio", the basement of a car-repair shop.
However the band continued to struggle to gain any recognition, partly due to the preference of heavy metal over techno in their home town, according to singer Jenny. In 1991 they responded to a newspaper ad by producer John Ballard who was looking for new talent. He was somewhat unsure about their potential, but did pass them on to Klas Lunding at Telegram Records who helped them record an early demo for the song "Wheel of Fortune" in their newly renovated studio. But it did not convince Telegram to sign the band, and other labels in Sweden still showed no sign of interest. In the end, the unfinished demo was sold for a small price to the independent Danish label Mega Records in March 1992."Wheel of Fortune" was re-recorded and released as a single in Denmark in May but failed to hit the charts. A small-budget music video was shot and directed in a small studio by Viking Nielsson and in September, after two failures, the single finally reached the charts.
International success and Happy Nation (1993–1994)
It was another song that was to help Ace of Base's career take off internationally. After hearing Swedish top 20 hit "Another Mother" by Kayo, the band decided that was exactly the sound they wanted to create.They contacted the song's producer Denniz PoP and sent him a demo of a song called "Mr Ace". Coincidentally, the tape got stuck in the cassette tape player in his car, so he was forced to listen to it over and over again, which helped him decide to produce the track. The song became All That She Wants, a dark fusion of dub-reggae with pop which became the band's trademark sound. On release in October 1992, it quickly climbed to No. 1 on the Danish chart while the previous single was still sitting at No. 2. Keen to rush out an LP for the Christmas market, Mega Records pressed the band for an album and it was hastily recorded, mixed, and released within a few weeks.
Preceded by a single of the same name, the album, titled Happy Nation was an instant hit in Denmark, and its success prompted interest elsewhere in Europe. A Pan-European license was signed with Metronome/PolyGram (now Universal Music) but they were turned down by the American division. Within a few months, "All That She Wants" had reached number 3 in Sweden and had spent eight weeks at number 1 in Germany.
In April 1993 the band performed alongside Inner Circle and Dr. Alban in Tel Aviv, Israel at what would be their biggest audience ever, 55,000 people.
In May, "All That She Wants" continued to be a hit all around the world and topped the chart for three weeks in the United Kingdom. However, despite Mega Records' hard efforts to secure a distribution deal in the United States the response was always the same: "this band will never work in the States". Eventually, however, Clive Davis, founder of Arista Records, thought otherwise, and by the end of 1993 "All That She Wants" had made its way to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In order to freshen up the album for US release, Davis insisted that some new tracks were recorded, including "The Sign" which became the new title for the album and the second American single. It was even more successful than the first, spending six weeks at No. 1 and becoming the best-selling single of 1994. It was also a major hit in Europe, peaking at No. 2 in the UK and Sweden and doing one better in Germany. PolyGram re-released the album under the name Happy Nation (US Version).
Two more singles were released: "Don't Turn Around" and "Living in Danger", by Diane Warren. The former was originally recorded by Tina Turner on the b-side of a single she released which went on to become a UK No. 1 hit for the reggae band Aswad. Davis suggested that the band record the song and it was yet another worldwide hit. By the end of 1994, they were an international commercial success. The Ace of Base version of "Don't Turn Around" is distinguished from other versions by its use of a minor key
Ace of Base on 1994 European Music Awards
In 1994 Ace of Base performed on the first ever MTV Europe Music Awards held in Germany. Ace of Base performed "Living in Danger" i n the front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. They were also nominated for Best Cover with "Don't Turn Around" this year.
The Bridge (1995–1996)
Even though the band was exhausted from two long years of international promotion, they could hardly believe how successful they had become. In April 1994, a crazed German fan broke into the Berggren family's home brandishing a knife.[citation needed] After managing to restrain her, the band decided that from then on they needed bodyguards. However, they were not allowed to take time to reflect before starting work on a second album because their record companies all over the world were demanding a swift follow-up. To speed up the process, instead of Jonas and Ulf writing the bulk of the album, each member was encouraged to submit his or her own tracks for consideration. 
In the end, 17 tracks made the cut of the second album titled The Bridge. It marked a considerable change of direction in sound; out were the reggae and club sounds that made the group so popular in favour of a more experimental sound and several ballads. The lead single "Lucky Love" however was a mainstream pop record and on release in October 1995 became the band's first number 1 single in Sweden, which came as a pleasant surprise as they had found that their fellow Swedes had been their harshest critics. It charted at a more modest number 13 in Germany and number 20 in the United Kingdom, but Arista Records decided that it wasn't appropriate for US release so they opted for the pulsating dance beat of "Beautiful Life" which peaked at number 15 both in the US and UK. The album was still certified platinum but the phenomenal success of the band's first album proved difficult to follow. In February 1996, the band performed at the Viña del Mar Festival de la Cancion in Chile, topping the bill alongside 2 Unlimited.
Flowers (1997–1999)
After this, Ace of Base disappeared from the limelight for a while, only emerging in July 1997 to perform at a concert to celebrate the 20th birthday of Princess Victoria of Sweden. They were given as much time as they wanted to produce their third album, much of it being recorded in Jonas' own studio "The Barn". When it was finally released in June 1998, the band declared it their best album yet. It was titled Flowers because they believed that the songs, wildly different in style including Motown and gospel influences, resembled a varied bouquet of flowers. Fans were surprised to see that singer Linn had relinquished lead vocal duties to sister Jenny, and on many promotional photos Linn's face was blurred. They were reassured that Linn was happy with her new backing role in the group, and many reasons were given for her decision including her having damaged her voice, fear of flying putting her off from travelling round the world, and her dislike of fame.
The radio-friendly single "Life Is a Flower" was certified the most-played track on European radio for 1998 and sold more than 250,000 copies in the UK, peaking at number 5; the colorful video of the same name was produced and directed by Andreas Neumann. British label London Records had requested the band record the 1983 hit "Cruel Summer" by Bananarama and it was selected as the second European single. Deciding that "Life Is a Flower" was "too European in nature", Clive Davis pushed "Cruel Summer" as the lead-off single for the United States and it took Ace of Base back into the US Top 10 for the first time in four years, being certified gold. The album was also renamed Cruel Summer and featured a different tracklist to the European release. Davis persuaded a reluctant Linn to record a Billy Steinberg ballad "Everytime It Rains" and "Life Is a Flower" was re-recorded as "Whenever You're Near Me" and was the second single, but it could only peak at number 76. "Travel to Romantis" and "Always Have, Always Will" were further hits in Europe while "Everytime It Rains" was issued as a single in the UK along with a re- packaged edition of Flowers released only in the UK.
Singles of the 90s and Greatest Hits (1999–2000)
Da Capo (2002–2003)
Ace of Base released their fourth studio album Da Capo in September 2002 in Europe, and in Japan through Toshiba EMI with a different cover and three bonus tracks. The album contained twelve original tracks and had originally been planned for release in mid-2000, but was repeatedly postponed due to record company complications. The album is named after the musical term da capo, meaning "back to the beginning". It was intended to be a return to the band's earliest sound.
Although the album entered the album charts in many European countries, it was not as successful as previous releases. Only Jenny and Ulf went on a promotional tour of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Germany, Poland and Austria; Jonas wanted to stay at home with his two children and Linn attended only one performance in Germany. The album was not released in America or Australia, and received only a 'soft release' in the United Kingdom, as their new British label Polydor thought that their sound was no longer relevant to the UK music scene.
The first single release from the Da Capo album was "Beautiful Morning", which peaked at number 14 in Sweden and number 38 in Germany, where it was followed by "The Juvenile", which was used for a Christmas campaign by German TV channel RTL. "The Juvenile" was a "lost track"; Ace of Base had previously written it for the GoldenEye James Bond movie in 1995. However, Arista, the band's American record label at the time, shelved the idea. The band was no longer involved in the soundtrack for the movie, and Bono's composition of the same name was substituted, sung instead by Tina Turner.
In Scandinavia, Edel-Mega released the album's opening track, "Unspeakable", as the second single. But its poor chart performance ended the promotion of the album prematurely.
Hiatus (2003–2006)
The band remained out of the spotlight throughout 2003 and 2004, although Jenny kept busy by performing solo live performances in several Christian shows with her husband Jakob Pétren, and joined the Swedish group Arose.
The band returned at the end of 2005 (without Malin) for several live performances at the Night of the Proms in Belgium alongside other artists such as Donna Summer, performing some of their hits such as "All That She Wants" and "The Sign".
Reunion and breakup (2007–2009)
Ulf, Jenny and Jonas after a concert in Finland, 2008.
Ace of Base reunited to perform their first full-length concert since 1996 in Yekaterinburg, Russia on November 15, 2007. Several other concerts followed mainly in eastern Europe and Denmark. The set list included various songs from their past albums and notably, a brand new remix of their very first single "Wheel of Fortune".
Jenny confirmed Linn's departure in Danish press: "She hasn't been part of Ace of Base for several years," she stated in Se & Hør magazine. The band was on world tour and performed at several summer music festivals in 2008 and 2009. The tour reached Scandinavia, some eastern European Countries as well as Singapore and the Dominican Republic. At their show at Rock Under Broen (Middelfart, Denmark) on June 14, 2008, the group performed a new song called "Sparks from a Fire".
Ace of Base released a new Greatest Hits CD/DVD, Greatest Hits, Classic Remixes and Music Videos on November 12, 2008. The 3-disc set includes one CD with the hits, a second CD containing remixes, and a DVD containing all the music videos. Five re-recorded songs were released: "Lucky Love 2009", "Don't Turn Around 2009", "Happy Nation 2009", "The Sign - Freedom Bunch Mix", and "Wheel of Fortune 2009", which was released worldwide on October 24, 2008 as a digital single.
Breakup and Name Dispute
During the touring from 2007–2009, the band recorded new songs designated for a fifth studio album. The trio didn't get a record contract with the songs that were produced and Jenny announced she was working on her own solo material.
During this time, Ulf and Jonas secretly recruited two other female vocalists, Clara Hagman and Julia Williamson. When this came to the fans' attention, Jonas and Jenny independently stated that the new band would not be called Ace of Base, but have another name.
This alternative line-up later presented a slightly changed name: "Ace.of.Base", but this was mainly a graphical adjustment used on the cover of their releases only. In an interview for Swedish TV Ulf stated: "We're still called Ace of Base. The dots are more for styling and the logo".
Jenny has stated several times that she has never left the band and on the contrary declared that all four original members are still band members and own the brand Ace of Base, by agreement with her brother Jonas and by legal documents.
This was later confirmed by Jonas in an interview stating: "She (Jenny) never officially said ‘’I quit’’. But to the record company, she was a leaving member. And they cancelled her contract. But she never said ‘’Oh, I don’t want to be in the band’’." Additionally Jonas said in this interview, asked about why Jenny refused to accept a new 4th member beside her: " At first Jenny said ‘’yes, I can do that’’. But then it was always no. And what she wanted to do was impossible, for all kinds of reasons. You say yes, but then you have so many terms, and it has to be this and this and this and this, that you actually really mean no. You can act like you’re very very positive about it all, but you really mean no. And then we found out from the record label that she had gone and recorded her solo album, and that caught us by surprise. She had told us that she was just going to record some church songs, but this was a proper album, so we were really caught by surprise. ". When asked about the record company demanding a new additional singer: "It wasn’t so much that it had to be younger girl, but yes, they wanted a new girl, a new lead vocalist."
Regarding the name dispute, Ulf stated that he had "No problems using the name even though all the original members are not included" Jenny commented further on this topic in a 2010 newspaper interview. She said she wasn't allowed by Jonas and Ulf to participate in the songwriting for the band's album. "From now on, I want things in writing. I agreed to work under certain conditions, and they just vanished." "They didn't want me in". When asked, "Do you want to go back to Ace of Base again?" she responded "Not right now. It would take some apologies".
Jenny Berggren released her first autobiography "Vinna hela världen" ("To Win The World") in late September 2009. It is currently only available in Swedish, but will be translated.[30] It was reported in December 2009 that she was being considered as the final wildcard "joker" in Melodifestivalen 2010, Sweden's national selection show for the Eurovision Song Contest.[31] Ultimately, she was not selected. 
On November 13, 2009, Ulf, acting as head judge on Idol 2009, announced, "We're in the studio right now, planning to release a new album in the beginning of next year. It's practically finished and we're negotiating with different labels. That's all I can say."
New members and relaunch (2010 – present)
In late June, 2010, Facebook and Twitter accounts for an Ulf and Jonas project without Jenny were launched under the name Ace of Base. Pictures have been released via these accounts featuring two new vocalists, whose names have been given as Clara and Julia. One of them is Clara Hagman, who made it to the semi-finals round of Idol 2009, on which Ulf appeared as a judge. The first single from The Golden Ratio, "All For You", was serviced to European radio stations in mid-July 2010 and was released as a single on September 10, 2010. The Golden Ratio was released on September 24, 2010. The album entered the German album charts at No. 20. "All For You" reached No. 38 in the official German singles chart. James Cashman briefly stood in as the bassist for the band during the summer/fall of 2010.
Singers and musicians influenced by Ace of Base
Many musicians and singers have cited Ace of Base as a musical influence: Lady Gaga has claimed that her album The Fame Monster, with songs such as "Alejandro", was influenced by "super pop melodies of the 90s" by acts such as Ace of Base. The song "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)" from The Fame has also been linked to the band.
Katy Perry has claimed that she would like her follow-up album to One of the Boys to sound like "The Sign"."It's what I said I wanted earlier," she told MTV. "We nailed it: It's roller-skating! It's '90s! It's Ace Of Base! It's Cyndi Lauper! It's like all these colors and more".The British pop group Steps' third album Buzz was also reportedly influenced by their early material.
Source: http://www.aceofbase-music.de/
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