Papaya

The project Miss Papaya is a Danish bubblegum dance collaboration between vocalist‑songwriter Linnea Handberg and producer‑songwriter Honeycutt. Initially conceived as a satirical eurodance act, the parody cover Jingle Bells (1997) preceded the surprise success of the original single Hero (1997), which led to the full‑length album Pink in 1998.</p][p]Several tracks, including Operator, Hero and Pink Dinosaur, were featured in the Dance Dance Revolution video game series. A backup dancer in the Hero video was Amir El-Falaki, who would soon form Toy-Box.</p][p]Linnea Handberg was born in Copenhagen on 22 October and raised in the UK. After working with the publisher House of Scandinavia, the Miss Papaya project released music on Scandinavian Records. Following Pink (1998) and singles such as Supergirl (1998) and Operator (1999), Linnea pursued a solo path and released the album This Is Who I Am in 2000, produced by Honeycutt.</p][p]Linnea also gained attention in the United States when Madonna invited her and signed her to Maverick for a US release of Hero. Linnea continues to write and provide backing vocals for other acts, including Ch!pz.</p][p]Linnea is the hidden voice behind Bambee, co‑writing hits like Typical Tropical, Bumble Bee and Spaceman with Honeycutt and Left Hand Productions. Under the alias Lynn she released demos such as Are You Online? and No Princess, the latter appearing in the game In The Groove and sharing instrumental links with productions by Honeycutt, for example 007 by Toy-Box.