Max Martin

Karl Martin Sandberg (born 26 February 1971), known professionally as Max Martin, is a Swedish songwriter, record producer, and singer.

As a teenager he sang in a variety of bands before joining a glam-style metal band called It's Alive in 1985 as their singer and frontman.

It's Alive was formed by Peter Kahm and ex-Lazy members Per Aldeheim and Kim Björkgren on guitars, and John Rosth who had been a member of Lineout.

Martin eventually dropped out of high school to pursue a career in music with his band under the nickname "Martin White".

In 1988 It's Alive participated in Rock-SM (English: Swedish Rock Championship), a nationwide battle of the bands, and had a residency at a nightclub in Cyprus.

He rose to prominence in the late 1990s with production credits on a string of hit singles, namely Britney Spears's "...Baby One More Time" (1998), the Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way" (1999), Céline Dion's "That's the Way It Is" (1999) and NSYNC's "It's Gonna Be Me" (2000).

The band got a breakthrough in 1991, as Dave Constable of Megarock Records offered them to make a demo record.

The later debut album was originally pressed in 1,000 copies and later on given away as a free cover tape in the UK by the Metal Forces magazine.

The decision to focus on a music career paid off as they landed a record deal on producer Denniz Pop's label Cheiron Records, a BMG affiliate.

In 1993, Martin was hired by Cheiron Studios and spent some time learning the basics, before the first production collaboration between PoP and Martin: the Rednex song "Wish You Were Here" in 1994.

When Martin produced the intro to E-Types song "This Is the Way" E-Type and PoP credited it to the made up producer alias "Max Martin", thus inventing his artist name.

Martin was informed after-the-fact, when the printed records came back.

After recording their second album Earthquake Visions, they released three singles in conjunction with the record and toured through Europe in 1994 supporting Kingdom Come.

Earthquake Visions eventually sold a disappointing 30,000 copies, despite being released in as many as 30 countries.

More importantly though, Martin also began collaborating on songs with Denniz Pop.

Recognizing a talent for writing pop songs in the young rocker, Denniz Pop renamed his new protégé Max Martin and eventually became Martin's mentor.

They both worked on Ace of Base's second album, The Bridge (1995), shortly thereafter, as well as on albums by 3T, Army of Lovers and Leila K.

To date, The Bridge has sold more than six million copies worldwide, including one million in the United States.

When Martin eventually left his band It's Alive in late 1995, he was replaced by Anders Hansson.

In 1995, Cheiron Studios was hired by Zomba to work on Backstreet Boys' self-titled debut album Backstreet Boys (1996).

Zomba became the main working partner since the success in 1995.

Martin took part in the production of "Quit Playing Games (with My Heart)" (1996), co-written with Herbie Crichlow, a single which quickly went platinum and climbed to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as the singles "As Long As You Love Me" (1997) and "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" (1997).

The album was not released in the U.S. until 1997, but was released overseas and caught on all across Europe, eventually selling around 8 million copies worldwide.

This led to the Backstreet Boys being relaunched in their home country later on, this time more successfully.

Later that year, Martin co-wrote and co-produced Robyn's hits "Show Me Love" and "Do You Know (What It Takes)" which ended up on the Billboard Hot 100 top 10.

In 1998, Cheiron Productions worked on albums by Five and Jessica Folcker.

Jessica Folcker had first been hired as a backing singer for tracks with Ace of Base and Dr. Alban, and her debut album Jessica became an instant hit with singles like "Tell Me What You Like" and "How Will I Know Who You Are" which both sold platinum.

After Denniz Pop died of cancer that same summer, Martin took over as director of Cheiron Studios.

Martin has written or co-written 26 Billboard Hot 100 number-one songs, most of which he has also produced or co-produced, including Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" (2008) and "Roar" (2013), Maroon 5's "One More Night" (2012), Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" and "Blank Space" (2014), and The Weeknd's "Blinding Lights" (2019) and "Save Your Tears" (2020).

"Blinding Lights" is the best performing Hot 100 song of all time according to the Billboard Hot 100.

Martin has written the second-most number-one singles on the chart, behind only Paul McCartney (32) and tied with John Lennon (26 both).

In addition, he holds the record for the most Hot 100 number-one songs as a producer, with 24 as of 2024.

According to Variety, his net worth was approximately $260 million in 2017; the previous year, his corporate entity generated revenue of $54 million with a profit of $19 million.

Martin has won the ASCAP Songwriter of the Year award for a record of 11 times.

He has also won five Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year, and nominations for an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards.

Sandberg was born and grew up in Stenhamra, Ekerö Municipality, Stockholm County.

His mother was a middle school teacher and his father was a police officer.

As a child, Martin was a student of Sweden's public music-education scheme, and once said he had "public music education to thank for everything".

Some of Martin's biggest hits were used in the 2019 jukebox musical & Juliet.

In early 2019, his single sales were tallied by The Hollywood Reporter to be at over $135 million.