Margaret Berger

Margaret Berger was the second-place finalist on the second season of the Norwegian edition of the Idol franchise in 2004. That year she also released her debut album, Chameleon, a collection of pop tunes equally informed by rock and electronic elements that reached number four on the Norwegian charts. There were no official singles from the album, but the music video for the song "Lifetime Guarantee" was awarded a Spellemannsprisen (Norwegian Grammy). Berger's 2006 sophomore album, Pretty Scary Silver Fairy, was a more unified, personal effort recorded in London, Helsinki, and her hometown of Trondheim, Norway, with collaborators including Pete Martin (whose other production credits include Sugababes, Dannii Minogue, and the Brand New Heavies), Finnish producers Jukka Immonen and Patric Sarin, and Hans Jørgen Støp of the band Locomotives. Fairy toned down the guitars and heightened the electronic elements of her debut for a full-on dance and synth pop spectacle that was only slightly less successful on the charts (reaching number eight, with the shimmering disco single "Samantha" peaking at number six), but caught the attention of the online international "poptimist" community. It was released in Sweden and Finland in April of 2007. ~ K. Ross Hoffman, Rovi