Michael Stewart Harwood (born 12 December 1975) is an English producer,

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

and recording artist manager. He was formerly the

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

for the band

Ultra adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by breaking high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park. '' ...

Biography

Harwood was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and lives in

Northwood, London Northwood is an affluent area in northwest London, England. It is located within the London Borough of Hillingdon on the border with Hertfordshire and from Charing Cross. Northwood was part of the ancient parish of Ruislip, Middlesex and has f ...

, England. Before joining Ultra, he attended

City University London City, University of London, is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, and a member institution of the federal University of London. It was founded in 1894 as the Northampton Institute, and became a university when The City Univ ...

and majored in Business studies and Financial Markets. He went to school with two Ultra members,

James Hearn James Daniel Guy Hearn (born 19 June 1976 in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England) is an English singer-songwriter. He is best known as being the vocalist of boyband Ultra. Biography Hearn attended the same high school as Ultra's guitarist and drum ...

was his class mate and

Jon O'Mahony Jon O'Mahony (born 10 August 1973) is a British music manager and founder of Rebellion Artists, who currently manage Fraser Churchill, Honey Ryder, Dustin Paul, Starlight Theatre and Fat Buddha. Early years Before entering the music industry ...

a couple of years older.

Musical career

In 1997 he, along with James, Jon and

Nick Keynes Ultra (also recording as Rider) was an English boy band, which was most successful in the late 1990s. The original line-up consisted of James Hearn (born 19 June 1976; vocals), Michael Harwood (born 12 December 1975; guitar and vocals ), Jo ...

, formed Ultra and released an album in 1998 named ''Ultra''. As the band finished their second album in 2001, singer James Hearn left the band, and Ultra split. The other three members, Harwood, O'Mahony, and Keynes, formed another group named Rider. Rider made a

2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

single named "England Crazy". In 2003 Harwood, along with O'Mahony and Keynes formed a music production company and recording studios called Goldust Productions. He wrote and produced for artists such as

Liberty X Liberty X (originally called Liberty) are a British-Irish group originally consisting of Michelle Heaton, Tony Lundon, Kevin Simm, Jessica Taylor and Kelli Young. The group was formed by the five finalists of the 2001 ITV talent show ''Popstars' ...

Natasha Bedingfield Natasha Anne Bedingfield (born 26 November 1981) is a British singer and songwriter. Bedingfield released her debut album, '' Unwritten'', in 2004, which contained primarily up-tempo pop songs and was influenced by R&B music. It enjoyed intern ...

Kylie Minogue Kylie Ann Minogue (; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter and actress. She is the highest-selling female Australian artist of all time, having sold over 80 million records worldwide. She has been recognised for reinve ...

and

Bryan Adams Bryan Guy Adams (born 5 November 1959) is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, composer, and photographer. He has been cited as one of the best-selling music artists of all time, and is estimated to have sold between 75 million and mor ...

. He also composed and scored on various Hollywood movies. Ultra briefly reunited in 2005 to record and release a second album entitled ''

The Sun Shines Brighter ''The Sun Shines Brighter'' is the second studio album from English band Ultra, released on 24 October 2006, seven years after their debut album ''Ultra''. The lineup consists of James Hearn, vocals and piano; Michael Harwood, vocals and guitar; ...

''. Michael Harwood has co written the

Kygo Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll (born 11 September 1991), known professionally as Kygo (), is a Norwegian DJ and music producer. He garnered international attention with his December 2013 remix of the track "I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran and his December 201 ...

song, " Stole the Show". Harwood also co-wrote Germany's entry in the 2015 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest for German singer,

Ann Sophie Ann-Sophie Dürmeyer (born 1 September 1990), better known as simply Ann Sophie, is a German singer and songwriter. She represented Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song " Black Smoke". Her latest single "Phantom Pain" was rel ...

References

External links

Unofficial Ultra site

Ultra-abiglove, unofficial Italian fansite

Ultra Forever, Ultra unofficial site
1973 births Living people English songwriters English record producers Musicians from London Ultra (British band) members 21st-century British singers {{UK-singer-stub