They received broad critical praise and three Grammy Award nominations, and produced three top-10 singles: "Dancing On My Own", "Hang with Me" and "Indestructible".
[8] Robyn recorded "Du kan alltid bli nummer ett" ("You Can Always be Number One"), the theme song for the Swedish television show Lilla Sportspegeln, in 1991 at age 12.
She began her pop-music career at age 15, signing with RCA Records in 1994 and releasing her debut single ("You've Got That Somethin'") in Sweden.
She entered Sweden's pre-selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 1997 as co-writer and producer of "Du gör mig hel igen" ("You Make Me Whole Again"), which was performed by Cajsalisa Ejemyr.
[12][13][14] Robyn contributed to Christian Falk's 1999 debut solo album, Quel Bordel (What a Mess), appearing on "Remember" and "Celebration".
She said on her website that her new album would be released earlier than anticipated, with notable collaborators including Klas Åhlund from Teddybears STHLM, Swedish duo The Knife and former Cheiron Studios producer Alexander Kronlund.
The album evoked global interest in Robyn, who was recognized for co-writing the song "Money for Nothing" for Darin Zanyar (his debut single).
A revised edition of Robyn was released in the UK the following month, with two new tracks—"With Every Heartbeat" (a collaboration with Kleerup) and "Cobrastyle" (a cover of a 2006 single by Swedish rockers Teddybears)—with slightly altered versions of the original music.
In Australia, where Robyn reached the top ten of the iTunes Store's album chart, "With Every Heartbeat" received attention on radio and video networks.
Robyn provided backing vocals on Britney Spears' 2007 single, "Piece of Me", and appeared on the Fyre Department remix of "Sexual Eruption" by rapper Snoop Dogg.
In July 2010, she sang a minimalist, electro cover version of Alicia Keys' "Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart" live on IHeartRadio.
[29] Robyn announced the release of the single, "Indestructible", on 13 October 2010;[30] an acoustic version appeared on Body Talk Pt.
[31] Co-written by Klas Åhlund, it was described as a "pulsating full power version [that] takes every ounce of that emotion and wraps it up in another exceptional disco-pop record worthy of any dance-floor or passion-laden sing-a-long.
[35] Robyn opened for Coldplay on their 2012 tour in Dallas, Houston, Tampa, Miami, Atlanta, Charlotte, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.[36] In mid-2013, she appeared with Paul Rudd and Sean Combs on "Go Kindergarten" from the Lonely Island's The Wack Album.
[44] She premiered a dance set of remixed versions of her songs at the May 2016 Boston Calling Music Festival, with plans for more dates during the year.
In March 2017, a new Robyn song called "Honey" was used in the soundtrack of the final season of HBO TV series, Girls.
[55] After cancelled promotion, gigs, and festivals starting that year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Robyn launched a series of live-stream DJ sets from Stockholm, Robyn Presents Club DOMO,[56] and also participated in Record Store Day with a series of previously unreleased remixes of tracks from her record Honey for limited-release vinyl then streaming by her favorite DJs, artists and collaborators, including Joe Goddard, Avalon Emerson, Robert Hood, Louie Vega, Soulwax, Kim Ann Foxman, Young Marco, The Blessed Madonna, Patrick Topping and Planningtorock.
[58][59][60] In September 2021, Rolling Stone, from a poll of more than 250 artists, musicians, producers, critics, journalists and industry figures, ranked "Dancing On My Own" at number 20, between Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" and John Lennon's "Imagine", on their reissued list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", the decade's highest entry on their list.
[65] Robyn debuted as a mainstream pop-R&B singer during the 1990s,[66] but felt limited by the artistic constraints of working for a major record label.
[69] Writer and musician Sasha Frere-Jones called Robyn "remarkably adept at producing pleasurable, accessible pop that, like some kind of graphite alloy, is light but strong, able to carry humor and emotional weight".
[70] While writing her eighth studio album, Honey, Robyn found that she was no longer interested in creating "tidy pop songs", exploring music she described as hypnotic "that didn't have a beginning and an end" unlike her previous work.
[66] Laura Snapes of The Guardian described the album as "exploratory dance music that reflects the hopelessness and ecstasy that informed her time away from the spotlight".
[66] Robyn has said she that she prefers writing with other artists instead of independently, but finds it frustrating that people expect her as a woman "to have written the lyrics and the guys to have made the music".
[72] Robyn's parents led an independent theatre group, and growing up in that environment influenced her sense of style: "I was around people who dressed up for work every day, and so the concept of how you can use clothes to change your personality or communicate who you are is very interesting to me.
[75][76] She later became engaged to videographer Max Vitali, referring to him in a 2013 interview with Collection of Style magazine as her fiancé: "We became friends when we made the video for 'Be Mine', and now we work together a lot.
[66] In July 2023, Robyn revealed on Instagram that she had a son, Tyko, with further reporting from Sweden's national registry noting he had been born in April 2022.
Martin ended up producing much of Spears's debut album ...Baby One More Time, and she was seen as "easier to control than the 'forceful' Swedish teenager.
"[66] Robyn (2005) has been cited as a foundational pop album of the 2000s, cementing the validity of "poptimism" in music critics circles that "[made] indie nerds lighten up.
[82] Variety attributed her work as a "savant" and "pioneer" upon going independent to the accelerated prominence of the alternative pop genre starting in the late 2000s.
[85] She has been recognized as an important influence by Carly Rae Jepsen, Lorde,[86] Charli XCX,[87] Taylor Swift, Christine and the Queens,[88] Andy McCluskey,[89] Ariel Rechtshaid and Perfume Genius.