Jenny Wilson

Born in Sweden in 1975, idiosyncratic pop songstress Jenny Wilson first came to the attention of music fans as a member of the group First Floor Power. Formed in 1997, First Floor Power released their first 7" single a year later, and made the rounds of rock clubs and music festivals before graduating to their first full-length album, There Is Hope, in 2001. While a major Swedish rock magazine declared There Is Hope to be the worst album of the year, the resulting backlash won the group a great deal of media attention, and Time Out New York countered by calling it one of the ten best albums of the year. A second album from First Floor Power, Nerves, appeared in 2003, but shortly after its release, Wilson struck out on her own when she was commissioned to score Nattfjärilen, a new play by Sofia Fredén being produced at Stockholm's Stadsteater Theater. Encouraged by the experience, Wilson decided to record a solo album that would allow her to explore her diverse musical influences, from Missy Elliott to Kate Bush to Nina Simone. Working with minimal but funky electronic accompaniments, Wilson released her solo debut, Love & Youth, in the summer of 2006. The album won rave reviews and earned the P3 Gold Prize Award; Wilson launched a successful solo tour, accompanied by fellow First Floor Power alumni Sara Wilson (guitar and backing vocals) and Andreas Söderström (bass and backing vocals), as well as Lina Selleby (keyboards and backing vocals), who also works with the band Doktor Kosmos.