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The alias of Maryland-born singer and rapper Tina Harris, Sweetbox first emerged with the European smash single "Everything's Gonna Be Alright." Her self-titled debut LP followed in 1998.
A star is born...
I guess I start with the typical rundown of a persons beginnings. I was born on August 12th in San Diego CA. I moved to Japan shortly before my third birthday. I guess you could say my career started there in the land of cherry blossom trees. I did my first commercial in Japan at age five for what would later become one of my all time favorite foods Ramen Noodles! Also I did my fair share of modeling and print work.
Finding my tap shoes...
I could easily have been defined as a proper stage kid. I can’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t dying to be in show business. I had a typical beginning, lots of talent competitions, dance classes, and of course musical theatre. I was and continue to be a bad looser. I hardly ever lost a competition, or didn’t get a part, and when I did I was always convinced the whole thing must have been fixed. I was a stage kid that didn’t have a stage mother. My mother was the greatest. She sacrificed immensely in order to help me pursue a crazy dream. My poor mom, she had no idea how to curl my hair, how to find a proper talent agent, or any of the usual stage mom tricks. I was left to guide her with my naive ambitions, and hundreds of frustrating hours in the bathroom trying to figure out how to look like Baby June, like all of the other stage kids.
Finding my spot light...
My first big time audition was at age seven on Broadway in good ole New York City. I had two that day. The very first was for Gypsy, and the second was for a show that is still a big dream for me Les Miserables. I had a little trick every time I went on an audition. I always tried to include a crazy accessory in my outfit that I thought would be memorable. How could they forget the kid with big hat and the funny shoes? That day I had picked out red glitter shoes like Dorothy in Oz. I worked a lot as a kid. Tons of plays, musicals, commercials, pilots, guest spots etc. But at about fourteen I was hit with puberty full swing and that put my luck on full stop. (And my crazy accessory idea just looked ridiculous on an adolescent girl) The industry prefers eighteen year olds to play teenagers because of child labor laws, so as you can imagine the competition was fierce. This fact, on top of acne and a mean bout of insecurity just about annihilated my dream.
Finding my pen...
It was about this time that someone I idolized convinced me that I had a much better chance of becoming a songwriter instead of a singer. Although it took me years after that conversation to regain my confidence as a singer, I never would have become a writer without it. I never would have started that great period of self-reflection and self-discovery that every writer needs. I don’t think I would have ever believed I was songwriter if I didn’t believe for a time that I couldn’t be a singer.
Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t all self reflection and poetry converted to music during this time I was the all American cheerleading partier in high school. A lot of people don’t admit this but I will any day. I had a little too much fun during this time. The whole Good girls go to heaven but bad girls go everywhere theory was my mantra.
Finding my way...
The day after my 18th birthday I moved to Los Angeles to really try to make it. I moved into a one bedroom apartment with 5 other people, a dog and a bird. We slept on the floor and only ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I was very excited and broke. I wanted to go to college at the same time, so during the day I worked as a legal assistant, went to auditions, and at night and on weekends I went to school.
The first moment of disillusionment in this business doesn’t happen when you’re hitting the pavement waiting to be discovered. It’s when you get discovered, sign a record deal and find out that it isn’t easy street from that point on. It’s really the beginning of the uphill climb from there. I was nineteen when I started releasing records, and that’s when I realized that I didn’t need to just be a good singer that could write a few lines, what I needed to be and wanted to be was an artist.
Finding my music...
I’m not just called sweet box, the music of SWEETBOX is me. Every song is a piece of my heart, my personality, and a taste of my soul. Everything you hear is something personal. That doesn’t always register with everyone. I know this when I listen to some of the questions I get asked, and I’ve learned that most people don’t ever really listen to your music like you think they will. I write all the music with my producer Geo and together we try to realize my vision of the music.
The idea behind the music of SWEETBOX isn’t all that unusual. I want to make music that’s honest, personal, enjoyable, and that’s true to myself. I believe that there are people who deal with the circumstances they are given, and then there are people who create their circumstances. I’ve always tried to create my own circumstances and strive to do that in my music.
Originally Sweetbox was the idea of the producer Geo, who (having been involved in the production of such acts as Ace of Base / Culture Beat / Falco / N-Tune & Fusion) found in Tina Harris the right person to realise his pop vision. The Sweetbox debut single “Booyah – Here We Go” (1995) as well as the second release “Shakalaka” in 1996 (which was #1 at New York City Club Charts for 3 weeks) entered radio, club and sales charts right away.
1997 the world-wide smash hit “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” went immediately into the top of the charts. This track, which is based on Johann Sebastian Bach’s famous “Air on a G string" (Suite N.3), claimed Top Ten Chart positions in England, Ireland, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Norway, Finland, Spain, Columbia, Lebanon, Israel, Italy and France. In Germany (#12), Denmark (#13) and Holland the title reached the Top 20 and in the US the Single was among the Top 40 on the Billboard Charts.
In Japan the album reached double platinum and triple gold status and Sweetbox was awarded 2 Japanese Grammies in the categories “Best International Artist” and “Best Song Of The Year”
The track also stayed for 8 weeks in the Top 10 of the World Radio Charts (which is compiled of 150 radio stations in 40 countries). The album was released in 47 countries and sold in total nearly 3 million copies.
„Classified“ – a new direction
After the huge success and the hectic schedule of the past 2 years Geo and Tina felt burned out as a team and split up 1998. Geo, however always looking for something new, continued working on ideas for yet another sound, perhaps another direction and when he and his partner Heiko Schmidt met Jade Villalon, who was then only 18 years old, in LA about a year later, they both had the same immediate response: Her voice, her song writing skills, her personality would fit brilliantly to new ideas that Geo had been developing. They, Geo, Heiko and Jade, decided it would be interesting to give this idea a try and within a few very short weeks Jade and Geo became a team. They also thought it would be good to keep the name, so here Sweetbox found new life and with Geo’s ideas, which he had been working on already, and with Jade’s influence through her melodic approach to lyrics, its new direction: Less Dancy, less Hip Hop, more pop, more melodic. The album „Classified“ contains a rich combination of all the popular styles: Pop/Rock, Pop/R’n’B, Pop/Classical, Pop/World Sounds. All the songs captivate the listener with solid grooves and haunting hook lines powered by the captivating voice of front woman Jade Villalon. After the worldwide smash hit “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” the mixture of fresh pop sounds backed with the classical Prague Symphony Orchestra became the new Sweetbox trademark. Well known melodies such as the theme by Edward Grieg in “Trying To Be Me” or famous film scores such as “La Califfa” (Ennio Morricone) in “For The Lonely” have been used in these recordings.
“Jade” – the new album
Jade, now 21, and Geo spent a couple of months in the studio. Jade describes the new tracks as follows: “A closer look at my personality, my ideas, and my heart.” Of course she has grown and you can hear that easily – there are more ballades, more melancholic songs which allow the listener a peek into the heart of Jade on the album. She has not lost her funny side, she has not lost anything at all. She simply found comfort in showing much more of what’s inside. The Happy as well as the Sad. The simple as well as the more complicated side of being alive, being 21, being in a position to speak not only for herself, but for many of those who share the same feelings. The up tempo tracks (“Don’t Push Me”, “Falling” or “Easy Come, Easy Go”), give the listener a groove within which to create their own space. The album as a whole however offers much much more. The ballades and the more emotional “Lighter Shade Of Blue” show the depth to which Pop can reach. After listening to the album it is obvious that the only album title that would make any sense at all is simply: “Jade”
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