NEWS
EVENTS
Who's that Girl? Robyn?
She’s one of the Swedish, female artists that managed to break into the music industry recently; she made herself known as a singer, producer, and label owner; she launched a festival a few months ago to support and encourage women in technology; but she remains a discreet person, often avoiding the mass media. Who is Robyn?
Robyn became known for her dance-pop hits “Do You Really Want Me”, “Do You Know (What It Takes)”, “Show Me Love” and “Keep This Fire Burning”, but this hasn't got much to do with the Robyn we know. At that time, in the late 90’s/early 2000’s, Robyn was nothing but another mainstream pop singer.
From her debut to 2004, Robyn released her tracks on Jive Records. However, after the label reacted negatively to her single “Who’s That Girl”, she decided to found her own label, Konichiwa Records. Her success story begins here. Robyn, little by little, gave up commercial pop to offer her audience something more personal and sophisticated. In 2007, Robyn released her fourth album, Robyn, including singles “Be Mine!”, “Who’s That Girl” and “With Every Heartbeat”, featuring Kleerup.
The release of “With Every Heartbeat” as a single will be a highlight of her career - it's still her biggest hit in the UK. Indeed, the song reached the number 1 in the UK top 50 for a couple of weeks, and the same thing happened in the United States, Belgium, France and the Netherlands. This decade, Robyn imposed herself as an influential singer/songwriter playing with different styles, from pop/dance to house and electronica.
From June to December 2010, Robyn released a four-part album called “Body Talk” (Part 1, 2 and 3 plus “Body Talk”). The songs “Dancing On My Own”, “Indestructible”, and “Call Your Girlfriend” have been well received by critics.
Robyn is also known for having released different collaborations with Snoop Dogg, Christian Falk and Rye Rye. As for her tours, she's supported artists such as Madonna and Coldplay and performed at many music festivals.
What sets Robyn apart is her link to technology. She makes electronic music with drum machines and synthesisers whilst cultivating her image of the 'fembot' (half-woman/half-robot) in her videos. She was awarded the KTH Royal Institute of Technology annuals prize in 2013 for including cutting edge technology in her music and videos.
In 2014, Robyn and the Norwegian band Royksopp released an EP, “Do It Again”. This record goes deep into the concept of human robotization, with a lot of vocoders and synthetic tones. This is not Robyn and Royksopp's first collaboration, but certainly their most important one, having been Grammy Award nominated for best dance/electronic album.
In 2015, Robyn launched the TEKLAs Festival, which aims to raise young girls’ awareness of the creative opportunities of studying technology. Robyn’s latest project is La Bagatelle Magique, with Markus Jägerstedt and Christian Falk, releasing an EP called Love Is Free in August 2015.
