Sweetbox

Infobox musical artist
Name = Sweetbox


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Background = group_or_band
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Origin = Asia
Genre = Pop, dance, rock, classical, Rap
Years_active = 1995–present
Label = Avex Trax, Sony BMG, Universal
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URL = [http://www.sweetbox.com www.sweetbox.com]
Past_members = Kimberley Kearney (1995-1996)
Dacia Bridges (1995-1996)
Tina Harris (1997-1999)
Jade Villalon (2000-2007)
Jamie Pineda(2007 - present)
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Sweetbox, is a pop music project that was formed in 1995 by executive producer Heiko Schmidt and music producer Roberto "Geo" Rosan. The music project first became famous with the singer Kimberly Kearney and the song "Booyah, here we go" in summer 1995. Followed by the hitsingle "Shakalaka" in 1996, the project was represented then by singer Dacia Bridges. In 1997 the global success started with rapper/singer Tina Harris and the single "Everything's gonna be alright" who was top 5 in the most countries in the world and number 1 on the worldwide radio charts for more then 10 weeks. In 2000, Jade Villalon joined the project and became the lead singer until 2006. In 2007 Roberto "Geo" Rosan left the project and Executive Producer Heiko Schmidt hired Jamie Pineda, to be the next successful singer for this music project. The next album called "The next generation" will be released end of 2008.

Although generally belonging to the pop genre, Sweetbox incorporates many other sounds in its music, such as classical, rock, dance, rap, R'nB, soul, acoustic and country. To date, Sweetbox have sold over 3 million albums and 2 million singles worldwide. [ [http://www.sweetbox.com/en/2.html] History section on Official website] Sweetbox is widely noted in video gaming culture as being the singer of the English dubbed songs of "Real Emotion" and "1000 Words" which appeared in the popular video game Final Fantasy X-2.

History

Beginnings

In 1995, Sweetbox released their first song, "Booyah Here We Go", performed by Kimberly Kearney, bringing an urban R&B feel. A year later, Sweetbox released their second song, “Shakalaka”, which was performed by Dacia Bridges, as Kimberly Kearney left. Dacia Bridges also left, forcing the producer team Schmidt/ Rosan to find a new vocalist.

In 1998, Tina Harris became the front woman of the group and their first hit single, “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright”, was released. The song features a sample of Johann Sebastian Bach's "Air on the G String" with a hip hop beat. The single received placement in ten different European Top Ten charts and Harris was awarded two Japanese Grammies for the song.Fact|date=September 2007 Later that year, a self-titled album was released. In some regions the album was released as "Everything’s Gonna Be Alright". Despite the bands success, in 1998, Harris left the band, and the urban R&B feel Sweetbox had left along with her. But one idea stuck with the producer team: to mix classical music with modern sounds. Again, he searched for a front woman who could devote herself to the project.

2001–2004

A year after Tina Harris' departure, Heiko Schmidt met with aspiring vocalist, Jade Villalon, who was invited to join the band. With this, the band's musical style changed from that of an R&B, hip-hop sound to dance and pop, with many songs created around classical music pieces.

The first album with Jade Villalon was "Classified" in 2001. The general sounds of the album were dance, pop, and rock, with songs incorporating classical pieces by Beethoven, Ennio Morricone and others. Slower tempoed romantic songs were also present on the album. It received gold certification in Japan.Fact|date=September 2007

The second album with Villalon frontlining, "Jade", was released in Asia in 2002. The song, "Lighter Shade of Blue", also known as "Here On My Own" because of its similar music video version of the song, was released as a single in Europe and remained number one on some charts for four consecutive weeks. The 2nd was "Read My Mind". Fact|date=September 2007

An acoustic version of the album "Jade" was released in 2003, under the name "Jade - Silver Edition".

Later in 2003, SWEETBOX was approached by Square-Enix to sing the 3 vocal songs for the English version of the video game, "Final Fantasy X-2". Sweetbox recorded the songs "real Emotion", "1,000 Words", and "1,000 Words (Orchestrated Version)" for the game. The songs are made available on the CD "Final Fantasy X-2 International + Last Mission OST" and longer versions of "real Emotion" and "1,000 Words" are featured on the Japanese release of the album "Adagio" from SWEETBOX.

2004–2005

Sweetbox's fourth studio album Adagio, was released in 2004. Although of a more upbeat nature than the "Jade" album, "Adagio" had a deeper and darker theme, similar to the sometimes chilling classical passages of which the album's songs are based on. Also on the Japanese release of this album, longer versions of "real Emotion" and "1,000 Words" are included as bonus tracks.

Also in 2004, the group released "13 Chapters", which contained half of the songs from "Adagio", and half from the upcoming album "After the Lights", which was released shortly after.

The "After the Lights" album, released in 2005, saw a very matured side of Sweetbox. Changes also were that in the album, there were no already-written classical pieces of which the songs were based on. Fact|date=September 2007 Also, gone were vividly up-beat songs, except for one of the singles, "Killing Me DJ", and the song "Girl From Tokyo". The album also featured strong guitar back-up, as well as many songs being romantic pop-ballads. Since the album was released around Christmas, Sweetbox decided to also cover a few Christmas carols, and write one of her own, for the album.

2005–2007

In 2005 Sweetbox released their first greatest hits album, known as "Greatest Hits" in Japan, and "The Best of Sweetbox 1995-2005" in Europe, Taiwan, and South Korea. It contained a new version of Sweetbox's first hit, "Everything's Gonna Be Alright", re-titled as "Everything's Gonna Be Alright -reborn-", and sung by Villalon, with all new lyrics, vocal style, and a guest singer. Greatest Hits sold 205,507 copies and became the 73rd best selling album of 2005.

Later in 2005, the music magazine "FONO" awarded Sweetbox the "No. 1 Cross-Border Artist” title,Fact|date=September 2007 and two Sweetbox songs, “Addicted” and “Hate Without Frontiers” (turned to "World Without Frontiers”), were featured in a Japanese commercial for the Subaru Legacy Fact|date=September 2007. A new album, "Raw Treasures Volume 1", featuring demo versions of Sweetbox songs, and unreleased songs the band had recorded, was released in late 2005.

Sweetbox's next full length studio album, "Addicted" was released at the very beginning of 2006, bringing back a strong, up-beat dance style in many songs, and famous classical pieces to base them upon.

August 2006 saw the release of Sweetbox's first ever live album containing the DVD and CD of a major Sweetbox tour performance of 2006. Also a remix album, featuring many songs from before Villalon became lead vocalist for the group, was released shortly after.

In December 2006 Jade Villalon left the SWEETBOX project. In 2007 Roberto "Geo" Rosan decided to quit his work for the music project SWEETBOX and sold his part of ownership in the SWEETBOX project and the Trademark SWEETBOX to Executive producer Heiko Schmidt.

2008

AVEX' latest Sweetbox release, The Complete Best, twice topped the International Oricon Charts, and has sold more than 100,000 copies for now, and is still charting. In March 2008 the new singer of Sweetbox, Jamie Pineda, was revealed to the public via the official website. The singer, from a small town named Fall River Mills, immediately impressed executive producer Heiko Schmidt during the search for the new singer.

As of September 2007, Jamie had been recording in Stockholm, Gothenburg, New York City, Nashville, Los Angeles, Frankfurt and in London just to name a few locations. In May 2008, Jamie and producer/writer, Derek Bramble began recording the new album in Los Angeles.

In early September two tracks were leaked online. Phrased Differently, an independent music publishing company had put 'Sweet As This' & 'Don't Cross Me' on their website. The vocals on the songs appear to be that of Pineda's.

Discography

Albums

* Sweetbox (Only album with Tina Harris on vocals, also released as "Everything's Gonna Be Alright") (1998)
* Classified (Starting Jade Villalon on vocals, adopted a new pop sound) (2001)
* Jade (2002)
* Adagio (2004)
* 13 Chapters (2004)
* After the Lights (2004)
* Best of Sweetbox (also released as "Greatest Hits") (2005)
* Raw Treasures Volume 1 (2005)
* Addicted (2006)
* [Live (Sweetbox album)|Live [CD+DVD] (2006)
* Best of 12" Collection (2006)
* Complete Best (2007)
* Rare Tracks (2008)
* Sweetbox – The Next Generation (Jamie From Sweetbox, 2008)
* Sweet Wedding Best (2008)

ingles

;Kimberly Kearney
* Booyah (Here We Go)
* Never Alone;Dacia Bridges
* Shakalaka
* Wot;Tina Harris
* Shout (Let It All Out)
* U Make My Love Come Down
* I'll Die For You
* Everything's Gonna Be Alright
* Don't Go Away;Jade Villalon
* Trying to Be Me (2001)
* For the Lonely (2001)
* Cinderella (2001)
* Boyfriend (2002)
* Read My Mind (2002)
* Here on My Own (Lighter Shade of Blue) (2003)
* Life Is Cool
* Killing Me DJ
* More Than Love/This Christmas
* Everything's Gonna Be Alright -Reborn- (promo; 2005)
* Addicted (2006)
* Here Comes the Sun (promo; 2006);Jamie Pineda
* We Can Work It Out

References

External links

* [http://www.sweetbox.com Official Sweetbox Website]