July 11: Marie Serneholt, formerly of Swedish pop band A*Teens, is 30-years-old today.

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Marie Eleonor Serneholt was born July 11, 1983 in Stockholm. She is the daughter of musician Ronnie Serneholt.

In 1998, Serneholt signed a record deal with Stockholm Records with her then bandmates Sara, Dhani and Amit. Together they performed as the A*Teens. In 1999, they released their first single, a cover of ABBA's "Mamma Mia." The single topped the charts in Sweden for eight weeks. By 2000, the A*Teens' first album, The ABBA Generation had sold 4 million copies.

After six years together and more than 5 million albums sold, the A*Teens disbanded following a Greatest Hits album and a final tour in Sweden. With the A*Teens going their separate ways, it was rumored that Serneholt would pursue a solo career.

Instead, she decided to take a break from music, and focused on modeling, hosted TV shows in her native Sweden and became a spokeswoman for the Maybelline cosmetics line in the Scandinavia. She also gave her voice for the Swedish versions of the movies Robots and Herbie: Fully Loaded.

In 2005, Serneholt was ready to make music again, so she called Jörgen Elofsson, who had previously written for Britney Spears and Céline Dion. He created the label Planet Six (a part of SonyBMG), and Marie signed her first record deal as a solo artist.

On February 2006, Serneholt's first single, "That's The Way My Heart Goes," debuted at #2 on the Swedish Charts and reached #1 on the Official Swedish Digital Downloads Chart. The album Enjoy the Ride was released in March 2006, debuting at #9 in her home country. The following June, Serneholt released her second single, "I Need A House," which only reached #40 in Sweden. However, "I Need A House" was picked as part of the soundtrack of the Portuguese soap opera Morangos Com Açúcar. Soon after, "Oxygen" was released as the third single.

 

 

In February 2009, Serneholt performed as the third of four wild card artists for Melodifestivalen 2009. During the first semi-final heat, she performed her new single, "Disconnect Me"; the first single from her second album, which, as of February 2011, still had not been released. She placed sixth of eight, and did not advance to the finals.

In October 2009, it was announced that she would be appearing in a Swedish-language version of the musical Grease. In December 2011, Serneholt released a new single "Himlen I Min Famn.”

She also participated in the first semi-final of Melodifestivalen 2012 in February 2012 when she sang "Salt & Pepper." She finished 6th in the first round of voting so she was disqualified from the competition. S

Serneholt was one of the judges of the Swedish version of popular talent show The X Factor that premiered on September 9, 2012.

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For more about Marie, visit her Website at –

http://www.marieserneholt.com/