The Poodles were a

glam metal Glam metal (also known as hair metal or pop metal) is a subgenre of heavy metal that features pop-influenced hooks and guitar riffs, upbeat rock anthems, and slow power ballads. It borrows heavily from the fashion and image of 1970s glam ...

/ heavy metal

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania *Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

from

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

, formed by singer Jakob Samuel (a.k.a. Jake Samuels), bassist Pontus Egberg, guitarist

Pontus Norgren Karl Pontus Norgren (born 22 April 1968) is the current guitarist of the Swedish power metal band HammerFall and formerly played guitar for The Poodles. Biography Norgren replaced former HammerFall guitarist Stefan Elmgren, who decided to fo ...

and drummer Christian Lundqvist. Their songs include "

Metal Will Stand Tall ''Metal Will Stand Tall'' is a 2006 album by The Poodles. The list of guest musicians and co-songwriters are Holly Knight, Mats Levén, Tommy Denader, Jonas Reingold and Marcel Jacob. Track listing *"Dancing with Tears in My Eyes" is an Ul ...

" and "

Night of Passion Night of Passion is a song written by Robert Olausson, Maiti Alfonzetti, Sonja Aldén and Johan Lyander, and performed by The Poodles at Melodifestivalen 2006, ending up fourth. Single record The single was released on 13 March 2006 as the firs ...

", the latter of which was performed in 2006 in

Melodifestivalen Melodifestivalen (; literally "the Melody Festival") is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song C ...

, the annual music competition to decide the Swedish entry to the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

. The Poodles performed in

again in 2008, this time with E-Type. They also played at the Sweden Rock Festival in 2006 and 2008.

History

Prior to the formation of The Poodles, Norgren and Samuel were members of

Talisman A talisman is any object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made. Talismans are often portable objects carried on someone in a variety of ways, but can also be installed perm ...

, and also played together in a

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's bo ...

-themed

power metal Power metal is a subgenre of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional heavy metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context. Generally, power metal is characterized by a faster, lighter, and more uplifting sound, in contra ...

trio called The Ring. In 2006, Jakob Samuel was asked to sing the track "Night of Passion", and asked Christian Lundqvist to join him as drummer for the session. Bassist Pontus Egberg (formerly of

Lion's Share The lion's share is an idiomatic expression which now refers to the major share of something. The phrase derives from the plot of a number of fables ascribed to Aesop and is used here as their generic title. There are two main types of story, wh ...

) and Norgren subsequently joined them to perform the song as The Poodles. The Poodles were one of ten finalists in

Melodifestivalen 2006 Melodifestivalen 2006 was the selection for the 46th song to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the 45th time that this system of picking a song had been used. Five heats had taken place to select the ten songs for the final ...

, and by the time of their performance had added

Mats Levén Mats Leven is a Swedish singer. Some of his most notable collaborations have been with guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, symphonic metallers Therion and doom metallers Candlemass. In 2011, due to family issues on the part of Firewind's lead singer A ...

, a friend of Samuel, on backing vocals. The band finished in fourth place in Melodifestivalen 2006, then released their debut album ''Metal Will Stand Tall'' in Sweden in May 2006. They signed a deal with Germany's

AFM Records AFM Records GmbH is a music label based in Schwalmstadt, Germany. They focus on the heavy metal musical genre, signing bands such as U.D.O., Doro, Lordi, Kotipelto, Masterplan, Nostradameus, and Annihilator. In 2005, Candlelight Records si ...

and then released the album in the rest of Europe on January 19, 2007. The single "Night of Passion" was certified platinum and a follow-up single, "Metal Will Stand Tall", a duet with

Therese Merkel Eva Therese Margaretha Merkel also known as "Tess Merkel" (born 18 April 1970) is a Swedish singer and songwriter who is one of the original members of the pop group Alcazar. Career Merkel was born in Nyköping, Sweden. She started her career in ...

from the Swedish dance band Alcazar, was certified gold. The song "Kingdom of Heaven" was co-written by Jakob Samuel and

Marcel Jacob Marcel Karl Jacob (30 January 1964 – 21 July 2009), professionally known as Marcel Jacob, was a Swedish musician, best known as the founder, chief songwriter, and bassist of the hard rock band Talisman. For a brief period, he also played in th ...

. The band made an initial selection based on 35 songs to be used for their second album. They chose 12 tracks for this release, which was titled ''Sweet Trade'', and was released on September 28, 2007, by AFM Records. "Seven Seas", produced by Matti Alfonzetti and Johan Lyander, was selected as the first single. The song was written by Jakob Samuel,

Jonas Reingold Jonas Reingold (born 22 April 1969) is a Swedish bass guitarist from Malmö. Biography Reingold started to play bass in 1986 when he subbed for a friend in the local famous act WIRE. The band was happy with his performance and offered him the ...

and actor

Peter Stormare Rolf Peter Ingvar Storm (born August 27, 1953), better known as Peter Stormare (), is a Swedish actor who holds both Swedish and American citizenship. He played Gaear Grimsrud in the film '' Fargo'' (1996) and John Abruzzi in the television ser ...

. On April 22, 2008, guitarist

left the band to join

HammerFall HammerFall is a Swedish power metal band from Gothenburg. The band was formed in 1993 by ex-Ceremonial Oath guitarist Oscar Dronjak. History Early days (1993–1996) HammerFall was formed when rhythm guitarist Oscar Dronjak quit Ceremonial ...

, and was replaced by Henrik Bergqvist. On 22 October 2016, The Poodles appeared at the three-day Rockingham 2016 melodic/hard rock festival in Nottingham, United Kingdom. In 2017, Samuel and Egberg were reunited in the project band Kryptonite, also sporting drummer Robban Bäck (Mustasch, ex-Eclipse) and guitarist Mike Palace, recording an album for Frontier Records. On December 20, 2018, the band announced that they would disband with immediate effect, due to other musical projects.

Gallery

File:Jacob Samuel and The Poodles 2015 1110.jpg, Jacob Samuel 2015 File:Jacob Samuel and The Poodles 2015 0720.jpg, The Poodles 2015 File:Jacob Samuel and The Poodles 2015 1112.jpg, Jacob Samuel 2015 File:Jacob Samuel and The Poodles 2015 1104.jpg, The Poodles 2015 File:Jacob Samuel and The Poodles 2015 0710.jpg, The Poodles 2015 File:Jacob Samuel and The Poodles 2015 0699.jpg, Jacob Samuel 2015 File:Jacob Samuel and The Poodles 2015 1113.jpg, Jacob Samuel 2015

Band members

Final line-up

Jakob Samuel Karl Erik Jakob Samuelsson, better known as ''Jakob Samuel'' (born 19 February 1969) is a Swedish singer. He was the singer for the poprock-group The Poodles until they disbanded in 2018. In 2011, he competed in Körslaget which was broadcast on ...

- vocals * Christian Lundqvist - drums * Henrik Bergqvist - guitar * Germain Leth - bass

Previous members

- guitar * Pontus Egberg - bass * Johan Flodquvist - bass * Emil Lindroth - keyboards, vocals * Kristian Hermansson - vocals

Discography

Albums

;Studio albums ;Live albums

Singles

;Other singles (non charting) *2009: "I Rule the Night" *2011: "Cuts Like a Knife" *2011: "I Want It All" *2013: "40 Days and 40 Nights"

Compilations

*2006: Various Artists - ''Melodifestivalen 2006''

References

External links

Official website of The PoodlesOfficial website of Jakob SamuelGerman The Poodles Fanpage
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Poodles, The Melodifestivalen contestants Musical groups established in 2006 Swedish glam metal musical groups Swedish heavy metal musical groups English-language singers from Sweden Frontiers Records artists