Jörgen Elofsson

Kjell Åke Jörgen Elofsson (born 14 January 1962) is a Swedish songwriter.

He was one of the writers of the songwriter-team at Cheiron Studios in Stockholm (along with Denniz Pop, Max Martin, Kristian Lundin, Andreas Carlsson, Rami Yacoub, Per Magnusson, David Kreuger, Herbie Crichlow, Jake Schulze, Alexander Kronlund and Alexandra Talomaa) where he made successful songs such as Britney Spears' "Sometimes" and "(You Drive Me) Crazy".

His musical career started when he was 16, and he was the lead singer and guitarist in several local groups between 1978 and 1986, namely Air, Egon Pretty Band, Art Light, Garbo and Sitting Ducks.

Only a few months later Jörgen signed his first record deal, with CBS.

A solo career under the artist name "Shane" was launched and the first single, "Dance With Another", lifted from his 1989 debut album "Man in Me" was released.

In 1993 the artist known as Shane came to an end.

Elofsson explained, "I decided that I wanted to concentrate solely on writing music and not being an artist."

Elofsson became a full-time songwriter in 1994, when he worked with the Swedish artist Carola.

His work at Cheiron Studios began in January 1998, and he was mainly working together with David Kreuger and Per Magnusson.

Shortly after joining Cheiron, the studio was contacted by the Irish group "Boyzone" who needed material for their upcoming third album.

Jörgen then co-wrote the song "Will Be Yours".

Boyzone's album "Where We Belong" was released on May 25, 1998, and went straight to #1 in the UK.

This was Boyzone's third consecutive album number one and it marked Jörgen's first international success.

On January 12, 1999, Britney Spears’ debut album "…Baby One More Time" came out.

Jörgen's "Sometimes" was released on April 30 as Spears’ second single.

Opps I Did It Again soon followed.

It was produced by Per Magnusson and David Kreuger with additional co-production by Jörgen.

Though it was not released as a physical single in the US, it became a worldwide success and peaked inside the top ten in eleven countries.

In the UK it reached #3 and is to date Spears’ third best-selling single in the country.

Together with all the songwriters at Cheiron working on the album, "…Baby One More Time", Jörgen received his first Diamond Award for selling more than 10 million copies in the US that year alone.

To date it has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.

Three of the songs which appeared on the band's self-titled debut album, released on November 1, 1999, were co-written by Jörgen.

Two of them, "If I Let You Go" and "Fool Again" became UK #1's.

In January 2000, Cheiron Productions’ songwriters and producers were awarded the Music Export Prize by the Swedish Government.

Simon Cowell, an A&R executive at BMG Music Publishing at the time, wished material for a new Irish band called "Westside", which he recently had signed.

It was discovered though that the name already had been taken and was rapidly changed to "Westlife".

On October 6, 2001, the new groundbreaking talent show, "Pop Idol", created by the artist manager and television producer, Simon Fuller premiered on British ITV.

Running for nine weeks, it became a huge success.

The winning song, "Evergreen", was written exclusively for the contest by Jörgen, Per Magnusson and David Kreuger.

Because the broadcast of the music competition had been delayed by several months, Simon Cowell, one of the judges and A&R at BMG, decided to first release the song on Westlife's album, "World of Our Own".

The first Pop Idol, Will Young, was crowned winner on February 10, 2002.

Two weeks later, on February 25, "Evergreen" was released.

While writing songs for new artists, Jörgen now also got the opportunity to work with Céline Dion, one of the world's most successful artists.

Her ninth English album, "A New Day Has Come", included the song, "The Greatest Reward", co-written by Jörgen and Andreas Carlsson, and was released on March 26, 2002.

It became Dion's first #1 debut in the US, peaking at the top spot in over 20 countries and eventually selling more than 12 million copies around the world.

He is also known for co-writing hit songs like Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)", which was nominated for Song the Year and Record of the Year at the 2013 Grammy Awards, as well as Westlife's "Fool Again", "Unbreakable", and "Evergreen".

Elofsson grew up in a small community called Skälderviken, outside Ängelholm in the south of Sweden.

His father was not very present in his life and was a workaholic and alcoholic.

His mother was a homemaker.

Eloffson has explained he inherited the tendency to worry from his mother, and his tenacity from his father.