Sweetbox
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| Sweetbox | |
|---|---|
| Origin | USA |
| Genre(s) | Pop, dance, rock, classical, Rap |
| Years active | 1995-present |
| Label(s) | Warner Music, Avex Trax, Sony BMG |
| Website | www.sweetbox.com |
| Members | |
| Jamie Pineda (2007 - present) | |
| Former members | |
| Kimberley Kearney (1995-1996) Dacia Bridges (1995-1996) Tina Harris (1997-1999) Jade Villalon (2000-2007) |
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- Sweet box may also refer to the evergreen shrubs of the genus Sarcococca.
Sweetbox, is a US based pop music project 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. Under the name she released one single in the Summer of 1995. Kimberly left the project soon thereafter and a new singer, Dacia Bridges, was named as front woman and released 3 singles, although only Shakalaka made it's way on the charts.
In 1997, Heiko Schmidt hired Tina Harris, a Maryland based rapper/singer. It was then when producer Geo had got his idea for mixing classical music and pop. The single, Everything's Gonna Be Alright, was then released in 1998 and received placement in ten different European Top Ten charts and Harris was awarded two Japanese Grammies for the song. Harris released one album under the Sweetbox name and then left the project due to feeling burnt out and creative problems amongst her, Rosan and Schmidt.
A year after Tina had left Sweetbox, Heiko Schmidt was introduced to Jade Villalon, an aspiring vocalist. She was invited to join the project and under the name Sweetbox had much success in many countries. After 7 years and countless albums, Jade left the project. Geoman also left the project to work with Jade on her solo career and went on to work with Jade under the name Eternity ∞.
Not even 6 months later, Heiko Schmidt had started auditions for the fifth singer for the project. Out of 3,000 auditions, Heiko chose Jamie Pineda, an 18 year old aspiring singer who was making ends meet by modeling. Producer Derek Bramble went on to become the second half of Sweetbox. The new duo released the album in June of 2009 to positive reviews.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Beginnings
In 1995, Sweetbox was founded as a music project from the executive producer Heiko Schmidt and music producer Roberto Rosan.
The first song, "Booyah Here We Go", performed by Atlanta based Kimberly Kearney, was originally released as a "euro-house" track. A later remix version in the disco '70s style was released to radio stations and created the first success for Sweetbox in Germany and France.
In 1996, Sweetbox released their second song, “Shakalaka”, which was performed by Dacia Bridges, as Kimberly Kearney left. Also in 1996, the third single "Wot", sung and performed by Dacia Bridges hitting the German charts with great success.
In 1997 Tina Harris became the frontwoman of the group. The first single "I'll Die For You" was a duet with R&B singer Christopher Taylor. The second single, “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright”, featuring a sample of Johann Sebastian Bach's Air on the G String, received placement in ten different European Top Ten charts.
SWEETBOX became a #1 album and single on the charts in 1998 in Japan and was awarded two Japanese Grammies for Best Song (1998) and the Best Newcomer (1998). The song which started as a release in Germany became a global success and was #1 on the global radio charts for 10 weeks.
The selftitled album (in some countries the album was called "Everything's Gonna Be Alright") was successful on sales charts of many countries.
In the US, the peak postion was #2 on the Top 100 single charts and #37 US Billboard album charts.
At the end of 1998, Harris left the project.
[edit] 2001–2004
A year after Tina Harris' departure, Heiko Schmidt met aspiring vocalist Jade Villalon in Los Angeles, who was invited to join the band. With this, the project's musical style had changed from R&B and hip hop, to dance and pop, with many songs created around classical music pieces.
The first album with Jade Villalon was named "Classified" in 2000. 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 platinium certification in Japan.
The second album with Villalon as frontliner, "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 charts for four consecutive weeks. The second single was "Read My Mind".
An acoustic version of "Jade" was released in 2003, under the name "Jade - Silver Edition."
Later in 2003, Sweetbox was approached by Square-Enix to sing the three 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 these songs are featured on the Japanese release of the album "Adagio" from Sweetbox.
[edit] 2004–2005
Sweetbox's fourth studio album "Adagio" was released in 2004. Although more upbeat in 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 in 2004, SWEETBOX 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, was a bridge album, specially made for the Christmas and New Years Eve season. The singles were "Killing Me DJ", and the song "Girl from Tokyo". The album also featured strong guitar backup, romantic pop-ballads, covers of a few Christmas songs, and one self-written Christmas song.
[edit] 2005–2007
In 2005 Sweetbox released their first greatest hits album, "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," retitled as "Everything's Gonna Be Alright -reborn-", and sung by Villalon, with new lyrics, new vocal styles, and a guest singer. The greatest hits album 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, and two Sweetbox songs, “Addicted” and “Hate Without Frontiers” (turned to "World Without Frontiers”), were featured in a Japanese commercial for the Subaru Legacy. 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 and sold his part of ownership in the Sweetbox project and the trademark Sweetbox to executive producer Heiko Schmidt.
[edit] The Next Generation
In August 2007, then 18 year old Jamie Pineda from Fall River Mills (California) became the new front woman of the project.
The same month, Jamie got right to work and began traveling around the globe to places such as Stockholm, Gothenburg, New York City and London. While having songs written for her as the new face of Sweetbox, Jamie also co-wrote many tracks with Toby Gad, Georgie Dennis and Derek Bramble. In May 2008, Derek and Jamie got to work on the album, "The Next Generation." The duo recorded the album with help of mix engineer Rob Chiarelli from May 2008 until October 2008.
The single, "We Can Work It Out" has reached top 10 radio charts, #1 Mora PC downloadcharts, #3 i-Tunes Charts in Japan. The track "Everything is Nothing" has peaked #3 Mora PC Downloadcharts and #7 on iTunes.
The album was released on June 10th in Japan by Warner Music Group and peaked at #4 on Oricon International Charts.
Reception of the album was generally positive with most people being in the middle on Jamie bringing a more American R&B feel to the project.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
- Studio 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)
- After the Lights (2004)
- Addicted (2006)
- The Next Generation (Jamie from Sweetbox, 2009)
- Compilations, live and remix albums
- Jade (Silver Edition) (2003)
- 13 Chapters (2004)
- Best of Sweetbox (also released as Greatest Hits) (2005)
- Raw Treasures Volume 1 (2005)
- Live [CD+DVD] (2006)
- Best of 12" Collection (2006)
- Complete Best (2007)
- Rare Tracks (2008)
- Sweet Wedding Best (2008)
- Sweet Reggae Remix (2009)
