Jonas Erik Altberg (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈjûːnas ˈêːrɪk ˈâltbærj]; born 22 December 1984), known professionally as Basshunter, is a Swedish singer, record producer, songwriter and DJ. As indicated by his stage name, Basshunter is known for bass-heavy Eurodance music.
Born and raised in Halmstad, he moved to Malmö in 2006. As a young teen, Basshunter sang in a choir his mother ran. He started producing music at the age of 17, and later he started performing in local venues in his early career. In 2006, he self-released "Boten Anna" for free download a few months before he signed with labels Extensive Music and Warner Music Sweden and began commercial releases. His 2007 song "Now You're Gone" featuring Bazzheadz is based on Bazzheadz's "Now You're Gone" which uses the melody of "Boten Anna" with entirely different lyrics.
Basshunter has recorded five studio albums: The Bassmachine (2004), LOL (2006), Now You're Gone – The Album (2008), Bass Generation (2009), and Calling Time (2013). In addition to his own music, he has written for El Capon, Mange Makers, and Lana Scolaro. He has taken part in the seventh series of the British reality television show Celebrity Big Brother, episodes of the Swedish game show Fångarna på fortet, and an episode of the British television quiz show Weakest Link.
His accolades include a European Border Breakers Award, a Musikförläggarnas pris, a Telia award, and nominations for a BT Digital Music Award, two Grammis, an MTV Europe Music Award, and a Rockbjörnen. According to Svenska Dagbladet figures published in 2009, he has sold more than 3 million records. In May 2024 Basshunter was 60th most-streamed Swedish artist on Spotify with over 803 million streams.
Jonas Erik Altberg was born on 22 December 1984 in Halmstad to Gunhild Elisabet (died 2016), a teacher and school principal as well as union representative for the Swedish Teachers' Union and Karl Göran Altberg, who worked for a construction company. He has a younger brother, Joakim; the family lived near Tylösand. His mother was from Hovmantorp. In his mid-teens he started singing in a choir his mother ran. He also sang for two years in a rock band, where he became acquainted with experimental music. He attended Kattegattgymnasiet secondary school with a technical specialization, but moved after two years to Sturegymnasiet, a secondary school in Halmstad with a music specialization. He finished secondary school in 2005, after which he attended college, but did not complete his education.
Altberg began producing music at the age of 17 after six months of using the software program FruityLoops (FL Studio). He chose the stage name "Basshunter" in a reference to his musical style, and described the name as commercial and powerful. His father was tired of hearing the constant pounding when Basshunter was producing music inside the bedroom, so he built him a clubhouse.
In 2004, Basshunter was chosen in an online poll and performed live for the first time at a rave party in Älmhult. Alex Music released Basshunter's first studio album, The Bassmachine, on 25 August 2004. In 2005, a remastered version of this album with improved sound quality was released. In 2006, Basshunter re-released The Bassmachine as The Bass Machine and also released his first compilation album The Old Shit through his own website. Basshunter's interest in music deepened as time went by. He recorded a YouTube video, entitled Basshunter Tutorial, showing his recording process in FL Studio. The track from the video was covered over 200 times.
Basshunter published his music mainly through the Internet for free download on platforms such as chat channels and gaming websites. He was registered on online communities like Efterfest, LunarStorm, Nattstad, Porrigt, Playahead, Skunk and Trance.nu. For several years he was a DJ in Swedish clubs.
In March 2006, Basshunter published his song "Boten Anna" online and within twenty-four hours, it had been downloaded 37,000 times. Basshunter's single "Welcome to Rainbow" was released on 1 April 2006; it included the track "Boten Anna". With this success, Basshunter received several proposals from managers and music labels. Swedish DJ and party organizer Joakim Jarny contacted Basshunter via IRC and Jarny was soon overwhelmed by hundreds of requests from club owners in Sweden, Norway and Denmark who wanted Basshunter to perform at their clubs. Jarny contacted his friend Henrik Uhlmann at Extensive Music and in April 2006, Basshunter signed with Extensive Music and Warner Music Sweden. On 9 May 2006, "Boten Anna" was officially released as a single. By 8 June 2006, the song had been downloaded over one million times. In that year, he moved to Malmö, where the headquarters of Extensive Music are located.
"Boten Anna" peaked at number one on the Swedish singles chart and reached number 13 on the Swedish Best of All Time list, and was certified platinum. It also reached number one on the Danish singles chart, staying there for 14 weeks, and was certified triple platinum for selling 61,000 copies. It was also certified gold in Austria. "Boten Anna" was covered twice by Dutch duo Gebroeders Ko, whose "Boten Anna" bootleg charted at number three in the Netherlands, right after Basshunter's version. The next cover called "Sinterklaas boot (Boten Anna)" reached number two. An official German-language version was released in 2007.
Basshunter's second studio album LOL was released on 28 August 2006. He worked on the album for three and a half weeks, during which Ali Payami helped him with three songs. Basshunter described it as a connection of vocal music with hard dance and hard trance music; Basshunter's use of vocals is a significant departure from his earlier works. An American version of LOL was released on 1 January 2008, with the same Swedish songs as the original album but with lyrics and some titles translated into English. The new release also included new tracks, including "Now You're Gone", "Russia Privjet", "The Beat", "Jingle Bells", "Beer in the Bar" and "DotA (Club Mix)". A special version of this album was released in 2008, and includes the German version of "Boten Anna" and three music videos. LOL peaked at number five in Sweden, number four on the Finnish chart and number three on the Danish albums chart, and was certified double platinum in Denmark.
The second single from LOL, "Vi sitter i Ventrilo och spelar DotA", was released on 13 September of the same year. The single peaked at number two in Finland, number six in Sweden, and number seven in Norway and Denmark. It was certified gold in Denmark. His song "Hallå där" charted at number 51 on Swedish singles chart. The album's third single, a remake of the Christmas song "Jingle Bells", was released on 13 November and peaked at number nine in Norway, and number 13 in Sweden. The single also made it onto the Dutch and United Kingdom charts. The single "Vifta med händerna", which features the duo Patrik & Lillen, peaked on the Finnish charts at number seven and on the Sweden charts at number 25. On 5 November 2007, a new version of the "Vi sitter i Ventrilo och spelar DotA" was released under the title "DotA"; it charted on Germany's singles chart. This is different from the 2008 version from Now You're Gone – The Album.
2007–2009: Now You're Gone – The Album
On 29 December 2007, an English-language version of "Boten Anna" entitled "Now You're Gone" was released. A year earlier, in 2006, DJ Mental Theo (under the alias Bazzheadz) had created a bootleg English version called "Now You're Gone" using the melody of "Boten Anna" with entirely different lyrics. Initially, Basshunter tried to translate "Boten Anna" into English but found it difficult to keep the "hock" and the story so he recorded his own version of "Now You're Gone" with DJ Mental Theo's lyrics. It was the initial release for Hard2Beat Records label (later Dance Nation). The single charted at number one in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at number one for five weeks. It was the first Swedish song to reach number one in the United Kingdom since "Dancing Queen" by ABBA. "Now You're Gone" sold in excess of 1,200,000 copies in the United Kingdom and was certified double platinum there. It also charted on the UK Top 100 Songs of the Decade list. "Now You're Gone" also stayed at the top for five weeks in Ireland, made it to number two on the Swedish chart, and number three in New Zealand, where the single was certified platinum. It was also certified gold in Denmark. On the French singles chart, "Now You're Gone" peaked at number six. "Now You're Gone" also charted at number four on the European Hot 100 Singles chart.