Espionage (production team)

Espionage
Origin	Tromsø, Norway
Genres	Rock, pop, R&B
Occupation(s)	Producing, songwriting
Years active	2001-present
Members	Espen Lind Amund Bjørklund

Espionage is a New York-based Norwegian songwriting and music production team consisting of Espen Lind and Amund Bjørklund. Their breakthrough came in 2006 as co-writers of Beyoncé's worldwide smash "Irreplaceable", which was number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 10 consecutive weeks and the best selling single in the US in 2007. They are probably best known as the producers and cowriters behind several of Train's major hits after 2009, including "Drive By" and their comeback single "Hey, Soul Sister", which is among the 20 highest selling singles of all time in the US. Espionage has received numerous BMI Awards.

Lind and Bjørklund started working together on Lind's solo album Red in 1997, which was a major success in Europe and won Lind the Norwegian equivalent of a Grammy. In the early 2000s they branched out to the UK market, working with various artists and writing pan-European hits such as Atomic Kitten's "Last Goodbye" and Kym Marsh' "Cry", both of which reached number two on the UK Singles Chart.

In 2006 Lind and Bjørklund co-wrote the third single from Beyoncé Knowles' B'day, "Irreplaceable", and followed up by co-writing the third single from Chris Brown's second album Exclusive, "With You". Both were major hits that marked Espionage's breakthrough into the US market. Written together with fellow Norwegian producers Stargate, the tracks were both based on a fingerpicked acoustic guitar figure laced with a programmed beat. Lind and Bjorklund have collaborated with Stargate on numerous other tracks, such as Ne-Yo's "Go On Girl", Jennifer Hudson's "Can't Stop the Rain", and Jordin Sparks' "Just for the Record".

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