''Kevin'' Johio Lucas Rehn Eires, known professionally as Yohio, stylized as YOHIO (born July 12, 1995) is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

singer 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 ...

and

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...

currently active in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. He is best known for his performances as Yohio, wearing a

lolita ''Lolita'' is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is notable for its controversial subject: the protagonist and unreliable narrator, a middle-aged literature professor under the pseudonym Humbert Hum ...

dress in previous years, with an

androgynous Androgyny is the possession of both masculine and feminine characteristics. Androgyny may be expressed with regard to biological sex, gender identity, or gender expression. When ''androgyny'' refers to mixed biological sex characteristics in ...

appearance on stage. He is a former member of the Swedish rock band Seremedy, which disbanded in April 2013. Yohio has participated in

Melodifestivalen Melodifestivalen (; literally "the Melody Festival") is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song C ...

both in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

and

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wa ...

, making it to the final on both occasions. He is one of the co-founders and current

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of Keios Entertainment.

Family and early life

Yohio was born in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...

, Sweden on 12 July 1995 and is the son of Tommy Rehn of the Swedish heavy metal band

Corroded Corroded is a heavy metal band from Ånge, Sweden. The band is best known for their song ''Time And Again'', which was the theme song for the Swedish 2009 ''Survivor'' television series on TV4. The band's second album ''Exit to Transfer'', re ...

, and Johanna Eires. Shortly after, his family moved to

Sundsvall Sundsvall () is a city and the seat of Sundsvall Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden. It has a population of 58,807 as of 2020; more than 95,000 live in the municipal area. It is Sweden's 21st largest city by population. History The ...

, where he grew up. When he was six years old he started learning to play the piano, and later learned the guitar at age eleven. He wrote his first song when he was six years old. He is the grandson of Jan-Eric Rehn, who was a guitarist in 1960s band The Panthers and the nephew of Chris Rehn of Swedish

post-grunge Post-grunge is a derivative of grunge that has a less abrasive or intense tone than traditional grunge. Originally, the term was used almost pejoratively to label mid-1990s rock bands such as Bush, Candlebox and Collective Soul that emulated the ...

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre with an emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than rock music. Originating in the late 1950s as an alternative to normal rock and roll, ear ...

band Takida. Chris and Tommy Rehn were also both in the band Angtoria. Yohio speaks Japanese, after becoming interested in Japanese culture and

visual kei is a movement among Japanese musicians that is characterized by the use of varying levels of make-up, elaborate hair styles and flamboyant costumes, often, but not always, coupled with androgynous aesthetics, similar to Western glam rock. Some ...

at a young age, and also spending time in Japan on his several trips to the country performing his music.

Career in Sweden

Yohio and his band Seremedy gained some recognition in Sweden starting in 2011. The band consisted of lead vocalist SEIKE, YOHIO on lead guitar, Ray on guitar, JENZiiH on bass and LINDER on drums. The band released their first EP ''Seasons Will Change'' in 2011 and their first album ''Welcome to our Madness'' on July 25, 2012. The band then broke up and made a one time return for a last live show and EP ''Re:Madness'' on September 20, 2014. Yohio received special attention for wearing a dress when performing. In 2012 Yohio released his first

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

song as a solo performer, "Our Story". Yohio has made four music videos – for "Sky Limit", "Our Story", "Heartbreak Hotel" (his entry for ''

Melodifestivalen 2013 Melodifestivalen 2013 was the Swedish music competition that selected the 53rd Swedish entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2013. Robin Stjernberg's song " You" won the final, and became the first Second Chance song to win the Melodifestivalen f ...

'') and "Revolution". In 2013, it was announced that Yohio was lending his voice to a

Vocaloid is a singing voice synthesizer software product. Its signal processing part was developed through a joint research project led by Kenmochi Hideki at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, in 2000 and was not originally intended to b ...

voicebank within the PowerFX range that contains both an English and Japanese vocal. He provided the voicebank for YOHIOloid.

Melodifestivalen 2013

Yohio was one of the contestants in the 2013 edition of ''

'', the Swedish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 to be held in

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal popul ...

. His song was "

Heartbreak Hotel "Heartbreak Hotel" is a song recorded by American singer Elvis Presley. It was released as a single on January 27, 1956, Presley's first on his new record label RCA Victor. It was written by Mae Boren Axton and Tommy Durden, with credit being ...

", which he wrote along with Johan Fransson, Tobias Lundgren, Tim Larsson and Henrik Göranson. On February 2, Yohio was qualified for the contest's finals. Soon after, on the 9th of March, he came second place with Robin Stjernberg leading him as the final winner with 166 points. Yohio earned 133 points with his successful song; Heartbreak Hotel. Yohio was the Swedish spokesperson and announcer of the Swedish voting result at the 2013 Eurovision final in Malmö.

Melodifestivalen 2014

Yohio took part in the first heat of

Melodifestivalen 2014 Melodifestivalen 2014 was the Swedish music competition which selected Sweden's 54th entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. Sanna Nielsen won the competition with the song "Undo". This was one of the closest results in Melodifestivalen histo ...

at the

Malmö Arena Malmö Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Malmö, Sweden, and the venue for home games of SHL ice hockey club Malmö Redhawks. It is the largest arena in the SHL, and the second-largest indoor arena in Sweden. Apart from hosting Redhaw ...

with the song " To the End", performing first. Yohio was announced as the first act to go directly to the final at the

Friends Arena Nationalarenan, currently known as Friends Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a retractable roof multi-purpose stadium in Stockholm, Sweden. Located next to the lake Råstasjön in Solna, just north of the Stockholm City Centre, City Centre, it is ...

on 8 March. In the final, he came in sixth place.

DISREIGN

Yohio formed a new band that consists of Valentin on guitar, Tias on drums and former Seremedy bandmate, JENZiiH on bass. They released their first single and PV Until The Fade on May 8, 2015 and released the single worldwide on August 5, 2015. The PV was directed by Die/may band member Riotcolor. This marked Yohio's return to a band and his return to singing in Japanese since Shiraha in 2015.

Producing career

Yohio has mixed a song for former Seremedy bandmate Seike's band Die/May single The Return, making this their first time working together since the break up of Seremedy (before the reunion in 2014) Yohio also wrote the lyrics to the song "I'm Sorry" tweeting "Writing some R&B right now for another artist. Not my territory at all, but very interesting to create. Love how you can play with vocals!" The song was sung by Oskar Bruzell.

Career in Japan

In 2012, Yohio released his first EP "Reach the Sky" in Japan, which placed 82nd on

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike i ...

. His first

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records c ...

, '' Break the Border'' was released in June, 2013, three months after the Swedish release. It entered the Oricon weekly charts on one occasion, at position 285.

Discography

Studio albums

EPs

Singles

DVDs

References

External links

* * https://www.keios.co/yohio {{DEFAULTSORT:Yohio 1995 births 21st-century Swedish male singers 21st-century Swedish singers English-language singers from Sweden Living people Melodifestivalen contestants Singers from Stockholm Swedish pop singers Vocaloid voice providers Male-to-female cross-dressers