Sweetbox

Sweetbox
Origin	Germany
Genres	Pop, R&B, Hip Hop, Dance, Classical
Years active	1995–present
Labels	Warner Music Group (Present) Sony BMG (Present) Avex Trax
Website	www.sweetbox.com
Members
Jamie Pineda (2007–present)
Past members
Kimberley Kearney (1995) Dacia Bridges (1995–1996) Tina Harris (1997–1999) Jade Villalon (2000-2007) Roberto "Geo" Rosan (1995-2007)

For the sweet box plant, see Sarcococca.

Sweetbox is a Los Angeles based pop music project formed in 1995 by executive producer Heiko Schmidt and music producer Roberto "Geo" Rosan.

Throughout the years Sweetbox has had several leading women including Kimberly Kearney, Dacia Bridges, Tina Harris, Jade Villalon and most recently and currently Jamie Pineda.

Although the project released four singles in the mid '90s with the first two singers Kimberley Kearney and Dacia Bridges, worldwide success came with the third front woman Tina Harris. Everything's Gonna Be Alright was released in 1997 and started a theme which the project would become famous for - the fusion of classical music and pop music.

After two years with the project, Tina Harris departed after feeling burnt out as a team. Jade Villalon would replace her as the fourth vocalist and capture more success with five studio albums and numerous #1 singles throughout Asia and Europe. After nearly six years with the project, Jade Villalon and Geo left the project to pursue music under the names Jade Valerie, Saint Vox, and Eternity∞.

In August 2007, Jamie Pineda became the new singer of Sweetbox. The singer/songwriter released her first studio album with the help of producer Derek Bramble in June 2009 after working on the album for nearly two years. The project has continued to see major success throughout Europe and Asia.

Beginnings

In 1995 Sweetbox was founded as a music project from German executive producer Heiko Schmidt and music producer, Roberto "Geo" Rosan. The idea of Sweetbox was to work with different styles and singers, like taking candy from a box without knowing the exact taste - hence the name Sweetbox.

The first front woman was Atlanta-based rapper/singer Kimberley Kearney aka Tempest. Her single Booyah (Here We Go) was a Euro house track which created the first success for Sweetbox in Germany, where the single shot straight to #8 and in France where it hit #15. Kimberley left the project soon thereafter to pursue other ventures in the entertainment industry including a number of hosting gigs.

After Kearney's short-lived stint at front woman, Dacia Bridges replaced her. Dacia, a native of Michigan, released her first single as the projects frontwoman - the 1995 single Shakalaka which peaked at #1 on the New York City Club Charts for 3 weeks in 1996. She released the project's third single titled Wot, but the single failed to see success. Dacia departed and later started making rock music in a band titled Dacia and the WMD.

In 1996, Kimberely Kearney started working with Geo once more to release one more single, Never Alone, although this would end the partnership.

Tina and Geo create worldwide success

In 1997, Geo met Maryland-based rapper/singer Tina Harris who became the new face of Sweetbox. With Tina's arrival to the project, the group saw a change from Euro house to music hip-hop beats with rap verses placed on top of them. The first single, I'll Die For You by Harris was released in 1997 and mostly had airplay in Europe. However the next single, Everything's Gonna Be Alright, would send international success to the project.

The song was a glorious hip-hop beat wrapped around Air on the G string from Suite No. 3 by Johann Sebastian Bach. With a smooth melody and heartwarming lyrics, the song became a worldwide hit. It reached top 10 positions on the Austrian, Belgian, British, Colombian, Finnish, French, Irish, Israeli, Italian, Lebanese, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish and Swiss charts; reached top 20 in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands and top 40 in the United States. It stayed #1 of the worldwide airplay chart for 10 weeks.

Following the worldwide hit, Tina went on to release four more singles and released the first full length self titled album which quickly became a #1 album on the charts in 1998 in Japan and was awarded two Japanese Grammies for Best Song and the Best Newcomer.

Sweetbox toured the US, opening and playing with various American pop groups but at the end of 1998, feeling burnt out as a team, Tina left the project forcing Schmidt and Rosan to find a new replacement. Tina released one album after her departure and began writing for several acts.

Jade Villalon

Classified and Jade

Despite the success of several of her singles and the widely successful debut album, Tina Harris left the project to pursue other things. A year later in 1999, Geo discovered Jade Villalon, an aspiring singer/songwriter and actress. Geo placed Jade with well-known actress Christina Vidal and Crystal Grant in a new girl group named Gemstone. After the project failed to launch, Geo brought Jade to his and Heiko Schmidt's Sweetbox. Jade and Geo decided to continue the theme that made the project so successful to start with - fusing classical compositions with pop music. Jade and Geo worked closely with the Prague Royal Symphony Orchestra to emphasize on a classical meets pop fusion. In autumn of 2000, Jade's first single with the project, entitled "Trying To Be Me", was released. The song featured back-up vocalist Mucky and was primarily promoted in Europe, although the single was also released in Korea. The first album with Villalon titled Classified was released in 2000 and featured sounds were that of dance, pop and rock with songs incorporating classical pieces by Beethoven, Ennio Morricone and others. It received platinum certification in Japan.

The second album with Villalon as front woman, Jade was released in Asia in 2002 and featured two singles. The first single "Lighter Shade of Blue" remained #1 on Europes charts for four consecutive weeks. An acoustic version of the Jade album was released under the name Jade (Silver Edition).

In 2003, Sweetbox was approached by Square Enix to sing three vocal songs for the English release of Final Fantasy X-2. Jade recorded the songs Real Emotion, 1,000 Words (originally sung in Japanese by Koda Kumi) and an orchestrated version of 1,000 words. Two out of three of these songs were also featured on the 2004 album Adagio.

Adagio and After the Lights

Jade's fourth Sweetbox album Adagio was released in 2004. The nature of the album was much darker than things from the singer's past albums.

In between the release of Jade's fourth and fifth albums, Sweetbox released 13 Chapters in 2004, which contained half of the songs from Adagio and half from the upcoming album, which was released shortly after in 2005.

The After the Lights album was released in 2005 and was a bridge album specifically made for the Christmas and New Year's season. The singles were Girl from Tokyo and Killing Me DJ. The first single, Killing Me DJ, featured vocalist Toby Breitenbach of the group Absolute, who was also in a relationship with Jade at the time. The album featured strong guitar back-up, romantic pop-ballads and covers of a few Christmas carols as well as one Christmas track Jade wrote herself.

Addicted and Jade's Departure

In December 2005 and January 2006, Sweetbox held another live tour called the 10th Anniversary Tour in Japan and the Bold & Delicious Tour in Korea. To celebrate the 10th anniversary release, a compilation album titled Best of Sweetbox was released in 2005. It became the 73rd best selling album of 2005.

Later that same year, the music magazine FONO awarded Sweetbox the No. 1 Cross-Border Artist title. A new album titled Raw Treasures Volume 1 was released in 2005. The album featured demo versions of Sweetbox songs, and unreleased songs from Jade, including songs from her Gemstone days.

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. The album received moderate success in Japan, but was highly successful in South Korea.

Following Jade's fifth studio album, a live album containing a CD+DVD combo of the tour earlier in the year was released in 2006. Two remix albums were also released.

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.

After Jade and Geo's departure, it forced Heiko Schmidt to begin the search of a new singer.

Jamie Pineda

The Next Generation and Diamond Veil

After Jade and Geo's departure, Heiko Schmidt started working closely with successful music executive Hayden Bell, who discovered The Veronicas, and Andre Recke - the longtime manager of Hilary Duff. After 3,000 auditions, then 18 year old Jamie Pineda became the projects fifth front woman and was marketed as 'The Next Generation' of Sweetbox. Jamie started writing and recording for her first studio album in September 2007, the same month she turned 19. Unlike the previous singers of the project, Jamie co-wrote around the globe with several writers for her debut album including the likes of Georgie Dennis, Toby Gad and Derek Bramble, who would go on to produce Jamie's first Sweetbox album.

After almost two years in the works, the albums lead single "We Can Work It Out" was released to Japan in April 2009. The song sampled "Spring" from The Four Seasons by Vivaldi, confirming that the project would continue on with the trend of fusing classical music with pop beats. The single had great success in both Korea and Japan, hitting #4 on iTunes Pop Charts in Japan and even reaching the country's Billboard Hot 100 at #27. The album, titled The Next Generation, was released in Japan under the Warner Music Japan label in June 2009 and in Korea under the Sony BMG label in November 2009. The Next Generation was well received in Japan, where two singles were released and had incredible success in Korea, where three singles were released. In Japan the album hit #4 on the Oricon International Charts and in Korea it hit several charts including a 4 week stay on Bugs and 5 other #1's on Soribada, Mnet, Daum, Naver and SKT NATE RT.

In January 2010, Heiko Schmidt announced that Jamie had finished writing for the album and that the second release from Pineda would be recorded in the coming months and would be released in the second quarter of 2010. He stated that the new album would feature "more uptempo and high energetic songs" then the projects previous release. In February 2010, Jamie traveled to Sweden once again and began work on the album. That May it was announced via Jamie's Twitter that the album would be released in September 2010. The album release was subsequently postponed. On February 23, 2011, Jamie announced via her Facebook page that her new album, "Diamond Veil," will be released physically on April 27, 2011 in Japan. The album is currently available in North America via iTunes, Amazon MP3, and Zune Marketplace.

Discography

Main article: Sweetbox discography

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)
• Diamond Veil (2011)

Compilations, live and remix albums

• Jade (Silver Edition) (2003)
• 13 Chapters (2004)
• Best of Sweetbox (also released as The Greatest Hits) (2005)
• Raw Treasures Volume 1 (2005)
• Live [CD+DVD] (2006)
• Best of 12" Collection (2006)
• Best of Remix 1995-2006 (2006)
• Greatest Hits (2007)
• Complete Best (2007)
• Rare Tracks (2008)
• Sweet Wedding Best (2008)
• Sweet Reggae Mix (2008)
• Sweet Perfect Box (2008)

External links

• Official Sweetbox Website
• Official Sweetbox MySpace