Pandora

Pandora is the stage name of Swedish electronic and eurodance singer Anneli Magnusson, born 20 June 1970 in Västerås.

She grew up in Björkbacken in the municipality of Skultuna and showed an early interest in music: at 14 she sang songs by artists such as Whitney Houston and Anita Baker in a café. She studied classical guitar and music theory at Carlforsska gymnasiet, where she developed her songwriting skills.

Before graduating she was spotted and recruited by local producers The Hitvision — the trio Jonas S. Pettersson, Göran Werner and Lasse Andersson — and recorded several demos with them.

As Pandora she released her first album in 1993; her debut single Trust Me became the best-selling single in Sweden, surpassing international hits, and charted in Finland, Norway, Denmark, Israel and Australia.

1996 was particularly eventful: she signed a worldwide recording deal with Robbins Entertainment and released her third album, One of a Kind, produced by The Hitvision. The album sold quickly, earning gold and platinum certifications in several countries.

Around that time she visited Japan for the first time and achieved great success there: the album Changes sold more than 700,000 copies. Between 1996 and 1999 she released two albums per year in Japan and carried out two major sold-out tours; she also appeared twice on the popular Japanese TV show ‘Yoru mo Hippare’, performing live in Japanese.

In the early 2000s Pandora went through a personal crisis related to financial difficulties caused by her then husband and business partner; she found support at the Lifecenter church in Västerås and eventually chose to be baptized.

She returned to the European scene in 2002 after a four-year break, collaborating for the first time with Finnish songwriters on the album No Regrets. Over her career she recorded numerous albums, including “Tell The World”, “This Could Be Heaven”, “Blue”, “Won’t Look Back”, “A Little Closer”, “9 Lives” and “Head Up High” released in 2011.