Basshunter Swedish Singer From Halmstad

Early life

Basshunter, whose real name is Jonas Erik Altberg, is a Swedish singer, record producer and DJ. He was born on 22 December 1984 in Halmstad. His mother worked as a teacher and school principal, and his father was employed by a construction company. He has a younger brother, Joakim.

As a teenager he sang in a choir run by his mother and spent two years in a rock band, where he first came into contact with experimental music. He began secondary school at Kattegattgymnasiet with a technical focus, then switched to Sturegymnasiet in Halmstad, which offered a music programme, and finished in 2005. He briefly attended college but did not complete a degree.

Career

Altberg started producing music at 17, after about six months of working with the FL Studio software. He took the name Basshunter to reflect his bass-heavy style. His early tracks were distributed free of charge online, through chat channels and gaming sites, and he worked as a DJ in Swedish clubs. His first album, The Bassmachine, came out in August 2004, and he followed it with a compilation, The Old Shit, released through his own website.

His breakthrough came in March 2006, when he posted "Boten Anna" online; it was downloaded 37,000 times in a day. In April 2006 he signed with Extensive Music and Warner Music Sweden, and the song was released officially as a single on 9 May. It reached number one in Sweden and Denmark, and by 8 June it had passed a million downloads. That year he relocated to Malmö. His second album, LOL, was released in August 2006 and reached number five in Sweden. It produced further singles, including "Vi sitter i Ventrilo och spelar DotA" and a version of "Jingle Bells".

An English-language version of "Boten Anna", titled "Now You're Gone", was released on 29 December 2007. It was built on lyrics written by DJ Mental Theo for an earlier bootleg version, and it reached number one in the United Kingdom, where it stayed for five weeks. It was the first Swedish song to top the UK chart since ABBA's "Dancing Queen". "All I Ever Wanted" followed in 2008 and peaked at number two in the UK. His album Now You're Gone – The Album, released on 14 July 2008, entered the UK chart at number one.

Bass Generation appeared on 25 September 2009 and was certified gold in the United Kingdom. In 2010 he took part in the seventh series of the British television programme Celebrity Big Brother, finishing fourth, and later appeared on the Swedish game show Fångarna på fortet and the British quiz show Weakest Link. His single "Fest i hela huset", recorded while he was in the Swedish version of Big Brother, reached number five in Sweden in 2011.

In 2012 he moved to Dubai. His fifth studio album, Calling Time, was released on 13 May 2013. In July of that year he announced he would stop singing to concentrate on DJing, production and songwriting, although he later returned to recording, focusing on singles rather than albums. Releases since then include "Masterpiece" (2018), "Home" (2019), "Angels Ain't Listening" (2020), "Life Speaks to Me" (2021) and "End the Lies" (2022), the last a collaboration with the Italian duo Alien Cut. In 2023 he worked with Victor Leksell on "Ingen kan slå (Boten Anna)", which reached number four in Sweden, and in 2026 he released "Ja eller nej" with Käärijä, which entered the Finnish chart at number 12.

He has also written songs for other acts, among them Mange Makers, El Capon and Lana Scolaro, and has remixed tracks by other artists. In 2014 he performed at the medals plaza during the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.

Recognition

Basshunter has won nine awards and received sixteen nominations. His wins include the Musikförläggarnas pris in 2006, an NRJ Radio Award in 2007, a Telia award for best ringtone of the year for "Boten Anna" in 2007, and the World Music Award for the world's best-selling Swedish artist in 2008. LOL also earned him a European Border Breakers Award. His nominations include two Grammis, a Rockbjörnen, an MTV Europe Music Award and a BT Digital Music Award. According to figures published in 2009, he had sold more than three million records.

Personal life

Basshunter married Tina Makhia Khayatsadeh on 19 January 2017 at the Dubai Polo and Equestrian Club. The couple divorced in 2018. No children are recorded.