May 18: Swedish singer-songwriter Nanne Grönvall is 51-years-old today.

 

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Marianne Elisabeth Nordqvist was born on 18 May 1962 in Stockholm, Sweden. Known professionally as Nanne Grönvall, her musical career started in the 1980s group Sound of Music. The trio participated twice in the Swedish Eurovision Song Contest selections, Melodifestivalen, finishing fourth both times; in 1986 with "Eldorado" and in 1987 with "Alexandra."

Over the next ten years, she established herself as a songwriter in Melodifestivalen, writing two songs for the 1992 competition and the 1995 runner-up "Det vackraste" ("The Most Beautiful Thing") performed by Cecilia Vennersten. In 1996 she was one of the lead vocalists of the group One More Time with her husband Peter Grönvall and Maria Rådsten. They won the Melodifestivalen 1996 final with the folk-ballad "Den vilda" ("The Wild One.") It finished third  in the Eurovision Song Contest 1996 behind Norway and winners Ireland.

Nanne began a solo career following their last album One More Time in 1997. In 1998 she returned to Melodifestivalen with "Avundsjuk" ("Envious"), placing fourth.

She participated in the United Kingdom's Song for Europe selection for Eurovision in 2001 and finished fourth after performing the song "Men.” In 2003, she returned to Melodifestivalen with "Evig kärlek" ("Eternal Love"), a somewhat peculiar mix of opera and techno. She failed to qualify for the final.

In 2005, Nanne made her ninth appearance at Melodifestivalen, singing a song co-written with Ingela 'Pling' Forsman. Even though it was initially rejected by the jury selecting the entries, "Håll om mig" ("Embrace me") was chosen as a wildcard for the competition, due to the lack of female songwriters participating. It was performed at the semifinal in Växjö and qualified for the final.

The song finished third with the regional juries, but won the national televote by a huge margin. It went on to top the Swedish single chart for two weeks and stayed in the top three for eight weeks, selling more than 10,000 copies. 

In June 2006, Nanne canceled her tour and announced that she was suffering from breast cancer. She recovered from some months later.

Nanne entered Melodifestivalen again in 2007 with the song "Jag måste kyssa dig" ("I Must Kiss You"), written by herself and Ingela 'Pling' Forsman. On 17 February 2007, Nanne Grönvall finished third in the Melodifestivalen semifinal, thus qualifying for the "second chance" round. On 3 March 2007, Nanne was eliminated.

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For more about Nanne, visit her Website at -

http://www.nanne.se/

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