1994–1995: Formation and Sex & Violins Rednex was the idea of Swedish producers Janne Ericsson, Örjan "Öban" Öberg, and Ranis Edenberg, Edenberg was inspired by a version of "
Cotton-Eyed Joe" by
Ricky Scaggs, added bass and a dance beat, and titled the remix "
Cotton Eye Joe". They hired a band as a subcontractor to record the song. After a year, they played the remix for
Martin Dodd. Over the first few years, Edenberg and his friends earned 40 to 50 million
Swedish kronor. Edenberg was replaced in the band by BB Stiff (Urban Landgren) after the "Cotton Eye Joe" release. 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". Two more tracks of the album, "
Wild 'N Free" and "
Rolling Home", were released and became moderate hits. A promotional one-off single, the
Nicole cover version "
Ein bißchen Frieden", was released and labeled as "Collo Rossi" for the release.
1996–1997: Departure of Ljungberg and Riding Alone In 1996, Rednex were featured on the charity single "Children", as part of the supergroup "Hand in Hand for Children". That year, Ljungberg was fired partly due to disagreements with the other band members, and pursued a solo career. In 1997, the remaining four men released "Riding Alone", out of
Sex & Violins, two years after the previous release "Rolling Home". 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.
1998–2000: Farm Out and controversial lineup changes In autumn 1998, Whippy (Mia Löfgren) became the new female vocalist. They released their first single "
The Way I Mate" in 1999. Soon after that release, Arstrand left the band, reducing the quintet to a quartet. The second studio album entitled
Farm Out followed in 2000 and found some success in Europe, with the most successful single from the album, the second release "
The Spirit of the Hawk", peaking #1 in the German Singles Chart. The album spawned a third and final single, the ballad "
Hold Me for a While", which became a moderate success. In 2000, due to the rise in popularity of
Napster, co-founder Edenberg changed the group to an entertainment group rather than just a band, so not to be solely dependent on record sales. As he presented this idea to the performers during the video shoot for "Hold Me For A While" in Kenya, he was met by great scepticism. Nilsson replied: "We will not become a goddamn circus act!". The aftermath of this conflict resulted in the whole band, all four members, Löfgren, Olander, Nilsson and Landgren, being replaced for the first time. Rednex performed at the
2005 IAAF World Championships in Athletics, in
Helsinki. In March 2006, Rednex entered the song "
Mama, Take Me Home" in Semifinal 4 of the
Melodifestivalen in
Gothenburg. They qualified for the final via the Second Chance Round, finishing an overall sixth in the final. "Mama, Take Me Home" was released as a single in a few European countries. The band released the second single "
Fe Fi (The Old Man Died)" in November 2006, after having performed it at the
Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. The single peaked #4 in the Swedish Single chart. In February 2007, the band competed to be Romania's entry in the
Eurovision Song Contest 2007 but was rejected after it was determined that their song, "Well-o-wee", was not an original release. In May 2007, the producers that owned the band's trademarks offered the band for sale for $1.5 million via
eBay; however, Ljungberg disputed what the producers really owned. There were no offers. The remaining Rednex personnel Ljungberg, Lundström and Sylsjö were fired by the returning management following a dispute, and were replaced by members of the "Rednex Tribute" (Tulley, Sandberg, Penten and van der Haagen), all themselves former official Rednex. It was the second time the whole lineup had been replaced simultaneously. In January 2010, Rednex released "Devil's On The Loose", in a partnership with
The Pirate Bay for free and legal download worldwide. A video for the track was recorded in August 2009 in Norrbyggeby, Sweden. The song was released as the first single from the planned album
Saturday Night Beaver, which was never released due low single sales. Tulley soon also left Rednex for a second time, and was replaced by Dakotah (Nadja Flood), former singer in the Swedish
dansband Nova, making her the fourth official female lead singer of Rednex.
2012–2014: Second departure of Tulley and Singles In January 2012, Rednex dissolved the concept of a permanent band, intending instead to use a larger pool of characters from which one female and three male performers would be chosen for each performance. The pool of performers in 2012 included permanent members Flood, Sandberg, van der Haagen and Penten alongside possible replacements Scheffler, new male member Rufus Jones and new female vocalists Abby Hick and Misty Mae. At the time of the dissolution of the permanent Rednex lineup Tulley again left the band. The second single "Racing" was released in May 2012. This was followed in November 2012 by "The End". The video for "The End" was recorded on September 2, 2012, at Garay Utca, the "ghetto of Budapest" and is a "flowumentary". In a post on
Facebook, Rednex refuted the notion that "The End" is related to
2012 doomsday theories. The band in these two videos consisted of Flood, van der Haagen, Sandberg and Penten with Rufus Jones making a cameo appearance in "The End" video.
2015–2017: Return of Löfgren In 2015, second female singer Löfgren replaced Flood and rejoined the band. Scheffler returned to the group. On New Year's Day, Rednex recorded a music video for "Innit for the Money". The single for "Innit for the Money" followed in 2016. In February performers Cassidy, Rattler, and Pervis the Palergator joined the band. Cassidy left Rednex 3 months later. On New Year's Eve 2017, Rednex played for the fourth time at the
Brandenburger Tor in Berlin.
2018–2024: Manly Man, livestream and performer turbulence In early 2018, the Rednex performer pool grew to include 17 people, the highest number so far. Added to the pool were Zoe, Moe Lester the Limp and Jiggie McClagganahan. In August 2018, Rednex started a live streaming channel on
Twitch and 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. During the same weekend, August 10-12th, Rednex performed with three different line-ups in three different territories, totaling 13 performers, which was a new record. Zoe, Moe Lester the Limp, Spades and Pervis the Palergator did shows in Romania and Hungary, while Billy Ray, Ace Ratclaw, Boneduster Crock, Misty Mae and Jiggie McClagganahan did shows in East Germany (Berlin & Schwerin), and Abby Hick, Rattler, Cash and Joe Cagg did shows in West Germany (Bonn & Frankfurt). In September, Abby Hick, Rattler, Boneduster Crock and Joe Cagg left Rednex. Whippy, Billy Ray and BB Stiff became reserves, reducing the pool to 10 performers. The band was still for sale for €2,000,000. In April 2024, videos featuring the band's music received 3 billion views on
YouTube in 26 days, after a
meme featuring "Cotton Eye Joe" went
viral.
2024–present: Gegagedigedagedago and Poor Boy Pour In early 2024, the Rednex hit "Cotton Eye Joe" resurfaced as part of a viral remix phenomenon known as
Gegagedigedagedago. The meme-driven trend on YouTube and TikTok generated massive reach and brought renewed attention to the band. According to Swedish industry coverage, the event was one of the largest viral song trends of 2024. Following this, Rednex released a new single,
Poor Boy Pour, in mid-2025. ==Members==