Eric Gadd

Swedish soul-pop vocalist Eric Gadd first captured broad public attention in 1991 when his initial English-language album, Do You Believe in Gadd, climbed the charts and inaugurated a string of strong showings over the years that followed. He entered the world as Carl Erik Gudmund Sojdelius on July 31, 1965, in Visby, Sweden, and launched his recording career in 1987 with the bilingual Mistlur Records release Hello!. A major-label contract with Mercury arrived the next year, yielding the single “Kom Hit Och Ta.” The Swedish-language full-length Hurra Du Lever, Pang Du Är Död! followed in 1989 together with the single “Bara Himlen Ser På.” After yet another label move, Gadd returned in 1991 with his third album, the Warner Music–issued English-language set Do You Believe in Gadd, which reached number two on the Swedish albums chart and produced the Top Ten single “Do You Believe in Me?” Subsequent releases On Display (1993), Floating (1995), and The Right Way (1997) each topped the chart and delivered further singles including “Wish I,” “Why Don’t You, Why Don’t I?,” “The Right Way,” “My Personality,” and “Summer Is Here,” all later gathered on the number-one compilation Greatest Hits (1998). Spirit (1999), Life Support (2002), and Eric Gadd (2006) sustained his popularity and were likewise capped by the double-disc retrospective Gaddamn – The Ultimate Collection (2006). Two years afterward he issued his first Swedish-language project in twenty years, Stockholm Står Kvar Men Jag Ligger (2008), which entered the Top Ten and yielded the Top Five single “Tvåhundratusen.”