Laleh

Emerging on the Swedish pop scene in 2005, Laleh Pourkarim, known professionally as Laleh, delivered an elegant collection of material shaped by refined adult contemporary voices such as Sting and Seal. The child of a respected Iranian sociologist, she lived mainly in Iran before arriving in Sweden at age twelve, where she took up the guitar. As a teenager she assembled the jazz group Bejola together with her instructor and later mastered percussion and saxophone on her own. She handled the writing, performance, and production of her self-titled debut, issued by Warner in spring 2005. The record reached the summit of the Scandinavian charts behind its sleek singles “Invisible (My Song)” and “Live Tomorrow,” earning her three Grammis—Artist of the Year, Producer of the Year, and New Artist of the Year. Her next album, Prinsessor, followed a year later with the singles “November” and “Forgive but Not Forget,” and the additional track “Call on Me” reached radio the year after that.