Jennifer Brown | |
---|---|
Born |
Hjällbo, Gothenburg, Sweden |
February 18, 1972
Genres | R&B, pop |
Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter |
Instruments | Vocals |
Years active | 1990s-present |
Jennifer Vera Brown (born February 18, 1972) is a Swedish singer. She was born in Hjällbo, northeast of Gothenburg, Sweden. She has recorded four albums and one EP.
Jennifer Brown was the daughter of a Trinidadian father and a Swedish mother with whom she and a brother and sister lived in the Gothenburg suburb of Hjällbo. At a young age Brown pursued her interest in performing - singing, dancing and acting - at a local recreation center and at age fifteen she studied at a music school in Hisingen subsequently performing as a member of the group Soul Miracle. In 1994 Brown relocated to to pursue a musical career: after working at a bar she gained employment at the Swedish record label Telegram Records, her initial position as receptionist eventually leading to Brown's being signed to Telegram's recording roster. Brown’s 1994 album Giving You The Best peaked at no 1 in the Swedish charts and stayed in the chart for 22 weeks. Her two follow up albums did not sell as well as her debut album, with In My Garden (1997) peaking at no 9 and Vera (1998), peaking at no 8. She has recorded mainly as a solo artist, but also as part of the soul/jazz/pop crew, Blacknuss. Her 1998 single "Tuesday Afternoon", while not her biggest Swedish hit, afforded Brown her most widespread global success charting in Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and the UK.
Outside Scandinavia her work is perhaps best known through the cover version of her song "Alive", by Paul van Dyk, which was renamed "We Are Alive" and became a hit across Europe in 2000.
Following the release of her fourth album Home in 2003 Brown largely retired from the music business. She played the adult female lead in the 2006 family film Förortsungar - Kidz in da Hood, then attempted a musical comeback via the 2009 edition of Melodifestivalen - the pre-selection round for the Swedish Eurovision entry - in which Brown participated with "Never Been Here Before", a ballad co-written by Brown with Peter Kvint and, according to Brown, inspired by her abandonment by her daughter's father when Brown was three months pregnant. One of eight acts competing in the Melodifestivalen 2009 semi-final of 14 February 2009, Brown was eliminated in the first of that semi-finals three heats. "Never Been Here Before" was one of five songs featured on Brown's November 2009 EP release Bloom in November.