Rednex

The band originally consisted of the lead singer Mary Joe (Annika Ljungberg), alongside Bobby Sue (Kent Olander), Ken Tacky (Arne Arstrand), Billy Ray (Jonas Nilsson) and Mup (Patrick Edenberg).

The group enjoyed success throughout the 1990s with novelty hits such as "Cotton Eye Joe", "Old Pop in an Oak", "The Spirit of the Hawk" and "Wish You Were Here", which often topped the charts in several European countries.

Rednex was initially the brainchild of Swedish producers Janne Ericsson, Örjan "Öban" Öberg, and Patrick Edenberg,[2] who decided to try mixing American country and folk with modern dance and pop music.

The band originally consisted of the lead singer Mary Joe (Annika Ljungberg), alongside Bobby Sue (Kent Olander), Ken Tacky (Arne Arstrand), Billy Ray (Jonas Nilsson) and Mup (Patrick Edenberg).

The group's debut studio album titled Sex & Violins followed, spawning several more hit singles including "Old Pop in an Oak" and the ballad "Wish You Were Here".

Later female lead singer Ljungberg was fired, partly due to disagreements with the other band members,[3] and went on to pursue a solo career.

Arstrand started a side project that same year called Explode, a progressive power metal band, and released the debut studio album Live Forever in Sweden.

[5] As of January 2001, the group now consisted of the female lead singer Scarlet (Julie-Anne Tulley, formerly known as Jules Tulley from Dreamhouse) from England, alongside the three male members Dagger (Anders Sandberg) from Sweden, Joe Cagg (Roy van der Haagen) and Jay Lee (Jean-Paul Engeln) from the Netherlands.

In 2003, the two Dutchmen van der Haagen and Engeln were replaced by Ace Ratclaw (Tor Penten) from Sweden and Boneduster Crock (Björn Scheffler) from Germany.

In 2006, original female vocalist Ljungberg returned as Tulley's replacement in the group, she was assigned exclusive rights to license the Rednex trademark until January 1, 2009.

The band's Scandinavian comeback continued as they released the second single "Fe Fi (The Old Man Died)" in November 2006, after having performed it at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards.

[8] In January 2010, Rednex released a new single, "Devil's On The Loose", in a partnership with The Pirate Bay for free and legal download worldwide.

[1] Rednex made their debut on a North American stage in Carson City, Nevada, to honor fallen Deputy Carl Howell.

[18] On New Year's Eve 2017, Rednex played for the fourth time at the Brandenburger Tor in Berlin, in front of an audience of more than one million.

The main characters are Dagger and Misty Mae, though all 25 Rednex performers through history are featured at some point through video flashbacks.

In the press release they claimed to be the first pop band, with a worldwide hit to their name, to live stream themselves 24/7 in connection to all their shows.

Rednex is a mix of modern dance, pop and eurodance sounds with classical country, folk and bluegrass elements.

Their dance tracks also features Eurodance sounds, which were very famous and popular in Europe, Oceania and South America at that time.

The style of Eurodance was dance music with a female singer for the refrain and a male rapper for the verses to follow a traditional verse-chorus structure.

Although there are also tracks from other genres featured, such as pop ballads like "Wish You Were Here", "Hold Me for a While", "Rolling Home" or "Anyway You Want Me" or classical country driven songs such as "Riding Alone", "Ranger Jack" or "Nowhere In Idaho" with less dance sounds.

Since 2006, Rednex returned with a more mature country pop sound such in "Mama, Take Me Home", "Fe Fi (The Old Man Died)" or "Football Is Our Religion".

Performers in the NZ/Australian lineup include: Rayanna Randy Payne (Theresa Murphy), Rawtooth Rick (Anthony Sibbald) and Slimboy (Pascal Roggen).

[16][31] "Cotton Eye Joe" is featured in the films The Negotiator, Space Truckers, Hood of Horror, Studentfesten, Les 11 Commandements, C'est la vie!

2007-2008 Rednex lineup of (left to right) Anders Lundström, Annika Ljungberg and Jens Sylsjö.
Rednex during the video recording of Innit For The Money in Berlin, New Year's Eve 2015. Whippy, Dagger, Joe Cagg, Ace Ratclaw and Boneduster Crock.