Petra Linnea Paula Marklund (; born 12 September 1984), known also by her previous stage name September, is a Swedish singer, songwriter, and television presenter. Marklund started recording in professional studios around the age of twelve, and first came to the attention of the music scene with September's debut single "La La La (Never Give It Up)" in 2003, released from her studio album September (2004).
Biography
Marklund's Grammis Award-winning third studio album In Orbit was released in 2005 and spawned two hit singles; "Satellites" and "Cry for You," which made it to No. 8 and No. 1, respectively, on the Billboard Hot Dance Airplay chart. "Cry for You" remains the most successful international single of her career and was also nominated for the Government's Music Export Prize 2008 in Sweden for selling more than a million copies worldwide.
In Sweden, Marklund had her biggest success with the Swedish-language single "Mikrofonkåt", originally performed by Swedish rapper Petter. It became her first number-one hit in her native country, held the top position for 11 consecutive weeks, and was certified 8× Platinum. It was included on the fourth September studio album, Love CPR (2011), which also hit number one in Sweden and subsequently became Marklund's best selling album so far.
Marklund released her first Swedish-language studio album, Inferno, in 2012 under her own name, to distinguish from September. Lead single "Händerna mot himlen" was certified 6× Platinum as per 5 May 2015. She was the host of Swedish sing-along show Allsång på Skansen from 2014 to 2015. Her second Swedish-language studio album Ensam inte stark was released in November 2015.
Early life
Marklund was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to a Slovenian mother, who had a musical background and even entered in a Slovenian Music Contest, and a Swedish father, who is a professor of space physics. Her sister is a fashion designer. When Marklund was a child, her family used to call her the "September child", hence her stage name. Marklund began recording music in studios at age 12, but did not commercially release material until later.
Career
Early work
In 1998, September was discovered by Swedish producer and songwriter Hans Edler. She recorded her first album Teen Queen, produced and written by Edler and released in 1999. However, the album was unsuccessful and received negative reviews. When she was 17, she sang in a rock band and gained a record deal. Before releasing her first single "La La La (Never Give It Up)", she was working in a nightclub in Stockholm, and she said she recalled her song being played on the dancefloor for the very first time after being released. She had stated that she used to play guitar outside shops so she could get money to "buy lollies".
2003–2006: September and In Orbit
On 2 June 2003, at the age of 18, she had released her debut single "La La La (Never Give It Up)". The single was a success in her homeland in Sweden, where it peaked at number 8 for twenty two weeks. The second single that was released was "We Can Do It", which was released on 3 November 2003. The song peaked at number 10, staying in the charts for twelve weeks. Due to the success of both the singles, the self-titled album September was released on 11 February 2004 in Sweden, then released worldwide later in 2004. The song peaked at number 36 on the charts, becoming a least success, but stayed on the charts for six weeks. As a result, September released her last single "September All Over". The song peaked at number 8, and stayed in the charts for ten weeks.
After a silence for a while, September later signed to her current label CatchyTunes, and later released the single "Satellites" on 6 July 2005. "Satellites" was Septembers first single from her second studio album In Orbit and peaked at number 4 on the Swedish Single Charts, staying in for twenty nine weeks. It also manage to chart in Finland, peaking at number 18, for one week. The song currently stands at number 139 in the Swedish All-time best performing in the Singles Chart being certified as Platinum.