Tove Lo

Ebba Tove Elsa Nilsson (born 29 October 1987), known professionally as Tove Lo, is a Swedish singer and songwriter.

She has been called "Sweden's darkest pop export" by Rolling Stone. She is known for her raw, grunge-influenced take on pop music.

Out referred to her autobiographical lyrical content as making her "the saddest girl in Sweden".

Raised in the Djursholm district of Danderyd, Lo is an alumna of the music school Rytmus Musikergymnasiet.

Ebba Tove Elsa Nilsson was born on 29 October 1987 in Helsingborg, Scania County, Sweden.

She has one older brother and is the daughter of iZettle co-founder Magnus Nilsson and psychologist Gunilla Nilsson Edholm.

Her lifelong nickname and adopted stage name, Tove Lo, was given to her at age three by her godmother because of her love for lynxes (singular: "lo" in Swedish).

She explained; "There was this lynx at a zoo that was called Tove, and that I totally fell in love with. It was my dear godmother who decided to call me Tove Lo, after that lynx. It stuck."

Lo moved to the affluent Djursholm district of Danderyd Municipality, just north of Stockholm when she was six years old.

She describes her childhood as being "very protected" and her family as "pretty posh".

The singer excelled in social sciences at school and grew fond of literature, writing poetry and short stories.

In an interview with the BBC, she explained, "Growing up so safe, I think I was looking for something else."

During her teens she suffered from bulimia, for which her mother sought to help her through a therapist.

After her first serious relationship breakup she cut herself several times due to the embarrassment.

Nilsson developed a love for music and formed a girl band with her friends.

She wrote her first song with them at age 10 or 11.

By age 15, Lo had written "all these lyrics that nobody ever saw" and had performed twice on stage, before enrolling at Rytmus Musikergymnasiet, a Stockholm music school.

During her time at Rytmus, she developed a friendship with Caroline Hjelt, who would later form the Swedish duo Icona Pop.

After two years, she graduated from the school and felt assured that her career would be in music despite her parents preferring she do something else.

She formed the rock band Tremblebee in 2006.

In 2006, Lo began writing songs with Christian Bjerring, a guitarist from Rytmus.

The pair then formed a math rock band, Tremblebee, with three other male students from the school.

They played together for "three years in bars across Sweden, independently releasing some of their songs, before breaking up in 2009. During her time with the band, Lo developed a passion for performing on stage, and was introduced to Swedish production duo The Struts. After Tremblebee broke up, Lo's musical focus turned toward pop. She decided to work on her own tracks, spending six months in her shed studio producing a demo, while doing session singing to support herself. She learned to play the drums and became knowledgeable about music programming and record production. Lo later lived with the duo Icona Pop, in a suburb near Stockholm.

Lo met an A&R man at a party in Stockholm celebrating Icona Pop's first record deal and handed him her demo.

They met again by chance in a bar in London.

He liked her demo and subsequently introduced her to a songwriting group which included The Struts and Hjelt.

After it disbanded, Lo pursued a career in songwriting and earned a publishing deal with Warner/Chappell Music in 2011.

Working with producers Alexander Kronlund, Max Martin, and Xenomania, she became a successful songwriter, while also recording and releasing her own compositions independently.

In 2011, Lo decided to pursue a career in songwriting and earned a publishing deal with Warner/Chappell Music.

This new career path led her to travel to Los Angeles, and work with Swedish producer Max Martin.

In 2013, Lo was signed to Universal Music, Island and Polydor.

The following year, Lo rose to prominence with her debut album, Queen of the Clouds, which opened at number 14 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart in October 2014.

It spawned the sleeper hit single "Habits (Stay High)", which peaked at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100, as well as "Talking Body".

Her second album, Lady Wood, was released in October 2016 and debuted at number 11 on the Billboard 200.

Its lead single, "Cool Girl", became an international hit.

Her follow-up records, Blue Lips (2017) and Sunshine Kitty (2019), also performed well, the latter spawning the song "Glad He's Gone", which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Music Video.

In 2022, she released the album Dirt Femme with singles like "How Long" and "No One Dies from Love".

The former was part of the soundtrack for the second season of the American teen drama series Euphoria.

In addition to her solo work, Lo has co-written songs for other artists, including: Lorde's "Homemade Dynamite" (2017) and Ellie Goulding's "Love Me like You Do" (2015), a song that garnered her Grammy Award and Golden Globe nominations.

She has collaborated with many artists, including Duran Duran, Charli XCX, Alesso, Flume, SG Lewis, Channel Tres, Nick Jonas, Seven Lions, Broods, Urban Cone, Ava Max, Dua Lipa, Kylie Minogue and Coldplay.