Eric Khaled Saade (; ar, إريك سعادة, ʾĪrik Saʿāda, ; born 29 October 1990), is a Swedish singer and songwriter. He spent two years with the boy band

What's Up! What's Up! was a Swedish boy band formed in Sweden in 2007. The original line-up consisted of Eric Saade, Robin Stjernberg, Luwdig "Ludde" Keijser and Johan Yngvesson. After Saade left the band in 2009 to pursue his solo career, Johannes Magnusso ...

, leaving the band in February 2009 to pursue a solo career. After winning the Swedish

Melodifestivalen 2011 Melodifestivalen 2011 was a Swedish song contest held between February and March 2011. It selected Sweden's 51st song to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest, and was the 50th edition of Melodifestivalen. Eric Saade, with the song "Pop ...

with " Popular", Saade represented Sweden at the

Eurovision Song Contest 2011 The Eurovision Song Contest 2011 was the 56th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Düsseldorf, Germany, following the country's victory at the with the song "Satellite (Lena Meyer-Landrut song), Satellite" by Lena Meyer-La ...

in Germany, placing third.

Early life

Saade was born in Kattarp, a small village in

Helsingborg Municipality Helsingborg Municipality (''Helsingborgs kommun'') is a Municipalities of Sweden, municipality in Scania County in Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Helsingborg, which is Sweden's eighth largest city. The municipality had a population of ...

Scania Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skå ...

, Sweden, to Marlene Jacobsson, a Swede, and Walid Saade, a Palestinian from Lebanon. After his parents divorced when he was four, he lived with his mother. Saade is the second of eight siblings and half-siblings. Saade began singing after seeing

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 a ...

on TV, and his other musical influences are

Robbie Williams Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, and achieved commercial success after launching a solo career in 1996. His debut stu ...

Bryan Adams Bryan Guy Adams (born 5 November 1959) is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, composer, and photographer. He has been cited as one of the best-selling music artists of all time, and is estimated to have sold between 75 million and mor ...

, the

Backstreet Boys Backstreet Boys (often abbreviated as BSB) are an American vocal group consisting of Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, and cousins Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson. Lou Pearlman formed the group in 1993 in Orlando, Florida. The ...

and Justin Timberlake.

Career

2007: What's Up!

In 2007, Saade was a founding member of

, a Swedish

boy band A boy band is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform love songs marketed towards girls and young women. Ma ...

which included Robin Stjernberg, Ludwig "hejLudde" Keijser and Johan Yngvesson. Its members were picked from a competition attracting hundreds of applicants. Fifteen finalists (including Saade) competed at the Ericsson Globe, and the four winners became the band's founding members. What's Up! began touring Sweden in the spring of 2008 and released an album, ''In Pose'', which spent a week on the Swedish Albums Chart at #40. The album spawned two singles: "Go Girl!", released in May 2007, peaked at #5 on the Swedish Singles Chart and "If I Told You Once", released in March 2008, peaked at #16. The band recorded the

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 ...

version of the theme for Disney's '' Camp Rock'' ("Här är jag") and dubbed the characters' voices, appearing in the Disney Channel's Swedish trailer. When Saade left the band to pursue a solo career, he was replaced by Johannes Magnusson.

2008-2009: Solo beginnings and Melodifestivalen debut

Saade's involvement in ''Camp Rock'' led to his hosting a show inspired by the movie; he also hosted the nationwide contest, ''Julia's Shooting Stars''. In August 2009, Saade signed with the Swedish

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the prod ...

Roxy Recordings; in December he released his first solo single, " Sleepless", written by

Fredrik Kempe Fredrik Kempe (born 29 April 1972) is a Swedish songwriter and opera and pop singer, who was born in Vårgårda. He has participated in Swedish versions of the musicals ''Les Misérables'' and ''Chess''. In 2002, Kempe had a hit with ''Vincerò' ...

and

Peter Boström Peter Boström (born May 19, 1971) is a Swedish music producer and songwriter. He is also known as Bassflow. Boström wrote his first song at the age of seven. In 1992, at the age of 21, he started Bassflow Productions, a production company near S ...

. Distributed on iTunes, the song peaked at #44 in Sweden. Anders Rune directed its music video, which premiered in January 2010. In February 2010, Saade sang " Manboy", written by Fredrik Kempe and Peter Boström, at the second semi-final of

Melodifestivalen 2010 Melodifestivalen 2010 was a Swedish song contest held between February and March 2010. It was the selection for the 50th song to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest, and was the 49th edition of Melodifestivalen. Five heats were held in ...

(the Swedish qualifier for the Eurovision Song Contest). He won the semifinal, finishing third overall. "Manboy" was released in March 2010 in Sweden, reaching #1 on the domestic-single and ringtone charts; its music video also premiered that month. The song's acoustic version was released in Sweden in May, and in June the single went

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Pla ...

in that country.

2010: Breakthrough in Sweden

In January 2010, Saade won a Scandipop Award as the Brightest New Hope for 2010. In March he was nominated for a Marcel Bezençon Press Award for "Manboy", and won an Artistic Award. Saade released his first solo album, ''

Masquerade Masquerade or Masquerader may refer to: Events * Masquerade ball, a costumed dance event * Masquerade ceremony, a rite or cultural event in many parts of the world, especially the Caribbean and Africa * Masqueraders, the performers in the West ...

'', in May 2010. The album reached #2 in Sweden, and went gold. Saade began his first solo tour, known as the Masquerade Tour, playing 24 dates in Sweden from June to September 2010. The third single from Saade's debut album, " Break of Dawn" (written by Saade and Fredrik Kempe), was released in June 2010 and peaked at #45 on the Swedish charts. The song's music video also premiered that month. A

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

, "Le Family Remix", was released in July. In August 2010, Saade was nominated for three Rockbjörnen Awards: Best Swedish Male Live Artist, Best Breakthrough Act and Best Swedish Song of the Year (for "Manboy"). That year, Saade also released the singles "Masquerade" and "It's Gonna Rain". The music video for "Masquerade" premiered in August, and the video for "It's Gonna Rain" premiered in October.

2011: Second Melodifestivalen attempt and Eurovision Song Contest

In February 2011, Saade entered the

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 Son ...

for a second time. This time he made the final, winning with " Popular" (written by Fredrik Kempe and produced by Peter Boström). The song's music video premiered in April. In May 2011, Saade competed in the second semifinal of the

, advancing to the final. He finished third in the competition, Sweden's best placing since Charlotte Perrelli won in 1999 with "

Take Me to Your Heaven Tusen och en natt is a 1999 album from Swedish dansband Wizex. The album included Charlotte Nilsson's hit " Tusen och en natt/Take Me to Your Heaven", and the album sold 235,000 copies. The album peaked at #16 at the Swedish album chart. Track ...

". This was Sweden's fifth third-place finish at the Eurovision. "Popular" was released in Sweden in February 2011, reaching #1 on the Swedish charts. By July it sold over 40,000 copies in Sweden, reaching double platinum. Its music video premiered in April 2011, when the song was also released in Finland. The single was released in Norway on 6 May, in Australia, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, the UK and the US on 12 May, in Austria, Germany and Switzerland on 18 May and in Belgium on 20 May. "Popular" reached #4 in the Belgian (Flanders) Ultratip Charts, #17 in Finland, #23 in the Belgian (Wallonia) Ultratip, #29 in Austria, #27 in Ireland, #48 in Germany and #76 in the UK. The song was listed at #3 on PopJustice's list of 45 Best Singles of 2011. The album remix and slow versions of the song were released in Sweden in March 2011. The slow version was named Song of the Day by PopJustice on 15 May 2011, and the SoundFactory remix was released in Sweden on 25 May; another remix was released on 9 June in Greece.

''Saade, Vols. 1'' and ''2''

In January 2011 Saade was nominated for six Scandipop Awards: Best Single from a New Artist and Best Male Single (for "It's Gonna Rain" and "Manboy"), Best Male Album (for ''Masquerade'') and Best New Artist, winning Best Album from a New Artist and Best Male. That month, he was also nominated for a Song of the Year

Grammis The Grammis are music awards presented annually to musicians and songwriters in Sweden. The oldest Swedish music awards, they were instituted as a local equivalent of the Grammy Awards given in the United States. The awards ceremony is general ...

for "Manboy" and released the first single ("Still Loving It", co-written with Niclas Lundin and Anton Malmberg Hård Af Segerstad) from his second album. Saade was nominated for a Marcel Bezençon Artistic Award (Melodifestivalen), and won a Press Award for "Popular". In April, he was nominated as Sweden's Favorite Star for a Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award. In May, it was announced that Saade would release two new albums, ''

Saade Vol. 1 ''Saade Vol. 1'' is the second studio album by Swedish singer Eric Saade. It was released on June 29, 2011, by Roxy Recordings. After the Europe-wide success of his Eurovision 2011 entry " Popular", which brought Sweden its best result at the co ...

'' and ''

Saade Vol. 2 ''Saade Vol. 2'' is the third studio album by Swedish singer Eric Saade. It was released on November 30, 2011 by Roxy Recordings. The album was released as the second part of the album series, following '' Saade Vol. 1'' (2011). ''Saade Vol. 2'' h ...

''. The first was released in Sweden and Norway in June. It topped the Swedish chart, selling 50,000 copies and certified platinum by July, and peaked at #16 in Finland. In June, Saade won two ESC Radio Awards for "Popular": Best Male Artist and Best Song. The second single from ''Saade Vol. 1'' (" Hearts in the Air", a duet with J-Son) and its music video was released in June in Sweden and Norway and September in France. It peaked at #2 in Sweden, and was certified gold. A remix of the song was released in December in the UK. Eric Saade Helsingborgsfestivalen

Saade toured again from June to November, calling his show the "Made of Pop Concert". The tour included 24 concerts in Sweden and one in France; on 14 July, he performed for the Swedish

crown princess A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title is crown princess, which may refer either to an heiress apparent or, especially in earlier times, to the wife ...

Victoria and the

royal family A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/ rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term p ...

. In July, the singer was nominated for two You Choice Awards for "Popular": Best Male Video and Best Newcomer. That month, he was also nominated for two Rockbjörnen Awards: Best Male Artist Live and Best Swedish Song ("Popular"). In November 2011 Saade released the single "

Hotter Than Fire "Hotter Than Fire" is a song by Swedish singer Eric Saade and American singer Dev. It is the first single from Saade's third album, '' Saade Vol. 2'', and was first released on 2 November 2011 in Sweden. The song reached #5 in Sweden. Backgroun ...

", a duet with

Dev Dev, sometimes capitalized as DEV, can be referred as: People Single names * Dev (born 1982), Indian actor * Dev (born 1984), British radio presenter, DJ and actor * Dev (born 1989), American singer * Dev, Indian actor First names * Dev Anand (19 ...

co-written with Jason Gill and J-Son. The song reached #5 in Sweden; it was later remixed, with its music video released in December. ''Saade Vol. 2'' was also released in November, reaching #1 in Sweden and #46 in Finland, and the singer was the most-searched Swedish celebrity on

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

that year. Saade Vol.1 & Saade Vol. 2 were both released in the United Kingdom on 9 June 2014. They became available in the UK iTunes store along with Saade's first studio album 'Masquerade'.

2012: ''Forgive Me''

Saade was nominated for six Scandipop Awards in 2012: Best Male, 2011 Readers' Favourite, Best Male Album (for ''Saade Vol. 1'' and ''Saade Vol. 2''), Best Male Single (for "Popular") and Best Remix (for "Popular oundFactory Remix), and was nominated for a Best Song Grammis for "Popular". In March and April Saade went on his third Swedish tour, "Pop Explosion Concert 2012", which included 15 concerts. In June, he released a new single with Norwegian singer Tone Damli entitled "Imagine"; its music video was released several weeks later. The singer released two new singles in October: "Miss Unknown" and "Marching (In the Name of Love)", and said: "It has almost been a year without a new single. I've been writing a lot of new music, and want to include new influences. I've always loved RnB and Hip hop, and I want to mix it into my pop music. It might not be the most normal thing to release two singles at the same time, but I like to do things differently...and I love both songs equally!" A DVD of Saade's Pop Explosion Concert 2012 was released in November. The music video for "Marching (In the Name of Love)" was released on 7 December, and that for "Miss Unknown" was released on 12 December. In April 2013 Eric announced his next album's title, '' Forgive Me'', and released its first single (" Coming Home"). The song, co-written with J-Son and Mats Lie Skaare, was described by Saade's publicists as an urban-pop, summer song stylistically different (with the other songs on the album) from Saade's earlier work. He also said the album was influenced primarily by Justin Timberlake,

and

. During the final of the

Eurovision Song Contest 2013 The Eurovision Song Contest 2013 was the 58th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Malmö, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Euphoria" by Loreen. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union ...

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 popula ...

, Sweden, Saade was co-host in the "green room" (where finalists awaited results). While hosting, he said to co-host Petra Mede "Back to you, Petra.

hashtag A hashtag is a metadata tag that is prefaced by the hash (also known as pound or octothorpe) sign, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services such as Twitter or Instagram as a form of user-generated ...

: MILF".

2015–18: Melodifestivalen return, Saade EP and Så mycket bättre

Saade participated in Melodifestivalen 2015 with the song " Sting" in a bid to represent Sweden in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2015 The Eurovision Song Contest 2015 was the 60th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Vienna, Austria, following the country's victory at the with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix" by Conchita Wurst. Organised by the European Broa ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Austria. The song was co-written by Sam Arash Fahmi,

, Hamed "K-one" Pirouzpanah and David Kreuger. He performed the song live during the first semi-final round of Melodifestivalen on 7 February 2015 in Gothenburg's

Scandinavium Scandinavium () is an indoor arena located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Construction on Scandinavium began in 1969 after decades of setbacks, and was inaugurated on 18 May 1971. Scandinavium has been selected as a championship arena at least fifty t ...

. Coming first that day, he qualified to the Finals on 14 March 2015 in Stockholm. In the final Saade placed fifth after the televoting and jury results was revealed. On 22 May 2015 Saade released his new single "Girl From Sweden". Saade released his extended play '' Saade'' on 24 June 2016. Saade released the lead single from ''Saade'' titled "Colors" on 18 March 2016. On 27 May 2016 the title track "

Wide Awake Wide Awake or Wideawake may refer to: Places *Wide Awake, South Carolina, US *Prestonville, Kentucky, US, formerly Wideawake * Wideawake Airfield or RAF Ascension Island, a British military base Books and publications * ''Wide Awake'' (magazine), ...

" featuring

Gustaf Norén Gustaf Erik David Norén (born 1 February 1981 in Borlänge) is a Swedish musician (songwriting, vocals, guitar) and actor. He was previously one of the two frontmen of the Swedish band Mando Diao and is one half of the duo ''Gustaf & Viktor Nor ...

was released as the album's second single. On 25 May 2017 Saade released his new single "Another Week". In late 2017, Saade participated in the eight season of the reality TV-show '' Så mycket bättre''. In December 2017, he released an EP called "Så mycket bättre 2017 – Tolkningarna" including 8 covered songs. On 19 October 2018 Saade released a single "Så jävla fel". The single "Vill ha mer" featuring Parham was released on 16 November 2018.

2019–present: ''Det svarta fåret'' and Melodifestivalen returns

On 26 October 2018, SVT announced that Saade will host all six shows of Melodifestivalen 2019 alongside Sarah Dawn Finer,

Marika Carlsson Marika Aychesh Carlsson (born 19 March 1973) is a Swedish standup comedian and TV-personality. Background Carlsson was born in Ethiopia and was adopted by a Swedish couple at age two. She grew up in the town of Lund in Sweden's Skåne province. C ...

and

Kodjo Akolor Kodjo Akolor (born 15 June 1981) is a Swedish TV/radio personality and comedian. Career He started as a comedian in 2005 and after two years became a regular on contemporary R&B themed radio station ''The Voice''. In 2008 Akolor became a reporte ...

. Saade was Swedish spokesperson for the

Eurovision Song Contest 2019 The Eurovision Song Contest 2019 was the 64th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Tel Aviv, Israel, following the country's victory at the 2018 contest with the song " Toy" by Netta. Organised by the European Broa ...

. On 14 June 2019, Saade released the single "Skit för varandra". Saade's fifth studio album, '' Det svarta fåret'' was released in June 2020, which failed to enter any major music charts. The album yielded one top-forty hit song, "

Postcard A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as wood ...

", featuring Swedish DJ, Anis Don Demina. In December 2020, it was announced that Saade would participate in

Melodifestivalen 2021 Melodifestivalen 2021 was the 61st edition of the Swedish music competition Melodifestivalen. The competition was organised by Sveriges Television (SVT) and took place over a six-week period between 6 February and 13 March 2021. Due to the impac ...

with his first original English-language song in four years, "

Every Minute "Every Minute" is a song by Swedish singer Eric Saade. It was released on 27 February 2021 as the lead single from his upcoming sixth studio album. The song was written by Saade, Linnea Deb, Jimmy "Joker" Thörnfeldt, and Joy Deb, who also hand ...

". He qualified for the final, which was held on 13 March 2021 where he came in second place behind

Tusse Toussaint Michael Chiza, better known as Tusse, is a Congolese-Swedish singer who represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. Life and career Chiza was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo When he was five years old he had t ...

. On 5 March 2022, Saade appeared in the first heat of

Melodifestivalen 2022 2022 was the 62nd edition of the Swedish music competition Melodifestivalen, which was organised by (SVT) and took place over a six-week period between 5 February and 12 March 2022. The winner of the competition was Cornelia Jakobs with the so ...

as an interval act, where he performed a medley of all his Melodifestivalen entries: "Manboy", "Popular", "Sting" and "Every Minute", and was awarded the Melodifestivalen Hall of Fame. He competes as a celebrity dancer in

Let's Dance 2022 Let's Dance 2022 is the seventeenth season of Swedish Let's Dance. It premiered on 19 March 2022 on TV4. Petra Mede and David Lindgren returns as presenters. Contestants Marie Mandelmann became the first confirmed celebrity dancer on 19 Februa ...

, which is broadcast by TV4.

Personal life

Eric Saade dated singer Molly Sandén from 2007 to 2012. After the couple broke up, Eric was spotted in the company of Emma Andersson on holiday in Mexico, the couple decided to end their relationship. In 2015, he began dating Nicole Falciani, the couple became engaged on 1 January 2019. On 15 May 2020 the couple decided to end their relationship. In 2020 he began dating Hanna Schönberg.

Discography

Studio albums *''

'' (2010) *''

'' (2011) *''

'' (2011) *'' Forgive Me'' (2013) *'' Det svarta fåret'' (2020)

Tours

* Masquerade Tour (2010) * Made of Pop Concert (2011) * Pop Explosion Concert (2012) * Coming Home Tour (2013) * Stripped Live Tour (2015)

Awards and nominations

Dubbing

References

External links

Eric Saade Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saade, Eric 1990 births Living people Swedish pop singers Swedish male voice actors Melodifestivalen contestants Melodifestivalen winners Swedish people of Palestinian descent Swedish people of Lebanese descent English-language singers from Sweden Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 2011 Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Sweden People from Helsingborg Municipality 21st-century Swedish singers 21st-century Swedish male singers