Ana Johnsson

Ana Lovisa Johnsson (born October 4th, 1977 in Gothenburg, Sweden) is a Swedish singer and songwriter. Her longplay disc Cuz I Can appeared in April 2004 in Sweden. However, her worldwide debut The Way I Am was released some months later. She is sometimes known as Ana.

Biography

Ana was born in Gothenburg, Sweden to Rolph and Carina Johnsson but later moved to Sunne, a village in the province of Värmland.

She became fed up of school and went to USA as an exchange student. She took up skiing as a hobby and now she is a semi-professional snowboard artist. She competed and travelled around the US and at one point, she came 5th and 6th in a championship in 1996. Eventually she came back to Sweden in 2001, finished high school and started working at various jobs.

She is fluent in 4 languages - Swedish, English, German and Norwegian.

Music

Her singing talents started when she was a teenager and became a singer of coverband @groove and moved to Karlstad.

But her big break started when she heard about the first season of Popstars in Sweden and decided to give it a go. She succeeded in the final and Ana, Jenny Karolina, Kristina Bergfoth, Malin Catharina Olsson and Susanna Emily Anna Patoleta formed the band "Excellence". They were a huge success, sold many albums and completed a sold out tour.

However, "Excellence" wasn't Ana's style of music and left the band. She continued her music career as a solo artist. In the autumn of 2003, she released "The Way I Am" on the radio and it developed into a radio hit in Sweden and Germany and it gave her a nomination for the 2004 NRJ Awards in Stockholm. She released her debut album "Cuz I Can" in 2004 soon after. This album was only released in Sweden.

She was approached by the head of Colombia Tristar during a cruise and was invited to contribute a song to the soundtrack of Spiderman 2. The song was called "We Are" and it became the first single to come off the soundtrack and was released worldwide. It became a big hit and she released her second album "The Way I Am", which took her a year to make and features some songs from Cuz I Can. She says that the 14 songs in the album all have a deep meaning to her.

According to Bonnier Music in Sweden, the first single should hit the radio in July 2006, and will be called "Days of Summer". Also, the site mentioned the next album to be called "Little Angel". Her Swedish official website announced that the official release date for the single will be July 5 and "Falling in Pieces" will be the double A-side of the single. The album is expected in autumn 2006.