Jill Johnson
| Jill Johnson | |
|---|---|
 Johnson in 2009 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Jill Anna Maria Johnson |
| Born |
24 May 1973 Ängelholm, Sweden |
| Genres | Country, country rock, pop, schlager |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Labels | Lionheart (1998-present) |
| Website | www.jilljohnson.se |
Jill Anna Maria Johnson (born 24 May 1973) is a Swedish country and pop singer and songwriter.[1] She performed the Melodifestivalen 1998 winning song Kärleken är, and represented Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 1998 with that song, which finished 10th with 53 points. In 2003 she again entered Melodifestivalen with Crazy in Love, which finished fourth in the final. She also hosted the final of Melodifestivalen in 2005. Johnson is today one of the most successful artists in Sweden, with several gold and platinum records.
Biography
Johnson is from the small town of Ängelholm in the south western part of Sweden, but the surroundings and the media compare her with the biggest stars in the music business. By the age of four, she had decided that she wanted to become an artist, an aspiration towards which she was highly encouraged by her local choir leader. As a 12-year-old, she started off as vocalist in a Country & Western band, Tomboola Band, touring in Norway and Denmark. She signed eventually with EMI-Medley in Denmark and recorded an album, produced by top producer Paul Bruun. The title-track, Sugar Tree, became a hit in Denmark. In 1996, she had her first Swedish hit with Kommer tid, kommer vår, a duet with Jan Johansen. She now lives in a hunting lodge in the Western Gothlandic woods of Sweden, but also has a home in Stockholm.
In 1998, she performed Kärleken är at Melodifestivalen, winning the Swedish finals and going on to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest. This established Johnson as one of the prime Swedish artists. The success was followed by the hit album När hela världen ser på and a successful tour.
In mid-1999, Johnson went to Los Angeles to look for material for her second album. At home, she worked with Andreas Carlsson (ASCAP Writer of the Year 2000), who is known for several massive hits, the biggest, so far, being Celine Dion's That's the Way It Is. She also tried out a few local new-comers and the album Daughter of Eve was released in early 2000. It was very well received and Johnson was compared with some of the world's best artists.
In 2000, she received a platinum-record in Denmark for the sound-track Promise To Love from the Danish block-buster, "Eneste Ene". Later that year, Johnson started to collaborate with other songwriters such as Jenny Orenstein, Charlie Stefl, Mary Green [Biem Writer of the Year 2001]. This resulted in her receiving a Publishing contract in Nashville Tennessee. Consequently, in 2002 Johnson's album entitled "Good Girl" came to be with the help of producer Scott Baggett and some of Nashville’s top musicians. This album secured Johnson's artistic sound and style and once again she was extremely well received by the press in their reviews where she was described as an artist of International calibre.
In the Swedish finals of the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 she qualified at fourth place (out of 32 entries) but and her song “Crazy in Love" became a hit and received a great deal of radio play and was followed by a successful tour.
Johnson's collective "Discography" CD was released in late March 2003. It contains the 20 most popular songs since her debut in 1995. This Cd went straight into the sales charts for best selling CDs in Sweden. The single “Crazy in Love” stayed at No 1 in the Swedish Top Charts (Svensktoppen) 12 weeks consecutively and No 2 for 15 weeks. "Discography" sold Gold in Sweden and Johnson also got a Grammis for this album.
The latest album "Roots and Wings" was released in November 2003, recorded and produced by Amir Aly in Sweden and by Scott Baggett in Nashville, Tennessee. "Roots and Wings" sold gold in less than two weeks and platinum a few months later. The album "Being who you are" was released in Sweden in late March 2005 and sold gold in only a few weeks. Johnson was the host of the 2005 Swedish finals of the Eurovison Song Contest in Stockholm.
In 2016 she participated in Så mycket bättre which was broadcast on TV4.
Discography
Albums
- Studio albums
| Title | Details | Peak positions | Certifications (sales threshold) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SWE [2] | |||||||||
| Sugartree | — | ||||||||
| När hela världen ser på |
|
37 | |||||||
| Daughter of Eve |
|
59 | |||||||
| Good Girl |
|
37 | |||||||
| Roots and Wings |
|
5 |
| ||||||
| Being Who You Are |
|
4 |
| ||||||
| The Woman I've Become |
|
2 |
| ||||||
| Music Row |
|
2 |
| ||||||
| Baby Blue Paper |
|
3 |
| ||||||
| Music Row II |
|
2 | |||||||
| Flirting with Disaster |
|
1 | |||||||
| A Woman Can Change Her Mind |
|
3 | |||||||
| Duetterna |
|
— | |||||||
| Songs for Daddy |
|
1 | |||||||
| In Tandem (with Doug Seegers) |
|
1 | |||||||
| For You I'll Wait |
|
3 [3] |
|||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||||||
- Compilation albums
| Title | Details | Peak positions | Certifications (sales threshold) |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE [2] | |||
| Discography, 1996–2003 |
|
4 |
|
| The Well-Known And Some Other Favourite Stories |
|
2 |
|
- Christmas albums
| Title | Details | Peak positions | Certifications (sales threshold) |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE [2] | |||
| The Christmas in You |
|
3 |
|
| Välkommen jul |
|
- |
|
- Live albums
| Title | Details | Peak positions | Certifications (sales threshold) |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE [2] | |||
| Livemusiken från Jills veranda |
|
1 |
|
| Livemusiken från Jills veranda, Nashville säsong 2 |
|
11[4] | |
Singles
| Year | Single | Peak positions | Album | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SWE [5] | |||||||||
| 1995 | "Shake the Sugartree" | — | Sugartree | ||||||
| 1996 | "All Kinds of People" | — | |||||||
| 1998 | "Kärleken är" | 5 | När hela världen ser på | ||||||
| "När hela världen ser på" | — | ||||||||
| 2000 | "Mother's Jewel" | — | Daughter of Ever | ||||||
| "Secrets in My Life" | — | ||||||||
| "It's Only You" | — | ||||||||
| 2001 | "Jump in a Car" | — | Good Girl | ||||||
| 2002 | "What's Wrong with You" | — | |||||||
| "Luckiest People" | — | ||||||||
| 2003 | "Crazy in Love" | 9 | Discography, 1996–2003 | ||||||
| "Can't Get Enough of You" | 27 | Roots and Wings | |||||||
| 2004 | "Hopelessly Devoted to You" | — | |||||||
| "God's Gift" | 12 | ||||||||
| 2005 | "God Bless a Girl in Love" | 37 | Being Who You Are | ||||||
| "A Little Bit More" | — | ||||||||
| 2006 | "Cowboy Up" | 32 | The Woman I've Become | ||||||
| "Baby Don't Go" | — | ||||||||
| 2007 | "Angel of the Morning" | 30 | Music Row | ||||||
| 2008 | "Jolene" | — | |||||||
| "Top of the World" | 56 | Baby Blue Paper | |||||||
| 2009 | "It's a Heartache" | — | Music Row II | ||||||
| 2016 | "Open Your Heart" | 2 | Så mycket bättre | ||||||
| "The Burden" | 93 [6] |
TBA | |||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||||||
External links
Media related to Jill Johnson at Wikimedia Commons
References
- ↑ "Jill Johnson Discography at Discogs". discogs.com. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
- 1 2 3 4 "swedishcharts.com - Swedish charts portal". Hung Medien. Retrieved May 28, 2011.
- ↑ "Sverigetopplistan - Sveriges Officiella Topplista". Sverigetopplistan. Retrieved September 30, 2016. Click on "Veckans albumlista".
- ↑ http://www.sverigetopplistan.se/. Click on "Veckans albumlista".
- ↑ "swedishcharts.com - Swedish charts portal". Hung Medien. Retrieved May 28, 2011.
- ↑ "Sverigetopplistan - Sveriges Officiella Topplista". Sverigetopplistan. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Blond with "Bara hon älskar mig" |
Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998 |
Succeeded by Charlotte Nilsson with "Take Me to Your Heaven" |