Smile.dk (sometimes written SMiLE.dk or Smile-dk, pronounced ''Smile D-K'') or Smile is a Swedish

Eurodance Eurodance (sometimes referred to as Euro-NRG) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in Europe. It combines many elements of Hip-hop, rap, techno and Eurodisco. This genre of music is heavily influenced by the use ...

group with Veronica Almqvist as the only current member. The band is known for several songs featured in music video games, such as ''

Dance Dance Revolution (''DDR'') is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, ''Dance Dance Revolution'' is the pioneering series of the rhythm and dance ...

''. They have regularly appeared on ''

Dancemania ''Dancemania'' is a series of remix compilation albums by i-DANCE. The series deals primarily with dance music, especially Eurodance. Despite many of its tracks being made by various musicians from all over the world and mainly from the European ...

'' since its tenth issue. Smile.dk has been one of the most featured acts in the ''Dancemania'' series, along with the likes of Captain Jack and

E-Rotic E-Rotic is a Eurodance duo act formed in 1994 by German record producer David Brandes. The act is best known in Europe for the hits " Max Don't Have Sex With Your Ex" and " Fred Come to Bed". E-Rotic originally consisted of German born singer ...

History

Veronica Almqvist and Nina Boquist first formed as Smile, and released their first album ''

Smile A smile is a facial expression formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a Duchenne smile. Among humans, a smile expresses d ...

'' in 1998. All songs were written and produced by

Robert Uhlmann Robert Erik Uhlmann (born 14 March 1968) is a Swedish media executive and composer who has written/produced music for the artists Dr. Alban, Jonny Jakobsen, Arash (singer), Arash, Basshunter, Margaret (singer), Margaret, Samantha Fox, Shaggy (m ...

and Robin Rex. The first single from the album, "

Butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

", was licensed by

Konami , commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...

and featured in the first release of ''Dance Dance Revolution'', a popular dance video game. The second single from the album, "Boys", pays homage to

Sabrina Salerno Sabrina Debora Salerno (; born 15 March 1968), known mononymously as Sabrina, is an Italian singer, songwriter, model, actress and television presenter. During her career, she has scored ten international hits, including three number ones. Inte ...

's hit "

Boys (Summertime Love) "Boys (Summertime Love)" is a song by Italian singer Sabrina, released in May 1987 as the third single from her self-titled debut studio album (1987). The song topped the charts in France (where it became the first number-one single by an Ital ...

". The album was later re-released with new artwork and bonus tracks in Japan, where it was certified gold for 100,000 copies shipped to stores. After the release of ''Smile'', Boquist left the band to start a solo career and was replaced by Malin Kernby. During this time, the band name was changed from Smile to Smile.dk, as they were being marketed in Denmark. They released two studio albums under this line-up, ''

Future Girls ''Future Girls'' is the second album by Swedish Eurodance group Smile.dk, released in 2000. The song "Dancing All Alone" was featured in the video game '' Dance Dance Revolution 5thMIX''. Tracks from this album are featured on several ''Danceman ...

'' in 2000 and ''Golden Sky'' in 2002. In 2005, according to their manager, Smile.dk had begun a hiatus due to both Almqvist and Kernby getting married; Kernby with a child on the way. However, he did not believe that Smile.dk would become defunct, which proved correct with their return, albeit without Kernby.

Return, line-up changes and ''Party Around the World''

In early 2008, Smile.dk's producers Jamie Thompson (J-Mi/DJ Slash/MC Jay) and Dick Örnå (Mr. Dee) announced at the BubblegumDancer.com Forums that Smile.dk would be returning in 2008 with a worldwide single, "Doki Doki", and an album, ''Party Around the World''. It was also announced that Kernby would be leaving the group, and Hanna Stockzell later joined. Then-new singer Stockzell performed in all of the songs on ''Party Around the World'', except for "Doki Doki", which featured only Almqvist and Kernby, despite Kernby no longer being an active member. Smile.dk (with Almqvist and Stockzell) performed live at

San Japan San Japan is an annual three-day anime convention held during August/September at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, Grand Hyatt San Antonio, San Antonio Grand Hyatt Hotel, and San Antonio Marriott Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas. The conve ...

, an

anime convention An anime and manga convention (often called just anime convention) is a fan convention with a primary focus on anime, manga and Japanese culture. Anime conventions are commonly multi-day events hosted at convention centers, hotels or college cam ...

located in

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

, on 9 August 2008, their first performance in North America. They also performed live at

Sakura-Con Sakura-Con is an annual three-day anime convention held during March or April at the Seattle Convention Center in Seattle, Washington. The convention, which is traditionally held over Easter weekend, is the largest anime convention in the Northw ...

2009 in Seattle, Washington on 10–12 April 2009.

Line-up changes, "Moshi Moshi" and pregnancy

In April 2010, it was announced that Stockzell would be leaving Smile.dk for personal reasons and to start a solo career under her real name Hanna Stockzell. It was also announced that Cecilia Reiskog would be joining as a member. On 20 December 2011, they released their first single with the new line-up called "Moshi Moshi", which was delayed in some countries until May 2012 due to issues with its release. An animated music video for "Moshi Moshi" was uploaded to Smile.dk's official YouTube channel in early 2012. Later in 2012, they also confirmed that a song titled "Baby Boom" was being recorded, due to both Almqvist and Reiskog getting pregnant around the same time frame. While work for Smile.dk's new album continued, Smile.dk's progress slowed down so Almqvist and Reiskog could focus on their personal lives.

Reiskog's departure and Chinese tour

On 6 October 2013, Cecilia Reiskog announced on Smile.dk's official Facebook page that she would be leaving Smile.dk to focus on her personal life. Almqvist later confirmed that she had decided to continue Smile.dk by herself and would not be adding a new member. In 2014, Almqvist confirmed that the group's next album was almost finished and that any songs featuring Reiskog would not be re-recorded and would be released as they are, making ''The Make-Up Collection'' Reiskog's first and only album with Smile.dk. She also confirmed on 10 March on the official Smile.dk fanpage that she was recording a different version of "Dragonfly" for the album. As of 2015, Almqvist has confirmed that "The Make-Up Collection" is almost ready for release and that she would announce the release date when it is ready. On 14 August 2015, Almqvist announced that Smile.dk would be going on tour in China from 30 October to 8 November. Later, on 25 October, she announced on Smile.dk's Facebook page that the ''Forever'' album would be released in early 2016. The Chinese tour was also moved to early 2016 to coincide with the album release. On 26 November 2015, the single "Our Little Corner" was released worldwide on major digital music stores. On 9 May 2016, J-Mi and former Smile.dk member Hannah Stockzell confirmed that their team had collaborated with Smile.dk for a remix EP release called ''Koko Soko 2016'', due for release on 25 May. On 28 September 2016, Almqvist posted 16 samples of tracks from the album ''Forever'' on Smile.dk's SoundCloud at smiledkmusic. The album contains eight new songs, five remakes and three remixes chosen as winners from the 2015 remix contest.

Past members

* Nina Boquist (1998–2000) (Original member) * Malin Kernby (2000–2008) (Replacing Nina) * Hanna Stockzell (2008–2010) (Replacing Malin) * Cecilia Reiskog (2010–2013) (Replacing Hanna)

Discography

Albums

*''

'' (13 July 1998) *''

'' (26 July 2000) *''Golden Sky'' (4 December 2002) *''Party Around the World'' (13 October 2008) *''Forever'' (14 July 2017)

Compilations

*''Circuit Girl'' (2001) *''X-Mas Party'' (2009)

EPs

*''Smile Paradise'' (31 January 2001) *''Koko Soko 2016'' (25 May 2016)

Singles

" (1998) *"Coconut" (1998) – No. 10 New Zealand *"Mr. Wonderful" (1999) *"Boys" (1999) – No. 28 Sweden *"Doo Be Di Boy" (2000) *"Dragonfly" (2001) *"Domo Domo Domo" (2002) *"Doki Doki" (2008) *"Moshi Moshi" (2011) *"Our Little Corner" (2015) *"Koko Soko 2016" (2016) *"A Merry Christmas" (2016) *"Butterfly (Anniversary Edition)" (2018)

Music videos

*''Butterfly'' (1998) *''Mr. Wonderful'' (1998) *''Boys'' (1999) *''Doo Be Di Boy'' (2000) *''Domo Domo Domo'' (2002) *''Moshi Moshi'' (2011)

''Dancemania''

*'' 10'' (1998), '' X1'' (1999), ''X5'' (2000), ''X7'' (2000), ''X8'' (2001) *''Delux'' : ''3'' (1999), ''4'' (2000) *''

Speed In kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a non-negative scalar quantity. Intro ...

'' : ''2'' (1999), ''3'' (1999), ''Best 2001'' (2000), ''6'' (2001) :''Speed G'' : ''1'' (2003), ''2'' (2003) *''Happy Paradise'' : ''1'' (2000), ''2'' (2001) *''Best Red'' (2002) *''Ex'' : ''2'' (2003), ''4'' (2003) *''Hyper Delux'' (2003) *''Treasure'' (2006)

Video games

Smile.DK has a total of 9 songs which appear in the ''

'' (DDR) arcade series. "Butterfly" was featured in

the first game ''The First Game'' is a painting by Arnold Friberg, and was commissioned in 1968 by Chevrolet Motor Division as one of four paintings to commemorate the then-upcoming centennial celebration of college football in the United States. It depicts ...

and returned in numerous sequels, appearing in a total of 12 releases, the latest being a cover of the song in ''

Dance Dance Revolution A20 ''Dance Dance Revolution A20'' (pronounced Ace Two Oh) is a music video game, the 17th installment of the ''Dance Dance Revolution'' arcade series in Japan (the 8th in North America), and the sequel to '' Dance Dance Revolution A''. The game was ...

''. Since ''

Dance Dance Revolution X ''Dance Dance Revolution X'' is a music video game developed by Konami. A part of the ''Dance Dance Revolution'' series, it was announced in 2008 for Japan and on May 15, 2008, for the North American PlayStation 2. The Arcade game, arcade version ...

'', "A Geisha's Dream" by Naoki featuring Smile.DK is a recurrent track in the ''DDR'' series. Of the 17 main arcade releases, only two omitted music from Smile.DK: '' DDRMAX'' and ''DDRMAX2''.

References

External links

Smile.dk biography, news and discography
at Bubblegum Dancer {{Authority control Musical groups established in 1998 Swedish Eurodance groups Swedish girl groups Swedish dance music groups Video game musicians English-language musical groups from Sweden