Product Code Database
Per Magnusson (born 30 May 1969) is a Sweden music producer and songwriter. His musical career took off in 1994 as one of the original team members of the now-legendary Cheiron Productions, meeting great international success working with Boyzone, Britney Spears, Westlife and the Backstreet Boys.
Shortly after Cheiron decided to shut down its studios in 2000, Per together with David Kreuger formed A Side Productions, having continued to produce and write songs for major artists such as Il Divo, Céline Dion, Josh Groban, Shayne Ward and Paul Potts.
To date the duo has co-written and / or produced six UK No. 1 singles:
In April 2008 Leona Lewis became the first British female ever to open at No 1 on the Billboard 200. Her debut album Spirit includes the song "Footprints in the Sand", co-written by Magnusson and Kreuger.
Over time, his commitment in pop & rock music became more and more predominantly. As a teenager, Per played both the guitar and keyboards in different local bands, but eventually decided to focus on producing, arranging and writing music.
His first significant record appearance came in 1994 on the Swedish artist Jennifer Brown's album Giving You the Best. Besides taking part as a musician, Per produced the song "Take a Piece of My Heart" which also was released as a single.
About that time, Per coincidentally met with David Kreuger whom worked on the DJ scene in Stockholm. They started collaborating and have continued producing and writing songs as a team ever since.
After playing one of their songs for PoP, Per and David were invited aboard as songwriters and producers. Successfully working with a wide range of artists for the next couple of years, the tandem's greatest prosperity that far came in 1998, co-writing and producing the song "Will Be Yours" for Boyzone's third consecutive UK No 1 album Where We Belong.
By now Cheiron studios was one of the hottest in the world, each team member working with a different artist. But in August 1998 Cheiron shocked the music world sending out a press release that its leader Denniz PoP had died. He was only 35 years old.
Together, Per and David also worked with Britney on her second album Oops!…I Did It Again, co-writing and co-producing "What U See (Is What U Get)" and producing "Girl in the Mirror". The album came out in the US in May 2000 and equally as the first, it shot to No 1.
By the end of that same year, Westlife issued their follow-up album Coast to Coast. Five songs co-written and / or produced by the tandem had found their way onto the record. "My Love" hit the UK record stores in October as the album's first single. It entered the charts at No 1. The close collaboration between Westlife and Per and David has continued ever since.
The Backstreet Boys had in 1999 broken nearly every record in the book with their album Millennium. In 2000 the group turned to Per and David for help on their next, titled Black & Blue, which was released in November. Including the tandem's productions of "It's True" and "The Answer to Our Life", the record became another huge international success selling more than 12 million copies.
These recordings turned out to be some of Cheiron's last before closing up. By the end of 2000, at the top of the industry, the studio's songwriters and producers decided to go separate ways.
In February 2002 Will Young became the first winner of Pop Idol, a new British reality talent show that was followed by spin offs all around the world, in the US named American Idol. Will Young's debut single was the double A-side "Anything is Possible" / "Evergreen", released in the UK on 25 February. The single instantaneously made it into the history books by becoming the Will Young as well as First Week. Co-written and co-produced by Per and David, "Evergreen" spent three consecutive weeks atop of the Top 40. More amazingly, in 2009 the single still holds the No 11th position on the UK Top 100 List of Best Selling Singles of all time.
Pop Idol runner-up that season was Gareth Gates and just like Will Young he recorded "Evergreen", which was included on his first single. Released in March, Gareth Gates knocked his rival off the No 1 spot, subsequently holding his position for four weeks straight.
Gareth Gates' second success on the charts came only four months later, on 14 July, with his follow-up "Anyone of Us (Stupid Mistake)". The song, also co-written and produced by Per and David, spent three weeks at No 1. This was the duo's 5th top position in the UK.
Only months later, Il Divo had reached No 1 in 12 countries, Top 5 in another 25 and sold more than 4 million copies.
In 2005 Céline Dion started working on a new album, her first French compilation titled On Ne Changes Pas, including three new songs. Per and David co-wrote and produced "I Believe in You", a duet with Il Divo. Dion's album was released on 3 October and reached No 1 in Quebec, Belgium and France where it held the position for seven weeks straight subsequently spending an entire year on the chart.
Per and David's duet "I Believe in You" was also included on Il Divo's follow-up album Ancora. Along with three more songs produced by the tandem, the quartet's record was released on 7 November 2005. It hit No 1 in the UK and Australia within one week. Released in the US on January 24, 2006, Ancora entered the Billboard 200 at No 1 after selling more than 150,000 copies in its first week. Il Divo's third album, Siempre, also including four songs co-written and / or produced by Per and David, was released by the end of November 2006. Across their first three albums, Il Divo achieved 36 No 1's, selling more than 22 million records worldwide.
On March 4, 2007, Paul Potts entered the stage in front of the skeptical looking jury of Britain's Got Talent. Ninety seconds later he made YouTube history with his rendition of Puccini's "Nessun Dorma". Potts had wowed the jury as well as the 2,000-strong audience which gave him a standing ovation. Still working as a mobile phone salesman in Wales, the unexpected tenor on June 17 won the whole show.
Going straight into the music studios recording songs for his debut album, now with a full symphony orchestra backing him up in the world-famous AIR Studios in London, Potts recorded three songs produced by Per and David, "Nessun Dorma", "Con Te Partirò" and "Nella Fantasia". The album One Chance was released in the UK on 16 July. 2007 and with first week sales exceeding 128,000 copies Potts shot straight to No 1 outselling the rest of his Top 10 rivals combined. The newly discovered tenor held the position for three consecutive weeks.
In 2006, more than 100,000 hopeful "artists to be" applied to the auditions for The X Factor season three, the previous season won by Shayne Ward. Leona Lewis was crowned the winner on 16 December, soon breaking sales records with her first single. Deciding not to push the young singer's debut album release, Lewis instead went to the US to sign a lucrative record deal with Clive Davis, founder of Arista Records. Set for domestic release in late 2007, the album's recordings were coordinated in music studios around the US as well as in London. One of the songs was "Footprints in the Sand", written by Per and David together with Richard Page.
The album, titled Spirit, reached UK record stores on 12 November. With sales surpassing 375,000 copies in its first week of release, Spirit is the fastest selling British debut album of all time. It spent seven weeks straight at No 1 on the Top 40. Released in the US almost five months later, on April 8, 2008, Spirit instantly shot to the top spot. This resulted in Leona Lewis becoming the first British female ever to debut at No 1 on the Billboard 200.
Re-released in the UK almost exactly one year later, on 17 November, 2008, Lewis' Spirit The Deluxe Edition bounced back to the top of the charts to give Per and David a second consecutive No. 1, as the bestseller that previous week was Il Divo's The Promise which included the tandem's production of "L'Alba Del Mondo".
|
|
