<TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">Ace of Base is a dance-pop band trio from Gothenburg, Sweden, comprising Ulf Ekberg (Buddha) and siblings Jonas Berggren (Joker) and Jenny Berggren. They released their debut album in 1992 and went on to major chart success throughout the 1990s. The departure of former lead singer Linn Berggren was revealed in 2007 after years of declining participation in the group. She reportedly left to dedicate time for study and family.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">After a few years in a new romantic and punk covers band called G Konrad, in 1987, Jonas Berggren formed a band with two friends, Johnny Lindén and Niklas Tränk; his sisters Linn and Jenny joined as singers. The new band went through several names: Kalinin Prospect (a street in Moscow); CAD (Computer-Aided Disco); and Tech-Noir (French for black technology, after a nightclub in the film The Terminator). They toured the clubs of Sweden with their new self-written material, techno inspired by the likes of The KLF and Snap!.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">Johnny left the group in 1989. Niklas made his departure known by failing to appear at a gig at the Bältesspännarparken on 6 August 1990; he preferred to attend a Rolling Stones concert on the other side of town. Jonas asked his friend Ulf Ekberg to stand in for Niklas. The new quartet sought a new name to make a fresh start; Linn was reported saying: &quot;No one could pronounce the name of the group and nobody could remember it&quot;. They settled on Ace of Base, because they were the &quot;masters of their studio&quot;, the basement of a car-repair shop.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">However the band continued to struggle to gain any recognition, partly due to the preference of heavy metal over techno in their home town, according to singer Jenny. In 1991 they responded to a newspaper ad by producer John Ballard who was looking for new talent. He was somewhat unsure about their potential, but did pass them on to Klas Lunding at Telegram Records who helped them record an early demo for the song &quot;Wheel Of Fortune&quot; in their newly renovated studio. But it did not convince Telegram to sign the band, and other labels in Sweden still showed no sign of interest. In the end, the unfinished demo was sold for a small price to the independent Danish label Mega Records in March 1992. &quot;Wheel Of Fortune&quot; was re-recorded and released as a single in Denmark in May but failed to hit the charts. A small-budget music video was shot and directed in a small studio by Viking Nielsson and in September, after two failures, the single finally reached the charts.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="11" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"><B>International Success</B><FONT SIZE="10"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">But it was another song that was to help Ace of Base&apos;s career take off internationally. After hearing Swedish top 20 hit &quot;Another Mother&quot; by Kayo, the band decided that was exactly the sound they wanted to create. They contacted the song&apos;s producer Denniz PoP and sent him a demo of a track called &quot;Mr Ace&quot;. The tape got stuck in his car&apos;s cassette player so he was forced to listen to it over and over again which helped him decide to produce the track. The song became &quot;All That She Wants&quot;, a unique dark fusion of dub-reggae with pop which became the band&apos;s trademark sound. On release in October 1992, it quickly climbed to number 1 on the Danish chart while the previous single was still sitting at number 2. Keen to rush out an LP for the Christmas market, Mega Records pressed the band for an album and it was hastily recorded, mixed, and released within a few weeks.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">Preceded by a single of the same name, the album, titled Happy Nation was an instant hit in Denmark, and its success prompted interest from elsewhere in Europe. A pan-European licence was signed with Metronome/PolyGram (now Universal Music) but they were turned down by the American division. Within a few months, &quot;All That She Wants&quot; had reached number 3 in Sweden and had spent eight weeks at number 1 in Germany.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">The band were briefly caught up in controversy when on 27 March 1993 the Swedish newspaper Expressen reported that Ulf had once been a member of a white power band called Commit Suiside who sang songs with racist lyrical content. He was also a member of the controversial far-right political party Sverigedemokraterna. Ulf was quick to admit that most of the details printed were true, but denied that he was racist. In the 1997 documentary &quot;Our Story&quot;, Ulf said &quot;I told everyone I really regret what I done. I closed that book. I don&apos;t want to even talk about it, that time does not exist in me any more. I closed it and I threw the book away. I took the experience from it, I learned from it. But that life is not me. It&apos;s somebody else.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">The revelations did not harm the band&apos;s career and in April 1993 the band performed alongside Inner Circle and Dr Alban in Tel Aviv, Israel at what would be their biggest audience ever - 55,000 people.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">In May, &quot;All That She Wants&quot; continued to hit all round the world and topped the chart for three weeks in the United Kingdom. However, despite Mega Records&apos; hard efforts to secure a distribution deal in the United States the response was always the same: &quot;this band will never work in the States&quot;. But Clive Davis, founder of Arista Records and the man who had discovered Whitney Houston, thought otherwise, and by the end of 1993 &quot;All That She Wants&quot; had made its way to number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">In order to freshen up the album for US release, Davis insisted that some new tracks were recorded, including &quot;The Sign&quot; which became the new title for the album and the second American single. It was even more successful than the first, spending six weeks at number 1 becoming the best-selling single of the year 1994. It was also a major hit in Europe, peaking at number 2 in the UK and Sweden and doing one better in Germany. PolyGram re-released the album under the name Happy Nation (US Version).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">Two more singles were released; &quot;Living in Danger&quot; and &quot;Don&apos;t Turn Around&quot;. Originally a Tina Turner b-side which went on to become a UK number 1 hit for reggae band Aswad, Davis asked Ace of Base to record the Diane Warren-penned track and it was yet another worldwide hit. By the end of 1994, there was barely a country in the world where they were not successful.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="11" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"><B>Subsequent releases: The Bridge and Flowers/Cruel Summer (1995-1998)</B><FONT SIZE="10"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">The band, who by now were not only tired of being compared to fellow Swedish group ABBA, but exhausted from two long years of international promotion, could hardly believe how successful they had become. In April 1994, a crazed German fan Manuela Behrendt broke into the Berggren family&apos;s home brandishing a knife. After managing to restrain her, the band decided that from then on they needed bodyguards. But they were not allowed to take time to reflect before starting work on a second album because their record companies all over the world were demanding a swift follow-up. To speed up the process, instead of Jonas and Ulf writing the bulk of the album, each member was encouraged to submit his or her own tracks for consideration.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">In the end, 17 tracks made the cut of the second album entitled The Bridge. It marked a considerable change of direction in sound; out were the reggae and club sounds that made the group so popular in favour of a more experimental sound and several ballads. The lead single &quot;Lucky Love&quot; however was a mainstream pop record and on release in October 1995 became the band&apos;s first number 1 single in Sweden, which came as a pleasant surprise as they had found that their fellow Swedes had been their harshest critics. It charted at a more modest number 13 in Germany and number 20 in the United Kingdom, but Arista Records decided that it wasn&apos;t appropriate for US release so they opted for the pulsing dance beat of &quot;Beautiful Life&quot; which peaked at number 15 both in the US and UK. The album was still certified platinum but the phenomenal success of the band&apos;s first album proved difficult to follow. In February 1996, the band performed at the Viña del Mar concert in Chile, topping the bill alongside 2 Unlimited.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">After this, Ace of Base disappeared from the limelight for a while, only emerging in July 1997 to perform at a concert to celebrate the 20th birthday of Princess Victoria of Sweden. They were given as much time as they wanted to produce their third album, much of it being recorded in Jonas&apos; own studio &quot;The Barn&quot;. When it was finally released in June 1998, the band declared it their best album yet. It was titled Flowers because they believed that the songs, wildly different in style including Motown and gospel influences, resembled a varied bouquet of flowers. Fans were surprised to see that blonde singer Linn had relinquished lead vocal duties to sister Jenny, and on many promotional photos Linn&apos;s face was blurred. They were reassured that Linn was happy with her new backing role in the group, and many reasons were given for her decision including her having damaged her voice, fear of flying putting her off from travelling round the world, and her dislike of fame. The radio-friendly single &quot;Life Is a Flower&quot; was certified the most-played track on European radio for 1998 and sold more than 250,000 copies in the UK, peaking at number 5. British label London Records had requested the band record the 1984 hit &quot;Cruel Summer&quot; by Bananarama and it was selected as the second European single. Deciding that &quot;Life Is a Flower&quot; was &quot;too European in nature&quot;, Clive Davis pushed &quot;Cruel Summer&quot; as the lead-off single for the United States and it took Ace of Base back into the US Top 10 for the first time in four years, being certified gold. The album was also re-named Cruel Summer and featured a different tracklist to the European release. Davis persuaded a reluctant Linn to record a Billy Steinberg ballad &quot;Everytime It Rains&quot; and &quot;Life Is a Flower&quot; was re-recorded as &quot;Whenever You&apos;re Near Me&quot; and was the second single, but it could only peak at number 76. &quot;Always Have, Always Will&quot; and &quot;Travel to Romantis&quot; were further hits in Europe while &quot;Everytime It Rains&quot; was issued as a single in the UK along with a re-packaged edition of Flowers released only in the UK.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="11" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"><B>Celebrating a decade of success: Singles Of The 90s and Greatest Hits (1999-2000)</B><FONT SIZE="10"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">Singles Of The 90s, a compilation of sixteen hit singles was released in November 1999. Its first single, &quot;C&apos;est La Vie (Always 21),&quot; went on to become a surprise number 1 hit in Spain. Attempting to capitalize on the success of the previous single, &quot;Hallo Hallo&quot; was released with special remixes just for the Spanish market. The album&apos;s marketing push closed with the limited radio-only single release of &quot;Love in December&quot;. &quot;Everytime It Rains&quot;, previously included on the Cruel Summer album was released as a radio single in the US the following year in remixed-form (pushed by Clive Davis) in order to promote a new Greatest Hits album for the American market, which failed to chart, selling fewer than 5,000 copies in its first week. It completed the band&apos;s four-album contract with Arista Records and was not renewed. In comparison with its European counterpart, Singles Of The 90s, this compilation has been regarded as inferior due to the tracklist choice included. Editing errors with the beginning of &quot;The Sign&quot; track and the inclusion of tracks such as &quot;Life Is a Flower&quot; and &quot;Always Have, Always Will&quot; created some confusion in fan&apos;s heads as the first one was neglected for being too European in nature, and the latter one was a single only in Europe. &quot;Hallo Hallo&quot; was planned initially to be the first single from this American compilation, having been remixed for the occasion, but for whatever reason it was left aside being replaced by Everytime It Rains. All in all, &quot;C&apos;est la Vie (Always 21)&quot; was the only true new recording included in the U.S. release. Two old remixes of both &quot;Lucky Love&quot; and &quot;Beautiful Life&quot; were also included for not very clear reasons, probably as filler for the album.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="11" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"><B>A New Millennium and the Da Capo Album (2002-2005)</B><FONT SIZE="10"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">Da Capo is the name of the fourth studio album of Ace of Base. It was released in 2002 in Europe and Japan (on Toshiba EMI with a different cover and three bonus tracks). The album contained twelve original tracks and it was first planned to be released during the summer of 2000. But because of record company problems, the album was delayed until September of 2002.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">Its success was very limited. Although the album entered the album charts in many of the European countries, the chart positions were unexpectedly low. The promotion was handled only by Jenny and Ulf. Jonas wanted to stay at home with his two kids and Linn attended only one performance in Germany. During the promotion Jenny and Ulf visited Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Germany, Poland and Austria. The album was never released in North America, South America, UK and Australia though Ulf said in an interview that they would release the album in USA and the songs would be more acoustic. The album is named for the musical term da capo, meaning &quot;back to the beginning&quot;. It was intended to be a return to the band&apos;s earliest sound.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">The first single release from the Da Capo album was &quot;Beautiful Morning&quot; released throughout Europe and Japan in September 2002, followed in Germany by &quot;The Juvenile&quot;, which was a huge radio airplay hit, and was used for a Christmas campaign by German TV channel RTL. &quot;The Juvenile&quot; was a &quot;lost track&quot;; Ace Of Base had previously written it for the Goldeneye James Bond movie in 1995. However, Arista, the band&apos;s American record label at the time, shelved the idea. The band was no longer involved in the soundtrack for the movie, and Bono Vox&apos;s composition of the same name was substituted, sung instead by Tina Turner.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">In Scandinavia, Edel-Mega released the album opener track, &quot;Unspeakable&quot;, which would also be released in early 2003 across Europe (Germany, Spain, France, Belgium, etc). But its poor chart performances and also a withdrawing of the band ended the promotion of the album prematurely. The band kept away from the spotlight once more throughout the rest of 2003 and 2004, despite some parallel musical projects in which Jenny was involved (solo live performances in several Christian shows with her husband Jakob Pétren, and the participation as lead singer of the Swedish group Arose).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">The band would appear for several live performances at the 2005 Night of the Proms in Belgium alongside other artists such as Donna Summer and performs some of their hits such as &quot;All That She Wants&quot; and &quot;The Sign&quot;. Only Jonas, Jenny and Ulf were present as expected.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="11" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"><B>Future plans: 2007-2008 - World Tour and new albums</B><FONT SIZE="10"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">As of 2007, Ace of Base are recording a new album, stating on their official website: &quot;we are now back in the studio again, with more inspiration than ever&quot;. The band&apos;s manager Lasse Karlsson suggested that a new album would be released in Spring 2008, and could be accompanied by a world tour. In April 2007, their official MySpace page was launched, and promised updates on the progress of their new album.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">On August 14, 2007, Lasse Karlsson announced that the band would be playing their first full-length concert since 1996 in Bangalore, India, on November 24, 2007. This was later cancelled, but several other concerts were scheduled and Jenny, Jonas and Ulf performed in Yekaterinburg, Russia on November 15, and St. Petersburg on November 17. The group also performed in Denmark, Estonia, and Lithuania, as a warm-up to a planned world tour in 2008.The setlist includes various songs from their past albums and reworked versions of old hits such as &quot;Wheel Of Fortune&quot;, &quot;Living In Danger&quot; and &quot;Don&apos;t Turn Around&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">On November 28, 2007, Ulf Ekberg confirmed in an interview that Malin Berggren had left the band and she would not be featured on band&apos;s new album. The group had already been performing mostly without Linn as a trio for a solid decade before her departure. Linn&apos;s image has been removed from all promotional material on the band&apos;s official web-site. Band-mate Jenny confirmed Linn&apos;s departure in the Danish press: &quot;She hasn&apos;t been part of Ace of Base for several years,&quot; she stated in Se &amp; Hor magazine.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">On December 14, 2007 Jonas Berggren announced in a meeting with fans after a concert in Lithuania that they are currently working with very famous American producers, but he couldn&apos;t reveal yet who they are. This could lead to the band&apos;s first album released in America since Greatest Hits, a compilation that went on sale in 2000.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">In the meantime, a European website has been carefully following every step of the band&apos;s European tour, upcoming events and news for the next year. They have been in close contact with the manager behind the Global Remix Project, which refers to the re-working and current remixing of the group&apos;s biggest hits. The plan is to release a Remix Album in 5 different editions worldwide; each edition will be released in different territories according to whom has remixed the tracks (for example, the Asian edition will contain remixes only by Asian DJs, etc). This is quite unusual for the band in comparison with previous releases.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">Other plans mention that a first single is to be released in February or March 2008, followed by a second single in May. Besides the Remix Album, a fifth studio album of original material is expected around September 2008.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>