Who is Amy Diamond ?

Amy Diamond (born on April 15, 1992) is a Swedish pop singer. She is known for her debut single "What's in It for Me" which was released when she was 12 years old. The song was a 2005 hit in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland. It was the most-played song in Poland that year; it remained in the top ten for four months. Diamond has released two albums and performed on television.

To date, her biggest hits have been "What's in it for Me", "Welcome to the City", "Champion", "Shooting Star", and "Don't Cry Your Heart Out"

Date of Birth: 15 April 1992, Norrköping, Östergötlands län, Sweden

Birth Name: Amy Linnea Deasismont

Height: 4' 11¾" (1.52 m)

Biography

Early life



Diamond was born April 15, 1992 in Norrköping, Sweden. She is the second child of an English father, Lee, and a Swedish mother, Chrisbeth. Soon after her birth, the family moved to England. The family moved back to Sweden when she was four-and-a-half years old, this time to Jönköping, where she learned Swedish. Diamond still lives there with her two younger sisters, Lisa and Holly, and an older sister, Danielle.

Diamond started figure skating at age six and won multiple gold medals. She practiced six times a week before embarking on her singing career. She went to a dance and theater school called Blandgodis, and participated in theater and TV productions which gave her experience in public performing. She also appeared in a small television role on the show De drabbade.

Amy Diamond in one of her first TV performances in 1999.Diamond has loved singing since she was two years old. One of her first public performances was at age seven on the talent show Småstjärnorna. She dressed as Belinda Carlisle and lip synced to "Heaven is a Place on Earth", finishing third in the competition. In 2004, she participated in talent competitions such as Minimelodifestivalen in Jönköping and Swedish TV4's Super Troupers, winning most of them. On Mix Megapol Summer Idol Diamond won the main prize: to record a song in a real studio. During recording, she was offered a commercial recording contract. Soon after, Diamond recorded her debut single "What's in It for Me". Markus Sepehrmanesh, one of the songwriters for her albums, said in an interview that she sang perfectly. "What's in It for Me" was recorded in ninety minutes and the single was released the following February.

Success as a singer

"What's in It for Me" was a commercial success, although some Swedish TV stations refused to show the music video, arguing that Diamond was too young for the song's theme about adult relationships. Nevertheless, the song received extensive radio airplay while she simultaneously went on tour with Elin Lanto. "What's in It for Me" reached number one on the Swedish singles chart in March and eventually went platinum.

Before long, Diamond appeared on Swedish TV4 and used her artist name for the first time. Although she sang to a pre-recorded backing track in the studio, on the program she sang her single and Alicia Keys' song "If I Ain't Got You" while accompanied by a live band. The band included a drummer, guitarist, bassist, background singer and a keyboard player, who also sang backgrounds.

Amy Diamond giving autographs in Kalmar, Sweden in 2005.Due to the success of the single, a full album was commisioned, and This Is Me Now was released in May 2005. The album sold more than 100,000 copies, which was triple the requirement for gold record certification in Sweden at the time. The success led to television appearances, such as on the weekly chart show Trackslistan and on the children's competition show Vi i femman. By the end of 2005, she had appeared live on more than 20 television shows. A concert tour in Sweden was organized for her in the summer, and some of the shows were also televised.

Although Diamond's fans are typically school children, the album cannot be described as children's music. The style of This Is Me Now is mainly happy pop music with synthesizer backgrounds, but it includes the theme song "Tomorrow" from the musical Annie and a live recording of the song "If I Ain't Got You". The songs in the album were made by the producer team Tysper (Tommy Tysper), Mack (Marcus Sepehrmanesh) and Grizzly (Gustav Jonsson), who are all from Stockholm. They form the core of the production company TEN Production and have produced successful pop tracks before working with Diamond. Other Ten Production songs seeing popularity were performed by the A Teens and Helena Paparizou. Diamond's albums were published through Bonnier Amigo Music Group.

Diamond is a talented live singer and sings without a playback tape in her public performances. Her debut album included a live version of Alicia Keyes' "If I Ain't Got You", which was described in a review as "sweet and impressive at the same time". The judges characterized her singing voice as secure and balanced in Super Troupers, where she reached the final by singing Shakira's song "Underneath Your Clothes" at twelve years of age. A review in Svenska Dagbladet described her voice as fine and secure, and her record label advertised it as "shining and characteristic".

Outside Sweden

Diamond signed a distribution deal with Warner in July in order to to promote the album internationally. She never appeared with her band again, instead performing with a background track and dancers. The album became popular also in other Nordic countries and Poland during the following summer, and "What's In It for Me" was heard frequently on the radio, becoming the 19th most played song of 2005 in Finland. More singles followed from the album: "Welcome to the City" and "Champion" were released in the summer. A special edition of the album was released for the Central European market. It contained two previously-unreleased songs which would later appear on Still Me Still Now.

Diamond was sent on a promotional tour throughout Central Europe in late 2005. Her record deal allowed the whole family to travel with her whenever the concerts were abroad. Therefore, her family appeared on television in Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands.

Diamond was nominated for several awards in 2005. At 13, she was the youngest person in history to receive the Nordic Music Award for the best Nordic hit "What's in It for Me". Further, she is the youngest artist to receive two simultaneous NRJ Radio Awards and the youngest to be nominated for the Swedish Grammy Awards. At the Grammy Awards, she won Best Swedish Female Artist, Song of the Year, and Newcomer of the Year. Diamond received a Nickelodeon award for Hit of the Year, and had nominations for the Swedish Rockbjörnen.

Second album

Diamond started recording her second album in February 2006. Her producers sent her songs and she chose which ones she wanted included on the album. The albums was recorded over four weekends at a pace of two to three songs per weekend. The album Still Me Still Now was published in May and the first single "Don't Cry Your Heart Out" was released a couple of weeks prior to the general album distribution.

Although not much was heard from her in the spring, the second album was highly anticipated. Two days before the announced release date, she was interviewed on the morning talk show Nyhetsmorgon on TV4. The host surprised Diamond by handing her a gold record for the album; it had already sold enough copies on pre-orders alone to be certified. "Don't Cry Your Heart Out" was a radio hit in Sweden, but not elsewhere.

Still Me Still Now continued in the same style as the previous album, being mostly light-pop music. "Don't Cry Your Heart Out" was radio-friendly pop, but songs such as "Diamonds" and "No Regrets" were arranged in a style reminiscent of musicals. Some reviews wondered about the song selections, but Diamond's voice was praised nevertheless. The selected songs were alleged by some to be unsuitable for Diamond and her audience, but on the other hand her potential was appreciated.

In mid-2006, Diamond took part in the Diggiloo tour, where she performed, among other songs, Edith Piaf's "Je ne regrette rien". Although Still Me Still Now wasn't as big a success outside Sweden as This Is Me Now, it was still popular in her home country. She also held concerts beyond the Diggiloo tour; readers of the largest evening newspaper, Aftonbladet, voted her 2006 Summer Tour Queen. Diamond released two more singles in late 2006, Big Guns and It Can Only Get Better, and continued to appear on television, including appearances on prime-time shows such as Sommarkrysset, Gokväll, and Vinterkrysset. In January 2007, Amy Diamond started a fan club that publishes a quarterly fan magazine called Amy Diamond Fanzine. Lastly, in September 2007 she sang on Elvis - The Original Cast.

Future work

Throughout the second half of 2007, Diamond recorded her third album called "Music in Motion". The album will contain tracks done by some renowned producers such as Max Martin and Alexander Kronlund, who have worked with Diamond in the past.

Diamond's first single called "Is It Love?" from the new album was released on September 26, 2007. Additionally, she has performed her new song on some TV-shows like "Bobster", "Bingolotto" and has even won Best Female Artist" at "Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards".

Diamond's new album Music in Motion was released on November 28, 2007 and her second single "Stay My Baby" (from the new album), written by Max Martin and Tommy Tysperone, was released on November 23. In the beginning of December 2007, Diamond began autograph sessions in Sweden.

Diamond will enter Melodifestivalen, the Swedish selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, in February 2008. Her song is called "Thank You". She competed in the first selection round and earned a place in the Melodifestivalen final.

She hopes that her new album will also have success outside Sweden.

Life outside music

Diamond keeps her private life separate from her singing career. She wants her real surname to remain unknown to the public. She took on her stage name, Amy Diamond, when she released her first single "What's in It for Me". She has said that she choose Diamond because it's her "month's and lucky stone."

Despite her singing career, she goes to school and only rarely misses a day. According to her, there are promotional jobs only every now and then and most are on weekends. If there are gigs on the weekdays, she does the schoolwork as homework. She has mentioned in interviews that math is her favorite subject in school. She regards her education as important, as it will allow her to do something else if she doesn't want to sing anymore; she has said that she wants to sing as long as it is fun. She has mentioned hairdressing as her future dream hobby. Despite her gigs, she has time to have holidays and she says the entertainment business hasn't been harsh on her. Her manager-father deals with the business side, and her parents support her in her career.

In 2006, Diamond received requests to do print modeling and television work in addition to her musical career. She appeared in a mail-order catalogue for Ellos, and did promotional work for Statoil and the sport store chain Stadium. In December, she appeared as an ice princess in the Swedish Christmas series Lassemajas detektivbyrå. The show let her demonstrate her figure skating skills, which were left unused since her music career took off.

Discography

Studio albums

This Is Me Now (2005)
This Is Me Now International version (2005)
Still Me Still Now (2006)
Music In Motion (2007)
Music In Motion Gold Edition (March 12th 2008)
En helt ny Jul (A Brand New Christmas) (19th of November 2008)

Singles

What's in It for Me (2005)
Welcome to the City (2005)
Shooting Star (2005)
Don't Cry Your Heart Out (2006)
Big Guns (2006)
It Can Only Get Better (2006)
Is It Love? (2007)
Stay My Baby (2007)
Thank You (12th March 2008)

Filmography

De drabbade (2002)
Lassemajas detektivbyrå (2006)

Hi!
I´m Amy Diamond!
I´m 16 years old and I´m a Singer/PopArtist and a student.
My Mum is Swedish and My Dad is English.I have three sisters,Danielle who is 20,Lisa who is 11 and Holly who is 7. I was born in Sweden but we lived in England ´til I was 4 and a half years old so I speak both english and swedish at home.
Believe it or not but I used to be a figure skater-It was so much fun!! But in the end I was training 6 days/week and competing at the weekends so I knew I had to choose between Figureskating and Singing-my two big passions in life!! Although it was a little sad to leave the Figureskating behind there was no doubt whatsoever in my mind to choose Singing!!
The first time I performed on a stage was when I was 8 years old.I loved it so much!! I asked my Mum to find some Talentcompetitions I could enter. At one Talentcompetition there was an A&R from my record company in the Jury. He called my parents and offered me a recording contract.They sent us some songs to listen to - the songs were "What´s in it for me?" and "Welcome to the city". After recording "What´s in it for me?" in the studio me and my Dad were flown to Cuba to make my first ever Musicvideo. I was so excited!! "What´s in it for me?" was released when I was 12 years old and it was a major hit in all the Nordic Countries,Poland and the Baltic Countries.I couldn´t believe it!! My first Album was called "This Is Me Now".The second Album was called "Still Me Still Now" and now I am releasing my third Album "Music in Motion".I´ve been so lucky to be able to work with such great songwriters and producers!! Hope you enjoy the Album as much as I have enjoyed making it