Agnes Emilia Carlsson (born 6 March 1988), known mononymously as Agnes, is a Swedish recording artist and songwriter. She rose to fame as the winner of Idol 2005, the second season of the Swedish Idol series. She was then signed to Sony Music, through which she released her self-titled debut album, Agnes, and follow-up, Stronger, both of which topped the Swedish Top 60 Albums Chart. In early 2008, it was announced that Agnes had parted ways with her record label, and was now signed to small independent label Roxy Recordings. Released on 28 October 2008, her third album, Dance Love Pop, reached number five in Sweden, 70 in Austria, 38 in France, 45 in Switzerland and 13 in the United Kingdom. With 200,000 albums sold worldwide this is her most successful album, 50,000 albums were sold in France, 40,000 in Sweden. Its first two singles, “On and On” and “Release Me” became international hits, reaching the top-ten in charts worldwide. “Release Me” topped the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs and peaked at three in the United Kingdom, selling over 900,000 copies worldwide.

Agnes Carlsson was born in Vänersborg, Sweden, on 6 March 1988, the youngest of four siblings. Her father was an environmental engineer and her mother a nurse and social worker. Agnes started taking violin lessons and joined a choir at a young age. She sang solo in front of a live audience for the first time whilst still at school. However, it was not until she was 16 that she first had one-on-one singing lessons. Agnes also sang in the Vänersborg choir named “Voice”, citing legendary American singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder as her inspiration.

In the spring of 2005, a 17-year-old Agnes auditioned for the second season of popular Swedish singing competition Idol in Gothenburg, singing “Varje Gång Jag Ser Dig” by Lisa Nilsson. The four judges were all hugely impressed by the strong power of her voice and she successfully passed through to the theatre rounds of the contest.  Her vocals continued to impress the judges, and she made it to the semi-finals. To the dismay of the judges however, Agnes did not get a place in the final eleven contestants through public voting, and when she again failed to grab a place through the special ‘wildcard’ round, they decided to pass her through to the finals as the judges’ choice contestant.

Despite the lack of public support earlier in the competition, Agnes went on to amaze both the judges and the public during every week of the finals, with a result of making it into the grand finale without ever falling into the bottom two or three contestants. With 57% of the one million public votes cast during the finale, she defeated Sebastian Karlsson and was crowned as the second Swedish Idol, and the first female to win the competition.

Immediately after winning Idol, Agnes signed a recording contract with Sony BMG and her debut single, “Right Here Right Now (My Heart Belongs to You)” was released. A week later, the song debuted at number one on the Swedish singles chart, a position it held for six weeks. The song was quickly certified double platinum for the sale of over 40,000 copies in Sweden. Just one week later, on 19 December 2005, her highly anticipated debut album Agnes was released to positive critical reviews that praised the power of Agnes’s voice, who was still only eighteen years old. The album debuted at number one on the Swedish albums chart and was certified platinum in its first week of release, Eurovision selling almost 40,000 copies.

In March 2006, whilst touring in support of her debut album, she released her second single, “Stranded”. Although it received positive critical reviews, the single did not gain commercial success and stalled in the singles chart at number twenty-seven.[6] Despite this however, her first album continued to enjoy high sales success, selling over 90,000 copies in Sweden by the time it left the Top 60 Albums chart.

On 22 August 2006, only eight months after her Idol win, Agnes’s third single “Kick Back Relax” premiered on the TV-show “Sommarkrysset”. The song, which would serve as the lead single from her second studio album, was released on 7 September and narrowly missed the top spot on the Swedish singles chart, peaking at number two. Her second album, Stronger was released on 11 October, less than a year after the release of her debut album. Like its predecessor, Stronger debuted at number one on the albums chart, and went on to sell over 50,000 copies in Sweden, with it later being certified platinum. One of the album’s tracks, “Love Is All Around” has since been covered by numerous singers on three continents, the most notable being by Australian Idol alumni Ricki Lee Coulter, which peaked at number five in Australia and became one of that country’s biggest hits in 2007.

On 15 November 2006, Agnes released “Champion”, the second single from Stronger, which peaked at number nineteen. In early 2007, she embarked on her second national. In December, she and her fellow Idol contestant Måns Zelmerlöw joined together for a huge Christmas campaign for clothing store MQ. In order to promote the company, they duetted on a cover of the Mariah Carey song “All I Want for Christmas Is You”, which peaked at number three on the Swedish singles chart and was certified gold for the sale of 10,000 copies.

In early 2008, it was announced that Agnes had parted ways with her record label Sony BMG, with Agnes citing “creative differences” behind the split. She then signed to independent label Roxy Recordings and on 11 August, “On and On”, the first single from her upcoming third studio, was released. The song marked a change in Agnes’ music style, going towards a more dance and club style, while moving away from her original pop and R&B. Agnes first performed the song live on 16 August 2008 during the Swedish TV-show “Sommarkrysset”. The single spent four consecutive weeks at its peak of number 8 on the Swedish singles chart and hit the top spot on the club chart, gaining a gold certification. The same club style would be reflected on Agnes’s third studio album, Dance Love Pop, which she had written together with Swedish producer and songwriter Anders Hansson. The album was released on 28 October 2008 and debuted on the Swedish albums chart at number five with first week sales of 10,000 copies. On 24 November, “Release Me” was released as the second single from the album, peaking at number nine on the Swedish chart and being certified gold. Despite the song’s success, it failed to match that of the album’s first single.