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Actor

1976-05-11 · Söderhamn, Gävleborgs län, Sweden · Female

4 series in the catalog

Anna Cecilia Sahlin (born 11 May 1976), known professionally as Anna Sahlene and formerly by the one-word stage name Sahlene, is a Swedish singer best known for placing third at the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 representing Estonia with "Runaway".

Early life/career

Born in Söderhamn on 11 May 1976, Sahlene was the oldest of seven children having three younger brothers and three younger sisters. Both her parents had strong musical inclinations which were passed on to their children, with Sahlene herself singing from an early age in addition to learning cello, guitar, oboe and piano. However her performing career began as an actress: at age nine she had a lead role in The Children of Noisy Village (1986), based on a story by Astrid Lindgren, and subsequently reprised her role - that of Anna - in the sequel More About the Children of Noisy Village (1987) appearing in both films billed as Anna Sahlin.

Sahlene did not pursue a performing career subsequent to these two films - although she appeared on television in 1989 when the two Noisy Village films were run as a seven part series - until the age of eighteen when she moved to Stockholm with aspirations to be a singer. She was for several years a member of One Voice a gospel choir directed by Gabriel Forss whose members also performed as background vocalists on recordings by such artists as Eric Gadd, Carola and Robyn.

She was among the members of One Voice who formed the chorale for the Charlotte Nilsson performance of "Take Me to Your Heaven" at Eurovision 1999 where, representing Sweden, the number won. At the subsequent Eurovision 2000, held in Stockholm, Sahlene was again onstage as one of the members of One Voice who formed the chorale for the Claudette Pace performance of the Maltese entrant "Desire". Sahlene's own recording career began in 1997 when she fronted the band Rhythm Avenue on their album Twelve Steps Down the Avenue.

The Little Voice

Sahlene's first solo single in 2000 was called "The Little Voice" ("The Little Voice" did not pick up much airplay until it was later covered and released as a single by Hilary Duff in 2004, though with almost entirely rewritten lyrics). Three videos were made for tracks recorded by Sahlene for Roadrunner Arcade Music: "Fifth Element"; "The Little Voice", landing in the top 5 of MTV Nordic's most played list; and "Fishies", filmed on location in Sardinia, Italy. "The Little Voice" and the 2001 single release "House" were both minor Swedish chart hits for Sahlene with respective peaks of and. Sahlene recorded tracks for a The Little Voice album release which was shelved due to EMG's buyout of Roadrunner Arcade Music and its eventual fall into bankruptcy. However Sahlene was afforded the opportunity to serve as opening act at Swedish concerts by Robert Plant and Bon Jovi as part of the promotion for The Little Voice album prior to its release being canceled.

Eurovision 2002/ Runaway

Sahlene was subsequently signed to Virgin Records Sweden but had yet to record for that label when Virgin Sweden was contacted in January 2002 by Estonian pop group 2 Quick Start, who had entered their composition "Runaway" in Eurolaul 2002: top Estonian pop star Ines had recorded the demo of "Runaway" but opted out of performing the song in Eurolaul and 2 Quick Start, unable to solicit another Estonian singer, were now hoping to recruit a singer from Sweden. Virgin Records telephoned Sahlene with the offer to perform "Runaway" at Eurolaul 2002 the evening of the day the label was contacted by the songwriters and at 6 a.m. the following morning Sahlene flew to the Estonian capital of Tallinn where she rehearsed with 2 Quick Start over the two weeks remaining prior to Eurolaul 2002.

On 26 January 2002 Sahlene's performance of "Runaway" at Eurolaul 2002 resulted in a first-place finish, with "Runaway" resultantly becoming the Estonian entrant for Eurovision 2002 and on the night of competition for Eurovision 2002 - mounted 25 May 2002 at Saku Suurhall Arena in Tallinn - Sahlene's performance of "Runaway" resulted in a third-place finish.

"Runaway" debuted at on the Swedish singles chart dated 12 June 2002 but failed to rise higher although it did spend 14 weeks in the Top 40 with seven of those weeks in the Top 25.

2003 (Melodifestivalen/ debut album) - 2004

In 2003 Sahlene made her first bid to represent her native Sweden at Eurovision participating in Melodifestivalen, the Swedish national preselection round for Eurovision, with the number "We're Unbreakable" which on 8 March 2003 bowed out of Melodifestivalen 2003 with a fifth-place finish in Round of Semi-Final. Sahlene had freely admitted prior to Melodifestivalen 2003 that the intent of her Melodifestivalen participation was to showcase "We're Unbreakable" only to the point of securing a hit in Sweden and Estonia: she was sure "We're Unbreakable" would not be voted by the Swedish public as their Eurovision entrant and Sahlene in fact preferred not to compete on the Eurovision main stage for a second consecutive year.

"We're Unbreakable" was included on Sahlene's debut album It's Been a While which mostly consisted of tracks from her unreleased Little Voice album and also contained "Runaway": It's Been a While was released on M&L Records - a Lionheart Music Group label - in April 2003 and "Unbreakable" became a hit on Swedish radio although it was not released as a physical single and therefore did not chart.

Sahlene's name was leaked as a possible performer for the Melodifestivalen 2004 entrant "Baby I Can't Stop": however the eventual performer of the song was Gladys del Pilar.

Sahlene was a guest performer on the album What a Wonderful World by the Joybells, singing the title track for that summer 2004 release.

As Anna Sahlene

2005

In February 2005 Sahlene's second album Photograph was released on M&L's parent label Lionheart with artist credit reading Anna Sahlene: the addition of the first name "Anna" to Sahlene's professional name was first evident on this album's advance single "Creeps" - released in January 2005 to become a hit in both Sweden (#28) and Finland (#13) - and the subject of this article has been credited as "Anna Sahlene" in all her subsequent professional endeavors, including voicing the character of "Cappy" in the Swedish-language dubbed version of the animated film Robots (released by 20th Century Fox March 2005).

2006 (Melodifestivalen) - 2007

In 2006 Anna Sahlene again vied to represent Sweden at Eurovision participating in Melodifestivalen 2006 with the song "This Woman" which Sahlene composed with Bobby Ljunggren and Henrik Wikström: "This Woman" bowed out of Melodifestivalen 2006 in the first semi-final having finished that round in fifth place and thus just missing the cut-off for advancement. However Sahlene's recording of "This Woman" - released on M&L - did return her to the Swedish Top 20 for the first time since "Runaway" with "This Woman" peaking at in March 2006 although the eight-week chart tenure of "This Woman" was far briefer than that of the hit "Runaway".

Sahlene was one of the contestants on the 2007 season of the Swedish TV show Let's Dance on TV4. Sahlene was voted off the show, which was won by Lasse Brandeby.

On 11 August 2007 Sahlene began an extended run in the female lead Ariel Moore in the musical Footloose in Gothenburg: the show moved to Stockholm on 20 February 2008.

2008 - 09 (Melodifestivalen)

In January 2008 it was announced that Sahlene would possibly participate in that year's Selecția Națională: the national preselection round for Romania in Eurovision: although the demo of the number "Dr Frankenstein" had only featured vocalist LaGaylia Frazier it was tentatively planned that the number would be performed in Selecția Națională as a duet by Frazier and Sahlene with the duo being billed as LaSal. However, by the month's end it was confirmed that Sahlene's schedule would not permit her to participate in Selecția Națională ("Dr Frankenstein"…