1989–1993: Early career Robyn voiced the character of
Miranda in the 1989 Swedish-Norwegian
animated film The Journey to Melonia. Directed by
Per Åhlin, the film is loosely based on
William Shakespeare's
The Tempest. 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. This was a version in Swedish of the theme song for
Sport Goofys Soccermania (1982). Robyn performed her first original song at that age on another television show,
Söndagsöppet (
Sundays). She was discovered by Swedish pop singer
Meja in the early 1990s when Meja and her band,
Legacy of Sound, visited Robyn's school as part of a musical workshop. Impressed by Robyn's performance, Meja contacted her management and a meeting was arranged with Robyn and her parents. At age 14, after completing middle school education in 1993, Robyn signed with Ricochet Records Sweden (which was acquired by
BMG in 1994). Robyn collaborated with producers
Max Martin and
Denniz Pop, who gave the singer a gritty (but popular) sound.
1994–2004: Robyn Is Here, My Truth and ''Don't Stop the Music'' 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. Later that year, Robyn's Swedish breakthrough came with the single "
Do You Really Want Me (Show Respect)". The singles became part of the album
Robyn Is Here, which was released in October 1995. Robyn also contributed vocals to Blacknuss' 1996 single, "Roll with Me." 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. In
Melodifestivalen 1997, the song finished fourth. Robyn's US breakthrough came in late 1997, when the
dance-pop/
R&B singles "
Show Me Love" and "
Do You Know (What It Takes)" reached the top 10 of the
Billboard Hot 100. She performed "Show Me Love" on the American children's show
All That that year. She also made two appearances on
Soul Train: on October 4, 1997, performing "Do You Know (What It Takes)" and "Just Another Girlfriend", and returned as the headlining act on April 25, 1998, performing "Do You Know (What It Takes)" again as well as the QDIII remix of "
Do You Really Want Me (Show Respect)". The songs also performed well in the UK. Robyn re-released "Do You Really Want Me (Show Respect)" internationally, but it was less successful than the other releases. It was ineligible for the US charts because there was no retail single available, but it reached number 32 on the
Hot 100 Airplay chart. "Show Me Love" was featured in the 1998
Lukas Moodysson film,
Fucking Åmål, and the song's title was used as the title of the film in
English-speaking countries. As Robyn's popularity grew internationally, she was diagnosed with
exhaustion and returned to Sweden to recover. Robyn's second album,
My Truth, was released in Sweden in May 1999 and subsequently in Europe. The single, "
Electric", was a commercial success and propelled
My Truth to the number-two position in Sweden. The autobiographical album included the tracks "Universal Woman" and "Giving You Back". Despite her US success with
Robyn Is Here,
My Truth was not released in that country, partly because it included two songs which referenced an abortion she had in her teens. Robyn contributed to
Christian Falk's 1999 debut solo album,
Quel Bordel (
What a Mess), appearing on "Remember" and "Celebration". The following year, she appeared on "Intro/Fristil" on
Petter's self-titled album. In 2001, Robyn performed "Say You'll Walk the Distance" for the soundtrack of
On the Line. She signed a worldwide deal with
Jive Records in July 2001, moving from
BMG after the singer was "disillusioned with the lack of artistic control [she] had there"; Robyn later said, "I was back where I started!" In October 2002, she released the album ''
Don't Stop the Music'' in Sweden. The album's singles, "
Keep This Fire Burning" and "
Don't Stop the Music", received airplay in Scandinavia and elsewhere in Europe. The promotional single "
O Baby" became the fifth-most-played song on Swedish radio in 2003. The title track was later covered by the Swedish girl group
Play, and the lead single ("Keep This Fire Burning") was covered by the British soul singer
Beverley Knight. In May 2004, ''Robyn's Best
was released in the US. It was a condensed version of her debut album, with no material from her later releases. In 2006, after her departure from BMG, Det Bästa Med Robyn
(The Best of Robyn'') was released in Sweden with material from her first three albums; notable omissions, however, were the singles "Don't Stop the Music" and "Keep This Fire Burning".
2004–2009: Konichiwa Records and Robyn The decade-long relationship between Robyn and her label ended in 2004. When Jive Records reacted negatively to "
Who's That Girl?s new
electropop sound, the singer decided to release music on her own. In early 2005, she announced that she was leaving Jive to start her own label.
Konichiwa Records was created to liberate Robyn artistically. 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. Robyn released the single "
Be Mine!" in March 2005. Her fourth album,
Robyn, was her first number-one album in Sweden when it was released a month later. Influenced by electronica, rap, R&B and
new-age music,
Robyn was critically praised and earned the singer three 2006 Swedish Grammy Awards: "Årets Album" (Best Album), "Årets Kompositör" (Best Writer, with Klas Åhlund) and "Årets Pop Kvinnlig" (Best Pop Female). The album evoked global interest in Robyn, who was recognized for co-writing the song "Money for Nothing" for
Darin Zanyar (his debut single). She released three more singles—"Who's That Girl?", "
Handle Me" and "
Crash and Burn Girl"—from the eponymous LP, which was popular in Sweden. Robyn appeared on the
Basement Jaxx track "
Hey U" from their 2006 album,
Crazy Itch Radio, and contributed "
Dream On" and "C.C.C" to
Christian Falk's
People Say (his second album) that year. In December 2006, Robyn released
The Rakamonie EP in the UK as a preview of her more-recent material; this was followed by the March 2007 release of "
Konichiwa Bitches". 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. The second single from the release in the United Kingdom was "With Every Heartbeat" with
Kleerup, which was released in late July 2007 and topped the
UK Singles Chart, becoming the second single by Swedish artists to top the charts in Britain during the 2000s decade after
Eric Prydz's "
Call on Me" in September and October 2004. Robyn appeared on
Jo Whiley's
BBC Radio 1 showcase show,
Live Lounge. 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 contributed vocals to
Fleshquartet's single, "This One's for You", from their
Voices of Eden album that year. Konichiwa Records signed an international licensing deal with
Universal Music Group to distribute Robyn's music globally, and her UK recordings are released by
Island Records.
The Rakamonie EP was released in January 2008 by
Cherrytree Records (a subsidiary of
Interscope Records), and the US version of
Robyn was released in April of that year. "With Every Heartbeat", "Handle Me" and "Cobrastyle" were top-10 club singles, and "With Every Heartbeat" received airplay on US pop and dance radio stations. 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. She made a brief US tour to promote
Robyn, and was the supporting act for
Madonna's
Sticky & Sweet Tour on European dates in 2008. In January 2009, Robyn received a 2008 Swedish
Grammis Award for Best Live Act.
2010–2016: Body Talk, Do It Again and EPs She released the first album of the
Body Talk trilogy,
Body Talk Pt. 1, on 14 June 2010 in the Nordic countries on
EMI and on 15 June in the US on
Interscope Records. It was preceded by the single "
Dancing On My Own" on 1 June 2010. The song was Robyn's first number-one single in Sweden and her fourth top-10 single in the UK and the US, peaking at number eight on the
UK Singles Chart and number three on
Billboard's
Hot Dance Club Songs chart. In July 2010, she sang a minimalist, electro cover version of
Alicia Keys' "
Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart" live on
IHeartRadio. Robyn made the
All Hearts Tour in July and August 2010 with American singer
Kelis to promote the
Body Talk albums, and a four-date UK tour at the end of October. On 6 September 2010,
Body Talk Pt. 2 was released in the UK. The album includes a duet with American rapper
Snoop Dogg, "U Should Know Better". Robyn performed "Dancing On My Own" with
Deadmau5 at the
2010 MTV Video Music Awards on 12 September. In a BBC
Newsbeat interview, she explained her decision to release three albums in one year: "It was just something I felt like I needed to do. I just never thought about selling records or not, making this decision. I just did it for myself. It's a way of, for me, to stay inspired and to be able to do the things I like to do". However, Robyn said that she would not do it again: "When you do 16 or 13 songs in one go, you kind of empty yourself, and it takes a while to fill back up and have new things to talk about, so I think it's good for everyone". an acoustic version appeared on
Body Talk Pt. 2. The song was released on 17 November in Scandinavia and 22 November in the UK. 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." Martin produced Robyn's US singles, "
Do You Know (What It Takes)" and "
Show Me Love", both of which peaked in the top 10 on the
Billboard 100 in 1997. The
Body Talk albums have sold 91,000 copies in the US. Robyn guest-starred on "War at the Roses", a 2010 episode of
Gossip Girl, where she performed an acoustic version of "Hang with Me"; "Dancing On My Own" was featured at the end of the episode. In November, she said she would return to the studio in January 2011 with enough material to release a new album later that year. Robyn opened for
Coldplay on their 2012 tour in Dallas, Houston, Tampa, Miami, Atlanta, Charlotte, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. In mid-2013, she appeared with
Paul Rudd and
Sean Combs on "Go Kindergarten" from
the Lonely Island's
The Wack Album. Robyn posted two videos of the
Snoop Dogg collaboration ("U Should Know Better" and "Behind the Scenes") and a game,
Mixory, on 21 and 22 June 2013. That year she received the Stockholm
KTH Royal Institute of Technology Great Prize for "artistic contributions and embrace of technology", worth 1.2 million Swedish
kronor (around £117,000 at the time), which she planned to donate to a cause of her choice. Robyn sang on
Neneh Cherry's "Out of the Black", from Cherry's album
Blank Project, in 2014. She also announced the
Do It Again Tour with
Röyksopp and a collaborative mini-album,
Do It Again, that year. The tour ended prematurely after the death of Robyn's longtime friend and collaborator,
Christian Falk. An EP of their final collaboration,
Love Is Free, was released soon afterwards. Robyn appeared at the Popaganda Festival in Sweden the following year and performed songs written with Falk before she postponed subsequent performances because she was still grieving. 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. Robyn released
Trust Me, a collaboration EP with Mr. Tophat, in November 2016. She appeared on "That Could Have Been Me", a track from
Todd Rundgren's album
White Knight, the following year.
2017–2019: Honey Festival in June 2019 In March 2017, a new Robyn song called "Honey" was used in the soundtrack of the final season of HBO TV series,
Girls. The creator of the show,
Lena Dunham selected it from a collection of her in-progress tracks. Robyn finalized it specially for the series. In February 2018, Robyn answered a fan on Twitter, that she will release her new album "some time this year". During an interview with
Kindness, she revealed she was almost done with her new album. Afterwards, at a party, she debuted the full version of her new song "Honey". On 23 July, a new song entitled "
Missing U" was enlisted as a single, and later taken down. Fans quickly began noticing the hints she was dropping, including a post on Twitter with the hashtag #MissingU. It was released on 1 August 2018. On 1 August 2018, Robyn presented "Missing U" on Annie Mac's
BBC Radio 1 show. There she talked about the long silence and the process of making the upcoming album to be released before 2018's end. Robyn also released a mini-documentary featuring the song and a tribute to her fans who were missing her and her new music for years. On 19 September 2018, Robyn announced her upcoming album is titled
Honey to be released on 26 October 2018. In November 2018, Robyn announced she would be touring across North America and Europe come 2019. The trek kicked off on 5 February 2019 and ended that April. On 27 September 2019, she performed in
Kungsträdgården in Stockholm during the
international climate strikes. Before singing
Ever Again, she also told the audience she had met climate researcher
Johan Rockström.
2020–2024: DJ sets, signing to Young Artists and further musical projects In February 2020, Robyn accepted the award for Songwriter of the Decade at the 2020
NME Awards. 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, 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. The next two years Robyn collaborated on
SG Lewis and
TEED's
electropop track "Impact" with
Channel Tres for the former's album
Times,
Jónsi's
avant-pop track "Salt Licorice" produced by
A.G. Cook for the former's album
Shiver, and
Joakim Åhlund and
Björn Yttling's revived side project
Smile psychedelic pop track "Call My Name" for their album
Phantom Island. 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. Also that month Robyn signed a management contract with Young Artists, the global division of
Young (a music and arts organization founded in London) that still maintained
her record label and distribution agreements apart from
their own.
2025–present: Sexistential In 2025, Robyn was part of the
50th anniversary celebrations of
Saturday Night Live. On 14 February 2025 she performed "Dancing on My Own" and
Talking Heads' "
This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" with
David Byrne on
SNL50: The Homecoming Concert, while also attending the show's
50th Anniversary Special. She had performed as a musical guest on
Saturday Night Live on December 10, 2011. In September 2025, Åhlund revealed he and Robyn had completed a new album. Two months later, "
Dopamine" was released, charting in the top ten on the
Sverigetopplistan, Sweden's national weekly music chart. Her ninth studio album,
Sexistential, was released on 27 March 2026. Preceding the album's release, "
Sexistential" and "
Talk to Me" were released on 7 January 2026. == Artistry ==