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Amy Diamond Biography
To date, her biggest hits have been "What's In It For Me", "Welcome To The City", "Don't Cry Your Heart Out", "It Can Only Get Better", "Stay My Baby", "Is It Love", "Up" and "Thank You".
Diamond is also the youngest person in Sweden to release a Greatest Hits album.
Biography
Early life
Diamond was born in Norrköping, Sweden as Amy Linnéa Deasismont, the second child of an English father, Lee, and a Swedish mother, Chrisbeth. Soon after her birth, the family moved to England. The family moved back to Sweden when she was four-and-a-half years old, this time to Jönköping, where she learned Swedish. Diamond still lives there with her family, cousins and two younger sisters, Lisa and Holly, an older sister, Danielle and younger brother, Charlie.
Diamond started figure skating at age six and won multiple gold medals. She practiced six times a week before embarking on her singing career. She went to a dance and theater school called Blandgodis, and participated in theater and TV productions which gave her experience in public performing. She also appeared in a small television role on the show, De drabbade.
Diamond has loved singing since she was two years old. One of her first public performances was at the age seven on the talent show Småstjärnorna. She dressed as Belinda Carlisle and lip synced to "Heaven is a Place on Earth", finishing third in the competition. In 2004, she participated in talent competitions such as Minimelodifestivalen in Jönköping and Swedish TV4's Super Troupers, winning most of them. On Mix Megapol Summer Idol Diamond won the main prize: to record a song in a real studio. During recording, she was offered a commercial recording contract. Soon after, Diamond recorded her debut single "What's in It for Me". Markus Sepehrmanesh, one of the songwriters for her albums, said in an interview that she sang perfectly. "What's in It for Me" was recorded in ninety minutes and the single was released the following February.
Success as a singer
"What's in It for Me" was a commercial success, although some Swedish TV stations refused to show the music video, arguing that Diamond was too young for the song's theme about romantic relationships."What's in It for Me" reached number one on the Swedish singles chart in March and eventually went platinum.
Before long, Diamond appeared on Swedish TV4 and used her artist name for the first time. Although she sang to a pre-recorded backing track in the studio, on the program she sang her single and Alicia Keys' song "If I Ain't Got You" while accompanied by a live band. The band included a drummer, guitarist, bassist, background singer and a keyboard player, who also sang backgrounds.
Due to the success of the single, a full album was commissioned, and This Is Me Now was released in May 2005. The album sold more than 150,000 copies, which was triple the requirement for gold record certification in Sweden at the time. The success led to television appearances, such as on the weekly chart show Trackslistan and on the children's competition show Vi i femman. By the end of 2005, she had appeared live on more than 20 television shows. A concert tour in Sweden was organized for her in the summer, and some of the shows were also televised.
Although Diamond's fans are typically school children, the album cannot be described as children's music.
The style of This Is Me Now is mainly happy pop music with synthesizer backgrounds, but it includes the theme song "Tomorrow" from the musical Annie and a live recording of the song "If I Ain't Got You". The songs in the album were made by the producer team Tysper (Tommy Tysper), Mack (Marcus Sepehrmanesh) and Grizzly (Gustav Jonsson), who are all from Stockholm. They form the core of the production company TEN Production and have produced successful pop tracks before working with Diamond. Other Ten Production songs seeing popularity were performed by the A Teens and Helena Paparizou. Diamond's albums were published through Bonnier Amigo Music Group.
Diamond is a talented live singer and sings without a playback tape in her public performances. Her debut album included a live version of Alicia Keys' "If I Ain't Got You", which was described in a review as "sweet and impressive at the same time". She reached the finals in Super Troupers, where she reached the final by singing Shakira's "Underneath Your Clothes". She was 12 years old. A review in Svenska Dagbladet described her voice as fine and secure, and her record label advertised it as "shining and characteristic".
Outside Sweden
Diamond signed a distribution deal with Warner in July in order to promote the album internationally. She never appeared with her band again, instead performing with a background track and dancers. The album became popular also in other Nordic countries and Poland during the following summer. "What's In It For Me" was heard frequently on the radio, becoming the 19th most played song of 2005 in Finland and 16th best songs of 2005 in Poland. More singles from the albums "Welcome to the City" and "Champion" were released in the summer. A special edition of the album was released for the Central European market. It contained two previously-unreleased songs which would later appear on Still Me Still Now. Diamond was sent on a promotional tour throughout Central Europe in late 2005. Her record deal allowed the whole family to travel with her whenever the concerts were abroad. Diamond performed on television in Germany, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Lithuania and the Netherlands.
Diamond was nominated for several awards in 2005. At 13, she was the youngest person in history to receive the Nordic Music Award for the best Nordic hit "What's in It for Me". Further, she is the youngest artist to receive two simultaneous NRJ Radio Awards and the youngest to be nominated for the Swedish Grammy Awards.
Second album
Diamond started recording her second album in February 2006. Her producers sent her songs and she chose which ones she wanted included on the album. The album was recorded over four weekends at a pace of two to three songs per weekend.
The album Still Me Still Now was published in May and the first single "Don't Cry Your Heart Out" was released a couple of weeks prior to the general album distribution.
Although not much was heard from her in the spring, the second album was highly anticipated. Two days before the announced release date, she was interviewed on Nyhetsmorgon, a morning talk show, on TV4. The host surprised Diamond by handing her a gold record for the album; it had already sold enough copies on pre-orders alone to be certified.
Interview with Amy Diamond in Nyhetsmorgon 22 May 2006, Swedish TV4."Don't Cry Your Heart Out" was a radio hit in Sweden.
Still Me Still Now continued in the same style as the previous album, being mostly light-pop music. "Don't Cry Your Heart Out" was radio-friendly pop, but songs such as "Diamonds" and "No Regrets" were arranged in a style reminiscent of musicals. Some reviews wondered about the song selections, but Diamond's voice was praised nevertheless. The selected songs were alleged by some to be unsuitable for Diamond and her audience, but on the other hand her potential was appreciated.
In mid-2006, Diamond took part in the Diggiloo tour, where she performed, among other songs, Edith Piaf's "Je ne regrette rien". Although Still Me Still Now wasn't as big a success outside Sweden as This Is Me Now, it was still popular in her home country. She also held concerts beyond the Diggiloo tour; readers of the largest evening newspaper, Aftonbladet, voted her 2006 Summer Tour Queen. Diamond released two more singles in late 2006, Big Guns and It Can Only Get Better, and continued to appear on television, including appearances on such prime-time shows as Sommarkrysset, Go'kväll, and Vinterkrysset. In January 2007, Amy Diamond started a fan club that publishes a quarterly fan magazine called Amy Diamond Fanzine. Lastly, in September 2007 she sang with In The Ghetto on Elvis - The Original Cast.
Third album
Throughout the second half of 2007, Diamond recorded her third album called "Music in Motion". The album contains tracks done by some renowned producers such as Max Martin and Alexander Kronlund, who have previously worked with Britney Spears.
Diamond's first single called "Is It Love?" from the new album was released on 26 September 2007. Additionally, she has performed her new song on some TV-shows like "Bobster", "Bingolotto" and has even won "Best Female Artist" at "Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards". Diamond's new album Music in Motion was released on 28 November 2007 and her second single "Stay My Baby" (from the new album), written by Max Martin and Tommy Tysper, was released on 23 November. In the beginning of December 2007, Diamond began autograph sessions in Sweden.
Diamond entered Melodifestivalen, the Swedish selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, in February 2008. Her song was called "Thank You", and it earned her a 8th place in the final round. The song was later included on the re-release of her album, entitled Music in Motion - Gold Edition.Amy received yet another gold disc for this album.
Christmas album
On 19 November 2008, Diamond released a Christmas album called En Helt Ny Jul (or "A Brand New Christmas" in English), comprising traditional Swedish Christmas carols. The Style is described as being a classic styled Christmas album, but with a dose of Pop. This is her first album sung completely in Swedish. The album went Gold.
Melodifestivalen 2009 and fifth album
In December 2008 it was confirmed that Diamond would once again enter the Swedish Song Contest (Melodifestivalen) in 2009, with the electro-pop song It's My Life written by Alexander Bard, Bobby Ljunggren and Oscar Holter. On 14 February 2009, Diamond competed in the 2nd semi-final of Melodifestivalen and was nominated to be the first finalist, but eventually lost to H.E.A.T. with 1000 Miles. She was also awarded the international jury's wildcard nomination of the evening. On 7 March, Diamond took part in the second chance round in Norrköping but lost the first knock-out round to Star Pilots with "Higher" and also lost the international jury wildcard to Sofia with "Alla", thus failing to reach the final.
Diamond's fifth album (including the singles "It's My Life", "Up", "Brand New Day" and "Bittersweet") titled Swings and Roundabouts released in Scandinavia on 21 October also reached Gold status.
Körslaget 2009
Diamond was one of seven celebrity choir leaders in the third season of the Swedish TV4-show Körslaget, ("Clash of the Choirs") leading a choir team from her hometown of Jönköping.
Alice in Wonderland
Dec-09 -end of March -10 Diamond is starring as Alice in Alice in Wonderland at Maxim theatre in Stockholm.
At the end of 2010 it was confirmed Amy is going to tour in 2011 throughout Sweden. All dates were announced and tickets were available, but in December 2010 3Sagas company was unable to repay the debt and the tour was cancelled.
Princess Lillifee
Diamond is the Swedish voice of Princess Lillifee bio-film which premiered in Swedish cinemas on September 10th. Amy also sings a few songs from the movie.
Greatest Hits
In Spring 2010, Bonnier Amigo Music Group released information about Diamonds's greatest hits album. The album includes twenty songs from the last four years as well as four brand new songs, including covers of Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors", "Only You" by Yazoo and "Perfect" by Fairground Attraction. On September 6th 2010 it was announced the album would be released on November 3rd 2010, but at the beginning of October, Bonnier changed the release date to October 29th 2010. On October 31st it was confirmed that Amy is the youngest Swedish artist to release a Greatest Hits album.
The first single, "Only You", a cover of the Yazoo song, was released on September 24 2010.
On October 16 2010, Amy featuring Mikael Rickfors sang a duet version of "True Colors" on the Swedish programme Dansfeber.
On November 2 2010, Amy performed "Only you" and "True Colors" on XL Live. Also, the same day Amy performed What's In It For Me (acoustic version) on Swedish Morning Programme Rix MorronZoo on radio RIX FM.
At beginning of November the label released information about a new and last single - True Colors.
In December 2010 some radiostations started to playing Amy's song 'Ready to Fly' as a promo single, but it wasn't released officially.
