Elofsson grew up in a small community called Skälderviken, outside Ängelholm in the south of Sweden. His father was not very present in his life and was a workaholic and alcoholic. His mother was a homemaker. Elofsson has explained he inherited the tendency to worry from his mother, and his tenacity from his father.[1]
His musical career started when he was 16, and he was the lead singer and guitarist in several local groups between 1978 and 1986, namely Air, Egon Pretty Band, Art Light, Garbo and Sitting Ducks.
Only a few months later Jörgen signed his first record deal, with CBS. A solo career under the artist name "Shane" was launched and the first single, "Dance With Another", lifted from his 1989 debut album "Man in Me" was released. In 1993 the artist known as Shane came to an end.
Elofsson explained, "I decided that I wanted to concentrate solely on writing music and not being an artist."
Elofsson became a full-time songwriter in 1994, when he worked with the Swedish artist Carola.[2]
Shortly after joining Cheiron, the studio was contacted by the Irish group "Boyzone" who needed material for their upcoming third album. Jörgen then co-wrote the song "Will Be Yours". Boyzone's album "Where We Belong" was released on May 25, 1998, and went straight to #1 in the UK. This was Boyzone's third consecutive album number one and it marked Jörgen's first international success.
On January 12, 1999, Britney Spears’ debut album "…Baby One More Time" came out. Jörgen's "Sometimes" was released on April 30 as Spears’ second single. It was produced by Per Magnusson and David Kreuger with additional co-production by Jörgen. Though it was not released as a physical single in the US, it became a worldwide success and peaked inside the top ten in eleven countries. In the UK it reached #3 and is to date Spears’ third best-selling single in the country.
Together with all the songwriters at Cheiron working on the album, "…Baby One More Time", Jörgen received his first Diamond Award for selling more than 10 million copies in the US that year alone. To date it has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. In January 2000, Cheiron Productions’ songwriters and producers were awarded the Music Export Prize by the Swedish Government.[2]
Works with Westlife, the following years after Cheiron (2001–2008)
Simon Cowell, an A&R executive at BMG Music Publishing at the time, wished material for a new Irish band called "Westside", which he recently had signed. It was discovered though that the name already had been taken and was rapidly changed to "Westlife".
Three of the songs which appeared on the band's self-titled debut album, released on November 1, 1999, were co-written by Jörgen. Two of them, "If I Let You Go" and "Fool Again" became UK #1's.
On October 6, 2001, the new groundbreaking talent show, "Pop Idol", created by the artist manager and television producer, Simon Fuller premiered on British ITV. Running for nine weeks, it became a huge success. The winning song, "Evergreen", was written exclusively for the contest by Jörgen, Per Magnusson and David Kreuger. Because the broadcast of the music competition had been delayed by several months, Simon Cowell, one of the judges and A&R at BMG, decided to first release the song on Westlife's album, "World of Our Own". The first Pop Idol, Will Young, was crowned winner on February 10, 2002. Two weeks later, on February 25, "Evergreen" was released.
While writing songs for new artists, Jörgen now also got the opportunity to work with Céline Dion, one of the world's most successful artists. Her ninth English album, "A New Day Has Come", included the song, "The Greatest Reward", co-written by Jörgen and Andreas Carlsson, and was released on March 26, 2002. It became Dion's first #1 debut in the US, peaking at the top spot in over 20 countries and eventually selling more than 12 million copies around the world. Following the success of Pop Idol in the UK, American Idol debuted in the US on June 11 that same year. Twenty-five episodes were aired over 11 weeks and on September 4 Kelly Clarkson was crowned winner. Two weeks later her winning song, "A Moment Like This", was released. Written by Jörgen together with John Reid, it became Jörgen's first #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. By the end of 2002, Westlife had released their fourth album, the 19 track compilation, "Unbreakable: The Greatest Hits Vol 1", which included six brand new songs, two of them co-written by Jörgen. Released on November 4 as the album's first single, "Unbreakable" set a record by moving from #196 to #1 in only one week, the greatest leap in UK chart history. The album came out a week later and also went to #1 and despite its late year release it became the 9th bestselling album of 2002 in the UK. The album re-entered the charts in 2007 and was re-issued in 2008 spending a total of 55 weeks on the UK Top 100 Albums chart. To date Westlife has sold more than 50 million records worldwide. March 2003 Jamai Loman won the Dutch equivalent of Pop Idol, Idols (Dutch TV series). Henkjan Smits, one of the judges and A&R-executive at BMG The Netherlands, chose the song Step Right Up, written bij Jörgen with Andreas Carlsson, as the winning single. The single went straight to #1, broke records in The Netherlands and was 4 times platinum.
On November 7, 2005, the operaband Il Divo released their sophomore album "Ancora". Just like their first release, it went to #1 in the UK as well as in 12 other countries. In the US it came out on January 24 and debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 a week later. Included on the album was, "I Believe in You (Je Crois En Toi)", a duet with Céline Dion, co-written by Jörgen. The song was released as singles both by Il Divo, to this day their one and only single, as well as Céline Dion, lifted from her album "On Ne Changes Pas. " To date Jörgen has written or co-written six songs for Il Divo, including "Senza Parole" on the quartet's latest album "Wicked Game" released in November 2011.
Given the honorable assignment of writing the official theme song for the 2006 FIFA World Cup football tournament, Jörgen wrote "The Time of Our Lives", also a duet, this time between Il Divo and the American singer Toni Braxton. Together they performed the song at the opening ceremony in Munich, Germany on the evening of June 9.
Jörgen is very well known for his winning songs written for UK Pop Idol and American Idol. His lyrics and music have been performed by Idol-winners all over the world, for example in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Holland and Sweden. By selling more than 128,000 copies in one week, the single set two national records: for the highest first week sales by a debut artist and an Australian artist. Sebastian stayed at #1 on the Australian Aria Singles List for three weeks. It went on to sell in excess of 303,000 units. Thus far Jörgen has written seventeen Idol winning songs, which makes him the world record holder.
On May 25, 2006, Jörgen, with his, "That’s My Goal" (Shayne Ward) received the prestigious Ivor Novello Award for the Best Selling British Single of 2005. Twelve months later he would have yet another one in his hands. On May 24th, 2007 Jörgen was back on the stage collecting his second consecutive Ivor Novello Award, this time for the Best Selling British Single of 2006.[2]
The Royal Wedding
It all got started with a telephone call from H.R.H. Prince Daniel Westling at the end of 2008. Westling explained that he and Swedish Crown Princess Victoria liked Jörgens work very much and wondered if he would be interested in composing a song exclusively for the upcoming Royal Wedding. Jörgen thanked him for being asked and he said, "It would be a great honor, and of course I want to write this song!". Immediately he began working on the lyrics and the music, which ultimately would take him more than a year to perfect. The two singers who recorded and performed the duet during the wedding ceremony was the Swedish artists Björn Skifs and Agnes. The Royal Wedding took place on Saturday June 19, 2010, in the Church of St. Nicholas, the Stockholm Cathedral. H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria and H.R.H. Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland, were wed in front of more than 1,200 attending wedding guests as well as millions of TV spectators around the world. Accompanied by The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and a chamber choir, Björn Skifs and Agnes performed "When You Tell the World You’re Mine".
Jörgen Elofsson said: "It was a truly emotional moment for me. For getting this chance to play a small part of the Royal Wedding I will be forever grateful and very proud."[2]
Work with Kelly Clarkson
In 2002, he co-wrote the winning song, "A Moment Like This", for the inaugural season of American Idol, won by Kelly Clarkson. It became Jörgen's first #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
On February 8, 2012, he could celebrate his second one, co-writing Clarkson's "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)". It remained at #1 for two weeks, dropped a few positions the third week, only to return to the top spot seven days later, which makes it her longest-running number one single in the US.
Kelly Clarkson also set a new US list record with "Stronger", by topping the Billboard Hot 100, Country Songs, Adult Contemporary, Adult Pop Songs and Dance/Club Play Songs charts. On December 5, 2013, it was announced his co-written "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" was Grammy Award nominated for Song of the Year. Further more, Clarkson's album Stronger turned out being nominated in three other categories; Best Pop Vocal Album, Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance.[2]
Work with Agnetha Fältskog
On May 13, 2013, Jörgen released A which is the fifth English language studio album by Swedish recording artist Agnetha Fältskog, formerly a member of the group ABBA. It is her twelfth studio album overall. Jörgen wrote or co-wrote every song on the album and co-produced the album with Peter Nordahl.
Elofsson told author Paul Stenning that year: "I love it when I can get really close to an artist, like I've done with Agnetha. She truly made me a better writer just because she made me try much harder."[3]
On 31 August 2023, the song Where Do We Go From Here produced and written by Elofsson and Kamilla Bayrak was released,[4] from A+, a 'reimagining' of the album 2013 album. The album was released October 13, 2023.
Kung Fury
In late 2014 Jörgen received a request of writing a song for the upcoming English-language Swedishmartial artsaction comedyshort film "Kung Fury" written, directed by, and starring David Sandberg, who had become a Kickstarter Sensation. Jörgen co-wrote & produced the song "True Survivor". And the song was later recorded with the well-known actor & artist David Hasselhoff. Later on they produced a music video of the song "True Survivor", which debuted on April 16, 2015.
On May 20, 2019, the music video almost 39 million views on YouTube[5]
Celine Dion – Work with Courage
On June 8, 2019, Celine Dion ended her record-breaking 1,141 shows over the last 16 years at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. She surprised the audience by performing a brand new song called "Flying on My Own", the first single from her album Courage released November 2019. The song, released June 28, 2019, and was written by Jörgen Elofsson, Liz Rodrigues and Anton "Hybrid" Mårtensson. The song was also co-produced by Jörgen, along with Ugly Babies & Hybrid. He also co-wrote the two other songs "Nobody's Watching" & "Say Yes" from the album. The album "Courage" scored her first No. 1 Album in Over 17 Years on Billboard 200 Chart on the 24th of November, 2019.[6][7][8][9][10][11]
Other facts
On May 7, 2013, Janet Leon announced her new single "New Colours", that was written by Leon, Elofsson, Lisa Desmond and Jesper Jakobsson. "New Colours" was chosen as the official song for Stockholm Pride 2013.[12]
On October 8, 2015, Jörgen Elofsson received the Honorary Award of SKAP (Swedish composers and lyricists).[13]
