Pandora (b. 1970)
Alias:
Anneli Magnusson
Birthplace:
Västerås, Västmanlands län, Sweden
Born:
June 20, 1970
Pandora's commercial career finally began in the winter of 1993/94. In autumn 1993 she signed a contract with a Swedish record company and released her debut single "Trust Me", which went straight into the Swedish charts. Written and produced by Sir Martin & The Dr. Maxx Family, "Trust Me" became the best-selling local single of the year and went gold, thereby exceeding the achievements of Ace of Base, among others. The corresponding album, One of a Kind, was released in October 1993, bringing the singer further fame and achieving gold status in both Sweden and Finland - making Pandora the best-selling dance act in Scandinavia (Fennoscandia). Two years later Pandora landed yet another gold disc with her follow-up album Tell the World. In Scandinavia sales of the album again exceeded the 100,000 mark. In addition, Japanese audiences turned out to be very enthusiastic about Pandora. Tell the World selling more than 1 million albums in Asia alone. Her third album Changes was Pandora's worldwide debut release with her new record company Universal Music. Sticking to the motto "never change a winning team", Pandora once again collaborated with her creative trio of Ankelius/Andersson/Johansson and the result was this brilliant album, packed full of great dance tunes, which sold more than 500,000 copies in Japan and went platinum there. Pandora went on tour through Scandinavia in the spring and summer of 1997 and did her first 2-week live tour through the main cities of Japan, where she always played to sell-out venues. Then along came the next long-player This Could Be Heaven, a collection of fourteen dance and up-tempo tracks, which went platinum in Japan within six weeks. Produced mainly by her long-term partners, Hit Vision, "Metro Productions", and this time also Mats Nyman. This Could Be Heaven set a new course in Pandora's career. For the first time, she had written three of the songs herself, arranged and produced by songwriter Mats Nyman, the keyboarder with Pandora's live band. At the beginning of 1999 there followed the next studio album Breathe, which due to unforeseen circumstances was only released in Japan. Her seventh album entitled No Regrets, was recorded between August and November 1999 and was released in end of 1999 in Japan. The album A Little Closer was born during the fall 2000 and it was released on Universal in Japan in February 2001. Won’t Look Back was Pandora’s eighth album. She presented her material for EMI in Finland and they agreed on a deal. It was released in Scandinavia and Germany, Austria and Switzerland to start with “I’m sure the fans will recognise me but hopefully they will feel that I’ve grown as a singer and as a person." She said: "This album contains songs from Brian Rawling (Metro Production), Kee Marcello, Diane Warren, Mats Nyman and Art Garfunkel. You can hear a pretty different version of his wonderful song Bright Eyes. Enjoy!"