The Cardigans is a Swedish rock band formed in

Jönköping Jönköping (, ) is a city in southern Sweden with 112,766 inhabitants (2022). Jönköping is situated on the southern shore of Sweden's second largest lake, Vättern, in the province of Småland. The city is the seat of Jönköping Municipa ...

, Sweden, in 1992 by guitarist Peter Svensson, bassist Magnus Sveningsson, drummer

Bengt Lagerberg The Cardigans is a Swedish rock band formed in Jönköping, Sweden, in 1992 by guitarist Peter Svensson, bassist Magnus Sveningsson, drummer Bengt Lagerberg, keyboardist Lars-Olof Johansson and lead singer Nina Persson. Post-hiatus shows since ...

, keyboardist Lars-Olof Johansson and lead singer Nina Persson. Post-hiatus shows since 2012 have been with Oskar Humlebo on guitar instead of Svensson. With their debut album '' Emmerdale'' (1994) they gained a solid base in their home country and enjoyed some success abroad, especially in Japan. Their second album ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...

'' (1995) secured them an international reputation. Their popularity rose when their single " Lovefool", from the album '' First Band on the Moon'' (1996), was included in the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrac ...

to the 1996 film '' Romeo + Juliet''. Other singles included "

Erase/Rewind "Erase/Rewind" is a song written by Peter Svensson and Nina Persson for the Cardigans' fourth studio album, '' Gran Turismo'' (1998). The song is the album's second track and was released as its second single in 1999, reaching number three in Ic ...

" and " My Favourite Game" from the album '' Gran Turismo'' (1998). After a two-year hiatus, the band returned recording and releasing their fifth album ''

Long Gone Before Daylight ''Long Gone Before Daylight'' is the fifth studio album by Swedish rock band the Cardigans. Released in Japan on 19 March 2003 and in Europe from 24 March by Stockholm Records, it was their first studio album since the release of '' Gran Turismo ...

'' (2003), a mellower

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, whi ...

-flavoured record. Their last album so far is '' Super Extra Gravity'' (2005). After a 2006 tour, the band embarked on a five-year break from musical activities before reuniting in 2012 to play several concerts. They have sold over 15 million albums worldwide.

History

First years: 1992–1994

Peter Svensson and Magnus Sveningsson, both heavy metal musicians, formed the group on 31 October 1992 in

, Sweden, with drummer

, keyboardist Lars-Olof Johansson and lead singer Nina Persson. Persson did not want to be a musician growing up, having an interest in art instead, which resulted in her attending art school. "I never really strived to be a musician; I was just, sort of, recruited into this band. I was bored out of my mind in this small, safe place (Jönköping). I was like, 'Awesome, I get to hang with fun guys.'""The Cardigans Nina Persson talks w Eric Blair 2014"
blairingoutshow, YouTube, 14 November 2015 Living together in a small apartment, The Cardigans recorded a demo tape with Persson providing lead vocals on only one of the songs towards the end of the track list. A&R man Ola Hermanson heard the demo and signed the band to his Trampolene imprint. They released their debut album '' Emmerdale'' in Sweden and Japan in 1994; it was re-released internationally in 1997. The album included the Swedish radio hit "Rise & Shine", which was later voted the best of 1994 in a poll in '' Slitz'' magazine.

Commercial success: 1995–2000

The remainder of 1994 was spent touring Europe and recording ''

'', which was released worldwide in 1995. ''Life'' became an international success, selling more than a million copies and achieving platinum status in Japan. In 1996, ''Life'' was released under the label Minty Fresh in the US, but this release was essentially a compilation of tracks from ''Emmerdale'' and ''Life''. After their success with ''Life'', The Cardigans signed with

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it ...

, under which they released '' First Band on the Moon'' worldwide in 1996. " Lovefool" was a hit worldwide, particularly in the US and Japan, where the album reached platinum status in three weeks. The album also achieved gold sales status in the US. "Lovefool" was shown on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

in the late 1990s as a music video with clips from the 1996 hit film '' Romeo + Juliet'' starring Leonardo DiCaprio and

Claire Danes Claire Catherine Danes (born April 12, 1979) is an American actress. She is the recipient of three Primetime Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2012, '' Time'' named her one of the 100 most influenti ...

. It also featured in the film '' Cruel Intentions'' (1999). In 1997, the band played themselves in an episode of '' Beverly Hills, 90210'' as the featured entertainment at their college graduation party, hosted by Kelly Taylor's dad. The band performed " Lovefool" and " Been It." The band was also asked to submit the theme song for the

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors hav ...

film '' Tomorrow Never Dies'' but rejected the request due to exhaustion that would be exacerbated by the potential added workload; Persson has called her decision to turn down the offer "one of my biggest mistakes." 1998's '' Gran Turismo'' was followed by a long hiatus during which the band members pursued solo side projects. The same year they also released a

compilation album A compilation album comprises tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several performers. If by one artist, then generally the tracks were not originally intended for rel ...

of rare

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

s, '' The Other Side of the Moon'' as a Japan-only release. The video of the song "My Favourite Game" was censored by MTV for showing reckless driving. Despite this, it went on to become their second global hit song. "My Favourite Game" was featured on the

of the PlayStation video game ''

Gran Turismo 2 ''Gran Turismo 2'' is a 1999 racing game developed by Polyphony Digital and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. It is the sequel to '' Gran Turismo''. It was well-received critically and financially, shipping 1.71& ...

'' in the intro movie on CD1. That year also saw their song "Deuce" appearing on '' The X-Files: The Album''. Their song "

" was featured in the 1999 films '' Never Been Kissed'' and ''

The Thirteenth Floor ''The Thirteenth Floor'' is a 1999 science fiction neo-noir film written and directed by Josef Rusnak, and produced by Roland Emmerich through his Centropolis Entertainment company. It is loosely based upon ''Simulacron-3'' (1964), a novel by Da ...

''. In 1999, the Cardigans recorded a duet cover of

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.Talki ...

' " Burning Down the House" with

Tom Jones Tom Jones may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Tom Jones (singer) (born 1940), Welsh singer *Tom Jones (writer) (1928–2023), American librettist and lyricist *''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'', a novel by Henry Fielding published in 1 ...

for his album '' Reload''.

Back to spotlight and hiatus: 2002–2006

The Cardigans returned in 2002 to record ''

'' (2003), a collection of songs mainly written by Persson and Svensson. ''Long Gone Before Daylight'' became one of the best selling albums in Sweden in 2003. After a two-year hiatus from their last album, it was released in Japan on 19 March 2003 and in Europe on 24 March 2003. Later it was also released in Canada (22 April 2003) and the United States (25 May 2004). The album differs from the band's earlier works. Their familiar "happy" pop sound takes on a change to pop songs with more of an American country music influence. It is a much darker album than their previous works, and quieter than '' Gran Turismo''. Indeed, even lead singer Nina Persson dyed her once light blonde hair to jet black, reflecting the band's change of mood. The album was produced by Per Sunding after the group's regular producer Tore Johanssen stepped down, feeling himself unable to provide the country sound the group wanted. Criticism was generally mixed. Some found the change of direction welcome, and felt the band had matured, making songs that were even better than other experienced country-pop styled artists. Others missed the old pop sound, and accused the band of possibly being ashamed of their former "happy" pop sound. The first single of the album, " For What It's Worth" was released on 17 February 2003. The second single was "

You're the Storm "You're the Storm" is the second single by The Cardigans from their album '' Long Gone Before Daylight''. It was released on 14 July 2003 in Europe. Video The official video was directed by Amir Chamdin who had previously directed the video for ...

" released on 2 June 2003. The third and final single was " Live and Learn" released on 3 December 2003. In the summer of 2004, The Cardigans toured with Liz Phair,

Katy Rose Kathryn Rosemary Bullard (born January 27, 1987), known professionally as Katy Rose, is an American singer-songwriter and producer. Rose released two studio albums, '' Because I Can'' (V2 Records) and '' Candy Eyed'' ( River Jones Music). Since h ...

and

Charlotte Martin Charlotte Ann Martin (born October 31, 1976) is an American singer-songwriter and voice coach, who performs predominantly on the piano. She has written several studio albums, two of which have received mainstream commercial releases, 2004's '' ...

on the Chicks With Attitude tour. On 28 April 2005, the band's ''iTunes Originals'' album was released through iTunes. On 19 October 2005, the band released their sixth album '' Super Extra Gravity'' to generally favourable reviews. ''Super Extra Gravity'' went straight to the #1 spot on the Swedish album chart and was certified gold (sales over 40,000). After the band finished promotional activities in Autumn 2006, the band entered an extended hiatus and devoted themselves to other projects.

Reunion, tour and future: 2012–present

In 2012, the Cardigans received a lucrative offer from Hultsfred Festival to perform the album '' Gran Turismo'' in full. After initial hesitation, the band decided to accept the offer "as it felt like a good way of tearing us out of our strange new everyday life," according to Persson. Peter Svensson declined to participate, although he had no objection to the band touring without him. They recruited singer-songwriter Oskar Humlebo to fill in for Svensson, and asked their agent to seek more shows for them to play. Ultimately, the band made their live comeback with shows in Lund and Copenhagen ahead of Hultsfred, before playing in Poland, Finland, Russia, Indonesia, Taiwan and Japan, with a scheduled concert in Israel cancelled by the promoter. Most of these shows involved performing ''Gran Turismo'' in full, followed by an assortment of hits from their other albums. Still with Humlebo in place of Svensson, the band played career-spanning sets when touring resumed during late 2013 with shows in Japan, China and Russia, followed by more dates in 2015 which took them to South Korea, Europe and South America. In interviews promoting her 2014 solo album ''

Animal Heart ''Animal Heart'' is the debut studio album by Nina Persson, singer of The Cardigans, released on February 10, 2014 through Lojinx in Europe and The End Records in North America. A video for the title track of the album was released in November 20 ...

'', Persson suggested that the success of their most recent live dates opened the possibility for future Cardigans recordings, though there were no firm plans. "It's really fun to do greatest hits things, since there's nothing else, but I think if we continue having this much fun we would like to make another record, because we like to create new things," said Persson. The band's only scheduled show for 2016 was at

Qstock Qstock is an annual two-day rock festival held at the end of July in Oulu, Finland. The festival lineup includes some of the biggest names in both domestic and international music scene, regardless of the genre. The first Qstock festival was orga ...

(

Oulu Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

) on 29 July. In 2017, they performed in Stockholm in Turku, Finland and in Yammatovo 3 festival in Croatia. In June 2018, the band announced their only live shows of the year: a four-date UK tour in December to celebrate the 20th anniversary of ''Gran Turismo'' in which they would perform the album in full again. In an interview to promote the tour, Persson stated, "There won’t be any more Cardigans records, I’m pretty sure. But we’ll keep doing little tours and shows as long as it’s fun, as long as we can do it well and feel that it’s something that’s current to us."

Solo projects

During the band's first break Nina Persson released an album as

A Camp A Camp is the solo side project of Nina Persson, vocalist for the Swedish indie pop band The Cardigans, her husband, composer Nathan Larson, and former Atomic Swing guitarist Niclas Frisk. Persson formed A Camp when The Cardigans took a break a ...

, and Peter Svensson and Bengt Lagerberg worked on the project Paus with help from Joakim Berg from

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, and Magnus Sveningsson recorded as Righteous Boy. In 2006, Sveningsson restarted their old label ''Trampolene'' and became an A&R for it. The first signing was the Swedish popband ''The Animal Five'', which was a minor success in Sweden and Germany. Lagerberg and Johansson formed the group Brothers Of End, releasing a debut album ''The End'' in 2009, and a second album ''Mount Inside'' in 2011. A third album, ''Shakers Love'', was released in 2014, and Nina Persson appeared on the track "Heat". In November 2006, Persson featured on ''

The Cake Sale The Cake Sale are a collective of mostly Irish musical artists including Swedish singer/songwriter Nina Persson of The Cardigans and Australian musician Nick Seymour of Crowded House. The collective was formed by Brian Crosby formerly of Bell ...

'', an album set up by Oxfam Ireland. It contained nine tracks from some of Ireland's leading artists. Proceeds from the album went to the

fair trade Fair trade is an arrangement designed to help producers in developing countries achieve sustainable and equitable trade relationships. The fair trade movement combines the payment of higher prices to exporters with improved social and envir ...

campaign. Persson also appeared on the

Manic Street Preachers Manic Street Preachers, also known simply as the Manics, are a Welsh Rock music, rock band formed in Blackwood, Caerphilly, Blackwood in 1986. The band consists of cousins James Dean Bradfield (lead vocals, lead guitar) and Sean Moore (musician ...

' album ''

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'' (May 2007), providing guest vocals on the UK Chart #2 single "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough". She shared vocals with Manics frontman James Dean Bradfield, who also appeared on stage with the band at the

Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...

2007, and who has rated Peter Svensson as his second favourite guitarist. In the band's break of 2007, Persson recorded the second A Camp album '' Colonia'', which was released in early 2009. A Camp supported the US release of ''Colonia'' with a tour, which began in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on 26 May and completed on 15 June 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 ...

. In 2010, Persson appeared on Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse's collaboration (Dark Night of the Soul) singing "Daddy's Gone" (with Mark Linkous). Persson released the album ''

'' under her own name in 2014.

Band members

* Lars-Olof Johansson – keyboards, piano, guitar *

– drums, percussion * Nina Persson – lead vocals, keyboards * Magnus Sveningsson – bass, vocals * Peter Svensson – guitar, vocals

Discography

Albums

* '' Emmerdale'' (1994) * ''

'' (1995) * '' First Band on the Moon'' (1996) * '' Gran Turismo'' (1998) * ''

'' (2003) * '' Super Extra Gravity'' (2005)

Awards and nominations

BMI Pop Awards , - , 1999 , " Lovefool" , Award-Winning Song , Billboard Music Awards , - , 1997 , " Lovefool" , Top Hot 100 Airplay Track , Billboard Music Video Awards , - , 1997 , " Lovefool" , Pop/Rock Clip of the Year , Brit Awards , - , 2000 , Themselves , Best International Group , Danish Music Awards , - , 2000 , '' Gran Turismo'' , Foreign Album of the Year , Denmark GAFFA Awards !Ref. , - , rowspan=2, 1998 , rowspan=2, " My Favorite Game" , Best Foreign Video , , rowspan=4, , - , rowspan=2, Best Foreign Hit , , - , 1999 , " Burning Down the House" (with

) , , - , 2005 , Nina Persson , Best Foreign Female Act , Grammis , - , 1995 , rowspan=3, Themselves , rowspan=2, Best Pop Group , , - , rowspan=4, 1997 , , - , Best Artist , rowspan=3 , - , '' First Band on the Moon'' , Best Album , - , " Lovefool" , Best Song , - , rowspan=5, 1999 , rowspan=2, Themselves , Best Pop Group , , - , Best Artist , , - , '' Gran Turismo'' , Best Album , , - , rowspan=2, " My Favorite Game" , Best Song , rowspan=2 , - , Best Music Video , - , rowspan=2, 2004 , ''

'' , Best Album , rowspan=2 , - , rowspan=2, Themselves , rowspan=2, Best Rock Group , - , 2006 , MTV Europe Music Awards , - ,

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...

, Themselves , Best New Act , rowspan=6 , - ,

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

, " Lovefool" , Best Song , - , rowspan=3,

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

, rowspan=4, Themselves , Best Group , - , Best Rock , - , rowspan=2, Best Nordic Act , - ,

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A ...

Rockbjornen , - , 1998 , Themselves , Best Swedish Band , Smash Hits Poll Winners Party !Ref. , - , 1996 , Themselves , Best International Band , , TMF Awards , - , 1999 , " My Favorite Game" , Best Video International , Žebřík Music Awards !Ref. , - , 1998 , " My Favorite Game" , Best International Video , ,

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cardigans, the Musical groups established in 1992 Musical groups disestablished in 1999 Musical groups reestablished in 2003 Musical groups disestablished in 2006 Swedish musical groups Swedish alternative rock groups Swedish pop rock music groups Swedish indie rock groups Swedish indie pop groups MNRK Music Group artists English-language singers from Sweden 1992 establishments in Sweden Female-fronted musical groups