Jenny Berggren is a Swedish singer with a beautiful mezzo-soprano, a former member of the very famous pop group "Ace of Base" in the nineties (including in Russia). She is also known in her home country as the author of the autobiographical book “Vinna hela varlden” (2008). In addition, in 2010, Jenny Berggren released a solo music album called "My Story".
Young years and joining the "Ace of Base"
Jenny Berggren was born on May 19, 1972 in the city of Gothenburg into an ordinary Christian family. Her father's name was Yoran (he worked as a radiologist), and her mother was Birgitta. Jenny was not the only child in the house; she had an older sister, Lynn, and an older brother, Yunas.
Since childhood, she played the violin with Lynn and sang in the church choir. There is also evidence that Jenny received a teacher education and worked as a dealer in a local casino before becoming famous.
In the late eighties, older brother Yunas (he was also seriously into music) invited his sisters to the Tech Noir group, which he and Ulf Ekberg had founded shortly before. Later this group was renamed "Ace of Base" (most often this name is translated into Russian as "Trump ace").
Jenny Berggren in the nineties
Already the first single "Ace of Base" - "Wheel of Fortune" - became a hit in Northern Europe (although in his native Sweden this composition was initially considered naive and not very interesting). And in 1993 the band's debut album, Happy Nation, was released. And this album was able to top the charts in many Western countries - Norway, France, Canada, Germany, Greece, etc. In total, 25 million copies of it have been sold worldwide - a phenomenal result.
By the end of 1994, "Ace of Base" had become a very popular musical group and had six World Music Awards, several Grammy nominations, three Billboard Awards. On top of that, Billboard magazine named "Ace of Base" the most famous non-American pop group of the twentieth century in one of its issues.
At the very beginning of their creative careers, the Berggren sisters had virtually no influence on the group's repertoire. They were just performers. And on the debut album, Lynn performed most of the vocals, and Jenny was on the sidelines. The next album "Ace of Base" called "The Bridge" appeared in 1995. And here Jenny's voice sounds more often than in Happy Nation.
Moreover, several compositions included in the album "The Bridge" were written by Jenny herself. One of these songs is called "Ravine". It is dedicated to the events that took place on the night of April 27, 1994. That night, a crazy German fan Manuela Berendt made her way to the Berggren family's house and, during a scuffle, was able to stab Jenny Birgitte's mother with a knife several times. Then the knife was taken away from the madwoman, and she herself was handed over to the police.
Since 1997, Jenny has become the de facto main vocalist of the group. By the way, it is still not completely clear (there are only various guesses) why Lynn so suddenly went into the shadows and ceded leadership on stage to her sister.
Over the next five years, the band released two more albums - "Flowers" and "Da Capo". On these albums, Jenny Berggren also showed herself in different guises - both as a singer and as a writer of lyrics and music.
Jenny's Marriage and Retirement at Ace of Base
In 2004, important changes took place in the singer's personal life - she became the wife of the pianist Jacob Petren, and still lives with him in Gothenburg. At the moment, the couple already have two children (son and daughter).
In 2007, Ace of Base turned from a quartet into a trio - Lynn left the group. However, since 2009, Jenny stopped participating in the performances of "Ace of Base". After that, Ulf and Yunas invited two new singers to the group - Julia Williamson and Clara Hagman. It was in this new line-up that the 2010 album "The Golden Ratio" was recorded. But he could no longer compete in popularity with the group's past records released in the nineties.
Solo creativity
In 2008, Jenny Berggren released her autobiography, Vinna hela varlden. The first edition was completely sold out in Sweden. And it was a clear success, because according to statistics, only 4% of books in this Scandinavian country are completely sold out.
At the end of 2009, Jenny posted on her website her first solo song, "Free Me", after retiring from Ace of base.
In spring 2010 Jenny Berggren's official single "Here I Am" was released. And pretty soon it reached the 14th position in the Swedish chart.
The second single ("Gotta Go") was released on September 15, 2010. And finally, in October of the same year, Jenny presented her debut album, "My Story". There were 14 pop songs in total on this disc.
In 2011, Jenny participated in the national selection for Eurovision in Denmark. Here she presented the song "Let your heart be mine", which allowed her to reach the so-called super final. But in it, Jenny still lost to the rock group "A Friend in London". Be that as it may, the singer's fans consider her performance in the Danish selection very good, and the song "Let your heart be mine" is recognized by many as one of the best in her career.
In 2015, Jenny also appeared on the Swedish reality show Så mycket bättre on TV4. In this show, famous performers covered each other's songs.
It is also worth adding that in recent years, Jenny often comes to Russia. On September 18, 2018, she performed at the Fireworks Championship in Kaliningrad. And from the stage she performed not her own songs, but the legendary hits "Ace of Base" (she has a legal right to do so). Another bright performance of Jenny took place at the "Superdisco of the 90s", which took place in October of the same 2018 in St. Petersburg.
