Nina Woodford-Wells is a Swedish-American songwriter.

Career

Nina Woodford (born 13 July 1979) Stockholm, is the daughter of the Swedish music producer Sten Sandahl, and the Black American social anthropologist Prudence Woodford-Berger. At the age of 16, she began her career singing backing vocals for Swedish artists Eric Gadd,

Titiyo Titiyo Yambalu Felicia Jah (born 23 July 1967) is a Swedish singer and songwriter who has won four Grammis. Biography Early life Titiyo was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to Ahmadu Jah, a Sierra Leonean drummer, and Maylen Bergström. She is the ha ...

, and The Navigators. She also featured on the

Britney Spears Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the " Princess of Pop", she is credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s and early 2000s. After appearing in stage productio ...

album '' Oops!... I Did It Again''. By the age of 20 she had a publishing deal as a songwriter with Murlyn Music in Stockholm. At age 25, Woodford moved to London, and wrote the European Hot 100 #1 smash hit,'' Broken Strings,'' by James Morrison from his album '' Songs for You, Truths for Me''. The song is the biggest single of Morrison's career. Nina co-wrote the theme song for the 2019

Special Olympics Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in ...

held in Abu Dhabi, titled "Right Where I'm Supposed To Be". Nina was tapped by

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in 2021 to compose a song honoring Juneteenth, a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the emancipation of African-American slaves. She has also written for

Leona Lewis Leona Louise Lewis (born 3 April 1985) is a British singer, songwriter, actress and activist. Born and raised in the London Borough of Islington, she attended the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon. Lewis achieved nationa ...

Idina Menzel Idina Kim Menzel ( ; ; born May 30, 1971) is an American actress and singer. Particularly known for her work in musicals on the Broadway stage and having achieved mainstream success across stage, film and music, Menzel has garnered the honorif ...

, Tom Jones,

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Sophie Ellis-Bextor Sophie Michelle Ellis-Bextor (born 10 April 1979) is an English singer and songwriter. She first came to prominence in the late 1990s as the lead singer of the indie rock band Theaudience. After the group disbanded Ellis-Bextor went solo and ach ...

, Christina Milian,

The Saturdays The Saturdays were a British-Irish girl group based in London, England. The group formed during the summer of 2007 and have been on hiatus since 2014. The lineup consists of Frankie Bridge, Una Healy, Rochelle Humes, Mollie King, and Vanessa Wh ...

, and

Jay Sean Kamaljit Singh Jhooti (born 26 March 1981), better known by the stage name Jay Sean, is a British singer and songwriter. He debuted in the UK's Asian Underground scene as a member of the Rishi Rich Project with "Dance with You", which reached ...

. Woodford noted that

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single "Wuthering Heights (song), Wuthering Heights", ...

"makes me feel free to dare to try different things. There are very few women who write that kind of direct poetry".

Personal life

Nina grew up in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

Södermalm Södermalm, often shortened to just Söder, is a district and island in central Stockholm. Overview The district covers the large island of the same name (formerly called ''Åsön''). Although Södermalm usually is considered an island, wa ...

borough. Today she lives in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and is married to record producer

Greg Wells Greg Wells is a Canadian musician, record producer, songwriter and audio engineer. Wells has songs on over 130 million albums sold. He has worked with John Legend, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ariana Grande, Jazmine Sullivan, Kid Cudi, Adele, Rufus Wai ...

Honours

* 2010 SKAP prize, an award designated to Swedish pop music writers.

References

External links

All Music - credits
{{DEFAULTSORT:Woodford, Nina 1979 births Living people Swedish songwriters Swedish composers Musicians from Stockholm Swedish people of African-American descent African-American women singer-songwriters African-American musicians 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women