Velvet

Jenny Marielle Petersson (born November 5, 1975 in Helsingborg, Skåne County, Sweden), professionally known as Velvet is a Swedish pop singer. Early life Velvet moved from Helsingborg to Stockholm in 1993 to study ballet at Balettakademien. She soon took singing lessons at a dance school where she "got a voice".[1] She worked at Wallmans cabaret where she discovered that singing was what she really wanted to do. She then toured for eight years as a choir singer and dancer to major artists such as Lena PH, Markoolio, Carola, Sanne Salomonsen, Orup, Meat Loaf, Martin Stenmark and Jessica Folcker. Velvet was also a part of the house choir for the Swedish Eurovision organisation for five years and traveled to the various Eurovision Song Contests across Europe. Music Velvet was discovered in 2005 and signed with Bonnier Amigo Music Group. She stated that she came up with the name "Velvet" on her own after receiving what she referred to as "bad suggestions" from her record company. She settled on "Velvet" because she wanted to pick something that suited her and that she could stand for.[1] Velvet soon released her first single "Rock Down To (Electric Avenue)" which was a big hit in Sweden and internationally. The single, still frequently played in clubs across Sweden, reached number one in the Swedish Dance Charts for 22 weeks. Her follow up single "Don't Stop Movin'" was also popular and was followed by a tour. Velvet on tour in 2005In 2006 Velvet entered Melodifestivalen to represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest but lost the spot to Carola. She entered with the song "Mi Amore" which rapidly became a favourite and achieved great success internationally & became Song of the Year 2006 in Bulgaria. It remained high in charts in Russia, Poland, Hungary, Greece & Italy. In this year Velvet released her debut album Finally. In 2007 Velvet released her fourth single Fix Me which has been added to the re-release of Finally. The song failed to chart as high as her previous singles in Poland and Russia, but became a big success in the US, peaking at #14. Later in August she released her fifth single Chemistry, with it being the only one of her singles to chart in Finland. Alongside her singing career, Velvet has also worked as a show producer for several Christmas galas around Sweden where she has also taken part as an artist. In 2008 Velvet took part in Melodifestivalen again with the song "Deja Vu". Even though she received great reviews, as well as the song, she was knocked out in one of the semi-final rounds not even making the final. This was Velvet's second attempt to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest. "Deja Vu" was her most successful song in Sweden, but was her only single to not chart anywhere else but there. After a strong presence in the UK club music scene for several years, "Fix Me" was officially released on August 11, 2008. Later that month, Velvet also released her new single "Take My Body Close" which reached #8 in Sweden and #14 in Poland. "Chemistry" was released as a single in the US on November 11, 2008 as a digital download, followed by a physical release on November 25. It includes the original version of the song and four remixes, but failed to chart. Velvet has shot a video for "Chemistry" in London in December 2008, says her official site. The song will be probably released in UK in 2009. Velvet competed in Melodifestivalen 2009 singing "The Queen" composed by Tony Nilsson and Henrik Janson. She was in the semi-final n#3 in Leksand on 21st February 2009 but only came to 6th place. Her official website and her label Bonnier confirmed that her second album called "The Queen" will be released on 18th March 2009. The album will includes the singles "Fix Me", "Chemistry", Déjà Vu", "Take My Body Close" and "The Queen".