Sofia Loell

Swedish pop singer Sofia Loell became a small sensation in her native country before crossing the Atlantic in 2002 with her stateside debut album, Right Up Your Face. The young vocalist grew up in the Swedish countryside, outside the small village Uppsala north of Stockholm. Her schoolteacher encouraged her to write songs, and around age 15, Loell began writing songs in the style of Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, two of her inspirations. At first she wrote in Swedish but eventually switched to English. Scouts from the Swedish record label Pama caught wind of her talents and invited her to record an album for them. She worked alongside label president Maxe and producer Johan Glössner while still a teenager. A few years later, a six-song demo recording made it to Curb Records in the U.S., and liking what it heard, the label went ahead and signed Loell to a distribution deal. Late in 2001, Curb released the vocalist's debut single, "Right Up Your Face," and later released her album of the same name in 2002.