Ankara Echoes, Fatma Turgut, and The Cardigans

Formed by guitarist Peter Svensson and bassist Magnus Sveningsson after the duo had done time in a number of different heavy metal bands, The Cardigans have the honour of keeping their original line-up together for their entire, almost two and a half decades long history. Svensson and Sveningsson recruited drummer Bengt Lagerberg, keyboardist Lars-Olof Johansson and lead singer Nina Persson, and soon after coming together, all five members moved into the same small apartment together to work on their first demo tape. Once it was completed, they started sending it out to labels, where it was chanced upon by Ola Hermanson, an A&R man who signed them to his label imprint Trampolene.

The band's debut album “Emmerdale” (named after a British soap opera), was released in their home country in February 1994, and did healthy business, containing a big radio hit in the form of the single “Rise & Shine”. However, the band wouldn't taste genuine success until they released the album's follow up record “Life” in 1995. It was a huge hit in both Europe and Japan, where it was a platinum selling success, and secured them a major label record deal with Mercury Records. They had the perfect set-up to become a huge deal all over the world, and capitalised on that potential perfectly with their third album “First Band On The Moon”.

Powered by the success of the worldwide hit single “Lovefool”, the record was another Platinum certified hit in Japan and was certified Gold in the United States as well. Ever since then, the band have remained the premier Swedish act of their generation, respected and revered even through their periods of time spent on hiatus. For bringing the world some of the most unashamedly glorious pop songs of the 1990's and beyond, The Cardigans come highly recommended.