Emilia Rydberg
Emilia was born in Stockholm on 5th January in 1978. Her mum Marlena is Swedish, her dad Teshome Ethiopian and thanks to him now we can admire her unique beauty and olive complexion. Her parents divorced when Emilia was attending kindergarten. One research says that children coming from such relationship are more likely to succeed. Seems Emilia is living proof of it...
Emilia inherited the love for music from her dad who plays traditional Ethiopian music and gives jazz concert (nowadays he lives in the USA). He introduced her to the joys of singing at an early age. She first enjoyed his concert when she was 10 and understood that she wanted to take up music as well. In the same time Emilia was admitted into the Adolf Fredriks music school in Stockholm (“Adolf Fredriks Musikschule”) where she stayed 8 years and received a classical music education. She was also singing in the choir. They were giving many concerts and producing of classical plays. But she has never taken special lessons of singing, though it wasn’t necessary at all.
Singing and performing became Emilia’s passion. In school she was a member of four different bands. At the age 14 she was working with the group specializing in soul covers. Then the other had a funny name: Dr Meier. Emilia was discovered by Lars Anderson (Yogi) – son of Stikkan Anderson who was known as 5th member of Abba, after a member of her former R&B/funk group Ahunda People brought him their demo tape in 1996. He liked the voice but thought the music was inappropriate for her. Shortly after Ahunda People received a contract from Rodeo Records, Emilia announced she wanted to go solo. “I wanted to express my own ideas and make my own music”, she explained. At that time Emilia was 18 and soon started working on her album enthusiastically.
For next 2 years Emilia was recording her debut album, in that time energetic and wonderful songs were created, all written by Emilia&Yogi. Emilia was also studying history of economy at the university and working in the shop with clothes in the same time. Recording, singing, studying, working… it may seem that in her case finding even a little free time is like a miracle. But not for Emilia – she has her own recipe for the life: “I always find time for that what I love most”.
The world first heard about Emilia when her single “Big Big World” was released in September 1998. Emilia wrote that song when she was 19, “I left my school and I was disappointed because of many unsuccessful relationships. Suddenly I became adult and I felt I couldn’t overcome that situation. My friend left me and I was very lonely in the big world. In the song there is a mixture of my feelings: deep sorrow and at the same time desire to lead my life on my own”, explained Emilia in one interview. In another she also said “That song is about me: about how much I feel lost in the complicated world. And how wonderful feeling love is”. And that’s really true, all these emotions we can hear listening to the wonderful “Big Big World”. The video was recorded in New York, a place which was chosen because of its atmosphere of a huge city being vibrant with life. But Emilia hadn’t luck, during working on it there was a strike of taxi-drivers what made the streets empty... One of the scenes was recorded at friend's house on 39th floor! During making the video a group of Italian tourists described Emilia as modern Mona Lisa. Interesting, isn’t it?
At first the single “Big Big World” attacked Swedish charts, staying on top for seven weeks. The single was being sold very fast – faster than her famous friends from the same record company: Aqua, No Doubt, K-CI&JoJo. It became the fastest growing single in Swedish history, it achieved gold status after a mere six days and went platinum (35 000 copies) after eleven!!! After an international premiere Emilia won listeners’ hearts all over Europe. For many weeks the song was on first place on the chart MTV “Top Twenty”. It proved hugely successful in such countries like Norway, Denmark, Austria, Germany, England (number 5 in December), Poland, Turkey and many many more. The expectations were high on Emilia’s album which was being put together. The American record-giant Universal showed interest in Emilia. As well as English radio stations. “Companies from all over the world are calling me all the time to say that they’re interested. I almost have to pinch myself to realize that this is happening”, Lars Anderson, her producer and co-author of the songs said. Also for Emilia the results were bigger than her expectations.
In 1999 the album “Big Big World” was released, as well as two other singles “A Good Sign” and “Twist of Fate” which confirmed Emilia’s big talent. Emilia became a well-known name all over the world with sales of over 4 million singles and 1 million albums. She spent the latter half of 1998 and a major part of 1999 travelling - doing interviews, TV-shows, radio events, promo, meetings and record singings for fans. Emilia attracted big crowds, during one of concerts in a small city a group of 800 fans had to be stopped by bodyguards and policemen. However, Emilia didn’t complain about that kind of success, her life and time being taken away from her. Let’s listen to Emilia: “The song “Big Big World” started something I never thought I’d get to experience. It was fantastic. My only regret is that I didn’t take more time to celebrate it while it happens. I always felt that I’d better get to bed early and feel rested for the next day work. I did my first performance on TV with whole of Sweden watching. But it suited me. I like when things happen! However, I soon came to the conclusion that the best was to keep working, keep busy and not analyse too much. It’s easy to get spooked when it all quietens down.” Emilia toured with other artists, “In the autumn 1999 I spent three months touring with the package tour “Night of the Proms” together with artists like Zuccero, Status Quo and a Canadian opera singer. There was a symphonic orchestra, a big choir, the whole works. It was really great fun being in and around music, sitting in the bus feeling like a touring artist.”
During 1999 and 2000 Emilia’s song “Big Big World” became a great hit in Hong Kong and other places around the world as it was featured in a show “Detective Investigation Files IV”. The series focuses on the lives of two detectives, Tsui Fei and Kong Tza Shan and the murder cases they deal with. They are a couple who couldn’t be together at the end. For people watching “DIF IV” Emilia’s “Big Big World” perfectly portrays their relationship. It seems that the song got a new meaning.
Popularity of “Big Big World” was confirmed by another event, Vietnamese-American Trish Thuy Trang made a cover version of this song for her album “I’ll Dream of You”.
Now was time to record the next album. “This time I knew much more about the various stages of recording an album, I knew musicians and I was much more determined on all levels. Through my manager Lasse Karlsson I got in contact with Douglas Carr and we hit it off right away”. Emilia worked with among others Jörgen Eloffson, Johan Lindman and the American Alan Rich (Whitney Houston, Tina Turner...). “It was very inspiring to get the opportunity to work with producers and songwriters who are really “happening” right now. We’ve been working with various constellations. Of course, not all of it made the album, we selected the songs that sounded best and that contributed to the overall feeling of the album”. On this album Emilia shows us a new attitude in her singing, we can easily hear that she is enjoying herself, the songs are overall more up-tempo and cheerful than before. “After “Big Big World” there may have been a picture of me as a bit sad and melancholy but I really don’t fit that description. In that sense the new album shows more of who I really am”.
The first single from second Emilia album, “Sorry I’m In Love” was written specially for her by Douglas Carr, Andreas Carlsson and Tamara Champlin. It was released in Scandinavia on October 30th 2000 and hit radio stations with a bang achieving highest new entry in the Swedish airplay chart. The new Emilia’s album entitled “Emilia” was released in Sweden on November 24th. After that she was doing promotion in Europe, she visited Denmark, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Finland and The Netherlands. When she was back in Sweden, she continued travelling around Sweden, performing and singing records for fans. At the end of 2000 Emilia was in Stockholm Archipelago, recording a video for her new international single “Kiss By Kiss” which was ready in the middle of January. The script for the video was written and directed by Mekano, who also made the video for “Sorry I’m In Love”. The single “Kiss By Kiss” was on radio all across Europe in March.
Emilia didn’t rest after it, in October the same year we could hear her new song “When You Are Here”, this time it was a duet with German rapper Oli P. After the single had been released, Emilia did a lot of TV and radio shows in Germany, they were some solo performances, but mostly together with Oli P., supporting their duet single.
2002 was an important year in DJ BoBo career, he celebrated the 10-year anniversary of his performances. On the occasion of it he released an album “DJ BoBo – Celebration”. “It shouldn’t become a simple collection of Greatest Hits. I rather wanted to offer something special”, he said. Among others it includes following duets: No Angels "Where Is Your Love", Melanie Thornton "Love Of My Life", Emilia "Everybody", Irene Cara "What A Feeling", ATC "Together", Tone "Lonely 4 You". But it’s not everything, in the beginning of April in Arena Oberhausen there was a large TV show “DJ BoBo – Celebration – The 10th Anniversary Show” with many performances. For us the most important was a great appearance of Emilia. She sang with DJ BoBo his well-known song “Everybody” showing us her vocal talent and love for music and singing. And of course the audience had opportunity to hear “Big Big World” once again, a song which is Emilia’s most famous one.
Next year, on 21st of March Emilia appeared on TV programme "Så skall det låta". It was a show in which Swedish artists competed to each other. It means something like "This is how it should sound". We could listen how beautifully Emilia performed "Big Big World" singing it live with sounds of the piano.
In the same year Emilia took part in one of the biggest TV-shows on Pro7, "Comeback". On classical German manner it was a music contest where 10 artists competed to each other. The winner of the show got a new record contract. Emilia and US-rapper were most likely to win. However, Emilia was only fifth as she was disqualified in 5th round because she was ill and failed to appear
After that there was an awkward Coolio and Emilia duet as Coolio was on stage, but the problem was solved and Emilia's voice was heard from the tape. Before that, there were many good performances of Emilia, she sang great cover versions of "Hole In My Head" (Sugababes), "Walking On Sunshine" (Katrina and the Waves), "Listen To My Heart" (Roxette) and very good "Que Sera" (Doris Day). All 10 artists recorded together a song and a video entitled "Survivor" as well as an album with some of songs they performed during the show ("Big Big World", "All That She Wants" and "Dilema" of Emilia). Chris Norman (ex-Smokie) was the winner and Benjamin Boyce (ex-Caught In The Act) was second. Both of them released new singles after the show was over. In March 2004 there was announced also a new single of Emilia, "Totally Addicted". There was another good information, that Emilia was back with her third album (!!) of her new record company Stockholm Records. On the new CD she worked with Niklas Frisk and Andreas Mattsson (as well as co-authors of "Totally Addicted") which resulted in a new sound and Emilia singing with more confidence and in a way we have never heard before... But we didn't hear nor her new single neither her third album...
Recently we heard that Emilia is working on her new album at full speed.
Hope 2006 will see the return of Emilia...
The lyrics of the BIG BIG WORLD
I'm a big big girl
in a big big world
It's not a big big thing if you leave me
but I do do feel that
I too too will miss you much
miss you much...
I can see the first leaf falling
it's all yellow and nice
It's so very cold outside
like the way I'm feeling inside
I'm a big big girl
in a big big world
