Annie

Norwegian vocalist Annie, born Anne Lilia Berge Strand, matches the buoyant pop sensibilities of early Madonna or late-era Kylie Minogue while retaining the underground cachet that aligns her equally with Saint Etienne and Miss Kittin.

Her initial mark arrived in 1999 via the Madonna-sampling single “The Greatest Hit,” produced by Tore Andreas Kroknes, also known as Erot. Though its reach spread gradually, repeated plays, support from discerning club DJs, and organic conversation turned the track into a notable underground success. The pair, who also entered a romantic relationship, cut a follow-up single titled “I Will Get On,” yet Kroknes died at age 23 from a heart defect in 2001.

Annie gradually reengaged with Bergen, Norway’s nightlife, forging ties that led her to record several tracks alongside Timo Kaukolampi of Op:L Bastards. Those sessions, together with additional productions from fellow Norwegians Röyksopp and England’s Richard X, supplied the core of her debut album Anniemal. First issued in 2004, the set reached the United States the following June. Later that October she compiled an installment for !K7’s DJ-Kicks series. A planned partnership with Island yielded only the single and video “I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me” before dissolving; Annie reclaimed the masters and placed her sophomore effort, Don’t Stop, with Smalltown Supersound, which released the album in November 2009. Its finalized track listing diverged sharply from the version that had circulated online earlier.

Over the ensuing ten years she maintained a global DJ schedule, served as a judge on Idol Norway, and issued sporadic singles. The rave-leaning “Tubestops and Lonely Hearts” surfaced in 2013, the same year Richard X produced the ’90s-house-styled The A&R EP, while “Russian Kiss” followed in 2014. In 2015 she teamed with Sound of Arrows member Stefan Storm to create the typically buoyant, dancefloor-focused EP Endless Vacation. When the two resumed work it was in Annie’s native Bergen, where she had returned to tend to her ailing mother and raise her children. The resulting material adopted a more reflective, somber tone shaped equally by the Twin Peaks soundtrack and the melancholic Saint Etienne songs she admires. Dark Hearts appeared on her own Annie Melody imprint in late 2020.