Biography

Rednex is a Swedish band that plays bluegrass / country inspired eurodance . They have made several hits including Cotton Eye Joe . The name Rednex is a plural form of the American term " redneck "which means something like" hillbilly "(from the southern U.S. ). Rednex was formed in 1994 by producers and songwriters Pat Reiniz , Orjan "Oban" Oberg and January Ericsson . They had been making music together for five years, including in collaboration with Ola Håkansson (known from, inter alia, the Secret Service ) and the then newly founded record label Stockholm Records .

The group's musical style became known as the Country Techno, a style of music that arose in different parts of Europe around the same time. In England, for example, the group The Grid, a hit around the same time with the song Swamp Thing, an instrumental technomusic which included a banjo sample . The group got their big international breakthrough in 1994 with their hit single Cotton Eye Joe, and followed that up with Old Pop in an Oak and the ballad Wish You Were Here. They were accused of having plagiarized the song Cotton Eyed Joe, without having entered the real author. This was not entirely true because the song is a traditional song, which means that the music is so old that no author is known. There were also only part of the chorus. Rednex has sold more than 10 million records in both singles and albums , and has received over 40 gold records in different countries.

The group has had topped the charts in twelve countries and has sold triple platinum in Germany , where they are also the group in total remained at number one on the singles chart for the past 30 years - 25 weeks - which is six weeks longer than the second Modern Talking . Rednex also received RSH Award for most performed song in the 1990s in Germany. Cotton Eye Joe has also been recorded by Smurfs in Germany. In 2000 came second album Rednex Farm Out! where the big hit was called Spirit of the Hawk, which took first place in the German hit list and was used as the theme song to the German version of the reality show The prisoners at the fort In August 2005 represented Rednex Sweden during the opening ceremony for Athletics World Championships in Finland , and performed live. 2008 wrote the group a recording contract with the German company, 313 Music / Universal Germany. As the first single in the company made Rednex the German EM-song Football Is Our Religion, written and produced by German legend Alex Christensen (Alex C). The group regained the top ranking on the Swedish singles chart.