Donkeyboy (occasionally stylised as donkeyboy) is a

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

band from

Drammen Drammen () is a city and municipality in Viken, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the south-eastern and most populated part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and villages such as Konne ...

, Norway, formed in 2005. The band consists of Cato Sundberg (

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

), Kent Sundberg (

synth A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

), Peter Michelsen (

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

, backing vocals) and Thomas Drabløs (

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

)

History

Donkeyboy were signed to

Warner Music Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and th ...

after an employee came across their music on MySpace. Their debut single, " Ambitions" was released on 26 March 2009 and was put into

heavy rotation In broadcasting, rotation is the repeated airing of a limited playlist of songs on a radio station or satellite radio channel, or music videos on a TV network. They are usually in a different order each time. However, they are not completely ...

by NRK P3. The song's chorus is built around a bassline similar to those used on

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the " King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over ...

's "

Billie Jean "Billie Jean" is a song by American singer Michael Jackson, released by Epic Records on January 2, 1983, as the second single from his sixth studio album, '' Thriller'' (1982). It was written and composed by Jackson and produced by Jackson and ...

" and some of

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

's 1980s songs. The song features guest vocals by Linnea Dale. "Ambitions" debuted on the

Norwegian singles chart VG-lista is a Norwegian record chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide chart ...

at number seven on 6 April 2009, and reached the number one spot on 29 June, after 13 weeks on the

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

. "Ambitions" remained at the number one spot for 12 consecutive weeks, before being replaced by the band's second single " Sometimes" on September 22. This was the first time ever for a Norwegian artist to occupy the top two spots on the singles chart. Guitarist Peter Michelsen described the situation as "completely absurd". Donkeyboy's debut album ''

Caught in a Life ''Caught in a Life'' is Norwegian band Donkeyboy's debut album from October 2009. It was produced by Simen M Eriksrud and Espen Berg at Livingroom Studios, Oslo. It topped the Norwegian Albums Chart in the winter of 2009. It was released on 19 ...

'' was released on 19 October 2009. It was produced by Simen & Espen at Livingroom Studios in Oslo. Sven Ove Bakke of ''

Dagbladet ''Dagbladet'' (lit.: ''The Daily Magazine'') is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally ''Dagbladet'' is considered the main liberal newsp ...

'' gave the album four out of six, and described it as "revolving around its already established hits with a combination of self-assured conviction and uneasy duteousness." He concluded that the album was overshadowed by its hit single. The band supported fellow Norwegians

a-ha A-ha (usually stylised as ''a-''h''a''; ) is a Norwegian synth-pop band formed in Oslo in 1982. Founded by Paul Waaktaar-Savoy (guitars and vocals), Magne Furuholmen (keyboards, guitars and vocals), and Morten Harket (lead vocals), the band ...

in the UK and Oslo legs of their ''

Foot of the Mountain ''Foot of the Mountain'' is the ninth studio album by the Norwegian pop rock band A-ha. It was released on 19 June 2009 and reached No. 1 on the German Albums Chart and No. 2 on the Norwegian Albums Chart. In its first week in the UK, the album d ...

'' tour in November 2009, and in 2011 Donkeyboy won a

European Border Breakers Award The European Border Breakers Award (EBBA) was an annual prize awarded to recognise the success of ten emerging artists or groups who reached audiences outside their own countries with their first internationally released album in the past year. ...

for their international success."Winners of the 2011 European Border Breakers Awards"
ec.europa.eu. Retrieved February 20, 2012 Donkeyboy's second album Silver Moon was released on March 2, 2012, and in 2013 they released the single " Triggerfinger" featuring vocals by

Kiesza Kiesa Rae Ellestad (born January 16, 1989), known professionally as Kiesza ( ), is a Canadian singer and multi-instrumentalist from Calgary. In 2017, she was involved in a car accident in Toronto, suffering severe injuries that required her to ...

Honours

*2009: Three times

Spellemannprisen Spellemannprisen, often referred to as the Norwegian Grammy Awards in English, is a Norwegian music award presented to Norwegian musicians. The award was established by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), an organizat ...

in the categories this year's Hit song, Newcomer and Musical video, for the album ''Caught in a Life'' and the tune/video "Ambitions"

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

External links

* {{Authority control Norwegian pop music groups Spellemannprisen winners Musical groups established in 2005 2005 establishments in Norway Musical groups from Drammen