Simon Cowell, an A&R executive at BMG Music Publishing at the time, wished material for a new Irish band called "Westside", which he recently had signed. It was discovered though that the name already had been taken and was rapidly changed to "
Westlife". Three of the songs which appeared on the band's self-titled debut album, released on November 1, 1999, were co-written by Jörgen. Two of them, "If I Let You Go" and "Fool Again" became UK #1's. On October 6, 2001, the new groundbreaking talent show, "
Pop Idol", created by the artist manager and television producer,
Simon Fuller premiered on British ITV. Running for nine weeks, it became a huge success. The winning song, "
Evergreen", was written exclusively for the contest by Jörgen, Per Magnusson and David Kreuger. Because the broadcast of the music competition had been delayed by several months, Simon Cowell, one of the judges and A&R at BMG, decided to first release the song on Westlife's album, "
World of Our Own". The first Pop Idol,
Will Young, was crowned winner on February 10, 2002. Two weeks later, on February 25, "Evergreen" was released. While writing songs for new artists, Jörgen now also got the opportunity to work with
Céline Dion, one of the world's most successful artists. Her ninth English album, "
A New Day Has Come", included the song, "The Greatest Reward", co-written by Jörgen and
Andreas Carlsson, and was released on March 26, 2002. It became Dion's first #1 debut in the US, peaking at the top spot in over 20 countries and eventually selling more than 12 million copies around the world. Following the success of Pop Idol in the UK, American Idol debuted in the US on June 11 that same year. Twenty-five episodes were aired over 11 weeks and on September 4 Kelly Clarkson was crowned winner. Two weeks later her winning song, "A Moment Like This", was released. Written by Jörgen together with John Reid, it became Jörgen's first #1 on the
Billboard Hot 100. By the end of 2002, Westlife had released their fourth album, the 19 track compilation, "Unbreakable: The Greatest Hits Vol 1", which included six brand new songs, two of them co-written by Jörgen. Released on November 4 as the album's first single, "Unbreakable" set a record by moving from #196 to #1 in only one week, the greatest leap in UK chart history. The album came out a week later and also went to #1 and despite its late year release it became the 9th bestselling album of 2002 in the UK. The album re-entered the charts in 2007 and was re-issued in 2008 spending a total of 55 weeks on the UK Top 100 Albums chart. To date Westlife has sold more than 50 million records worldwide. March 2003
Jamai Loman won the Dutch equivalent of
Pop Idol,
Idols (Dutch TV series).
Henkjan Smits, one of the judges and A&R-executive at BMG The Netherlands, chose the song Step Right Up, written bij Jörgen with
Andreas Carlsson, as the winning single. The single went straight to #1, broke records in The Netherlands and was 4 times platinum. In 2005 Jörgen created the record label Planet Six, part of former
BMG, currently
Universal Music Publishing Group. On November 7, 2005, the operaband Il Divo released their sophomore album "Ancora". Just like their first release, it went to #1 in the UK as well as in 12 other countries. In the US it came out on January 24 and debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 a week later. Included on the album was, "I Believe in You (Je Crois En Toi)", a duet with Céline Dion, co-written by Jörgen. The song was released as singles both by Il Divo, to this day their one and only single, as well as Céline Dion, lifted from her album "On Ne Changes Pas. " To date Jörgen has written or co-written six songs for Il Divo, including "Senza Parole" on the quartet's latest album "Wicked Game" released in November 2011. Given the honorable assignment of writing the official theme song for the 2006 FIFA World Cup football tournament, Jörgen wrote "The Time of Our Lives", also a duet, this time between Il Divo and the American singer Toni Braxton. Together they performed the song at the opening ceremony in Munich, Germany on the evening of June 9. Jörgen is very well known for his winning songs written for UK Pop Idol and American Idol. His lyrics and music have been performed by Idol-winners all over the world, for example in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Holland and Sweden. By selling more than 128,000 copies in one week, the single set two national records: for the highest first week sales by a debut artist and an Australian artist. Sebastian stayed at #1 on the Australian Aria Singles List for three weeks. It went on to sell in excess of 303,000 units. Thus far Jörgen has written seventeen Idol winning songs, which makes him the world record holder. On May 25, 2006, Jörgen, with his, "
That’s My Goal" (
Shayne Ward) received the prestigious Ivor Novello Award for the Best Selling British Single of 2005. Twelve months later he would have yet another one in his hands. On May 24th, 2007 Jörgen was back on the stage collecting his second consecutive Ivor Novello Award, this time for the Best Selling British Single of 2006. ==The Royal Wedding==