Jan Johansen

Active for several decades and internationally popular, Jan Johansen is a Swedish singer whose debut single, "Se På Mej," was a chart-topping smash hit that took third place at the 1995 Eurovision Song Contest. Born on January 9, 1966, in Stockholm, Sweden, he is the son of Swedish-Norwegian jazz drummer Egil Johansson. He burst onto the Swedish music scene in 1995 with the smash hit single "Se På Mej," which topped the charts for nine weeks and spent 20 weeks in the Top Ten. The song was also a Top Ten hit in neighboring Norway. Johansen was chosen to represent Sweden at the 1995 Eurovision Song Contest with "Se På Mej," and finished in third place. Meanwhile, he made his full-length album debut with Johansen (1995), which spent ten weeks in the Top Ten and peaked at number two. Though Johansen scored a couple follow-up hits with the singles "Mitt Hjärta I Din Hand" and "Kommer Tid, Kommer Vår," the latter a duet with Jill Johnson, his second album, Johansen 2 (1996), couldn't rival the success of its predecessor, failing to break the Top 20 in either Sweden or Norway (where "Kommer Tid, Kommer Vår" was a big hit). In a turn of bad fortune, he didn't hit the charts again until after the turn of the century. His comeback came in 2001 when he took fourth place at that year's Melodifestivalen contest with the hit single "Ingemansland." The accompanying full-length album, Fram Till Nu (2001), was also a hit. Johansen returned to the Melodifestivalen two more times, taking seventh place in 2002 with the Top 20 hit "Sista Andetaget," and second place in 2003 with the Top Ten hit "Let Your Spirit Fly," a duet with Pernilla Wahlgren. The songs were included on the respective albums Hela Vägen Fram (2002) and X My Heart (2003). He remained active in subsequent years, scoring sporadic hits now and then in both Sweden and Norway. ~ Jason Birchmeier, Rovi