Sweetbox

Sweetbox

Sweetbox, is a pop band that was formed in 1995 by producers Heiko Schmidt and GEO and since 2000, has been fronted by vocalist, Jade Villalon. Although generally belonging to the pop genre, Sweetbox incorporates many other sounds in its music, such as classical, rock, dance, rap, soul, acoustic, and country. Sweetbox is most famous in many Asian counties though Jade's lyrics are entirely in English. To date, Sweetbox have sold over 3 million albums and 2 million singles worldwide.

History

Beginnings

In 1995, Sweetbox released their first song, "Booyah Here We Go", performed by Kimberley Kearney, bringing a 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 producer Geo 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 single received placement in ten different European Top Ten charts and Harris was awarded two Japanese Grammies for the song. 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 Geo: to mix classical music with modern sounds. Again, he searched for a front woman who could devote herself to the project.

Jade Villalon

A year after Tina Harris' departure, Geo 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.

Villalon and Geo released their first album, 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.

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".

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

Final Fantasy X-2

Later in 2003, Jade Villalon was approached by Square-Enix to sing the 3 vocal songs for the English version of the video game, Final Fantasy X-2. Jade accepted, and under the name "Jade from Sweetbox", Jade 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 Jade's album "Adagio".

2004

Sweetbox's fourth studio album, and 3rd with Jade, 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. Any classical elements that were used were now composed solidly by Jade Villalon and Geo. 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, Jade decided to also cover a few Christmas carols, and write one of her own, for the album.

2005 and 2006

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.

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. This album is Sweetbox's best-selling so far, reaching many status positions, and giving Jade Villalon many new TV spot-lights, performing the single "Addicted". A music video was also made for this song.

August 2006 saw the released 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.

Jade embarks on a solo career

On September 4, 2007 it was publicly announced that Jade had quit Sweetbox to focus on her own solo projects and career.

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)
• Jade (Silver edition) (2003)
• 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 [CD+DVD] (2006)
• Best of 12" Collection (2006)

Singles

• Tryin' to Be Me (2001)
• For the Lonely (2001)
• Cinderella (2001)
• Boyfriend (2002)
• Here On My Own (Lighter Shade of Blue (2002)
• Read My Mind
• Life Is Cool
• Killing Me DJ
• More Than Love
• Everything's Gonna Be Alright (Reborn) (promo; 2005)
• Addicted (2006)
• Here Comes the Sun (promo; 2006)

External links

• Official Sweetbox Website