Ace of Base: Encyclopedia II - Ace of Base - History

Ace of Base - History

In 1987, Jonas Berggren, together with his two friends Johnny Lindén and Nicklas Tränk, formed a house/techno group. Jonas' sisters, Jenny and Malin, joined as singers. Their band went through several names; 'Kalinin Prospect' (a street in Moscow), 'CAD' (Computer Aided Disco), and 'Tech-Noir' (French for "black technology'; named for a nightclub in The Terminator). In 1990, Johnny & Nicklas left the group, and Ulf Ekberg joined and they changed their name to Ace of Base. Jenny explained once that the reason was "no one could pronounce the name of the group and nobody could remember it".

After having been rejected by all the major record labels in Sweden, in March 1992 they were eventually signed by Mega Records in Denmark. The single Wheel Of Fortune was released twice without success, but on the third attempt it climbed all the way to no.2 on the Danish singles chart. By the end of the year it had been joined at no.1 by All That She Wants, produced by the legendary Denniz Pop. At the beginning of 1993, thanks to a pan-European distribution deal with Metronome/Polyram the song hit the charts in Germany and became one of the biggest hits of the year all around the world, hitting no.1 in the UK and no.2 in the USA.

The months that followed saw the band propel themselves to worldwide fame. More hits followed such as The Sign, which went on to spend six weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for a Grammy.

The band's image was tarnished by revelations that Ulf used to be a member of a neo-Nazi group in Sweden. He has long relinquished and rejected these ties.

In 1995, their second album The Bridge sold a respectable six million copies but it seemed clear that with music tastes rapidly changing, the hype about the band died down, much to the relief of blonde singer Linn who decided to hand over power to her sister Jenny for their third album Flowers which was released in 1998. This decision made Ace of Base mostly a trio during the promotion of the later albums, and the fans grew concerned.

Their U.S. comeback with Cruel Summer proved short-lived, but in Europe, Life Is A Flower was one of the most played records on radio that year. A greatest hits compilation was released at the end of the 90s before the band started work on their next album.

Ace of Base has released dozens of singles worldwide. In the United States, they have had seven Billboard Top 40 hits and two platinum albums.

The band remain together today but have chosen to step out of the limelight. Da Capo was released in 2002 and whilst well received by fans, the album only briefly made the charts in a handful of European countries.

In October and November 2005, the band performed several concerts at the "Night of the Proms" (2005) show in Belgium, their first orchestated work. Jenny, Jonas, and Ulf performed four of their biggest hits to the audience:

• The Sign
• All That She Wants
• Beautiful Life
• Life Is A Flower

At the moment, they are recording a new studio album rumoured to be released sometime in 2006. They state on their official website: "we are now back in the studio again, with more inspiration than ever".

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki