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Rednex   (Sweden)

EuroDance group
Added : 20/11/2001
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Latest Rednex news

01/11/2022 : Rednex are back with a new single entitled Glad Rags Jug. The song, performed by João Ferreira da Silva, is inspired from Turkey In The Straw, an American folk song. Video was shot in a village in Hungary, directed by Michal Holecko and Kun Sándor (thanks to Pim)

06/04/2022 : Rednex and urgent C's hit Wish You Were Here was covered by Danceteria

29/07/2021 : Teddy Cream released a cover of Rednex's anthem Cotton Eye Joe

07/07/2021 : Rednex's hit Cotton Eye Joe was covered by DJ Mezmerize

17/08/2019 : Rednex released a double-CD compilation entitled Greatest Hits & Remixes. (Thanks to Krasi)

08/10/2017 : McDonald's Germany used the melody on Rednex' hit Cotton-Eye Joe for their new TV ad.

23/08/2017 : Rednex recorded a new version of their hit Wish You Were Here, performed by Misty Mae, in memory of American Deputy Carl Howell who died in the line of duty in August 2015 in Carson City (thanks to Denis).

More news

Rednex albums

	Cotton Eye Joe - Sex And Violins	1995	BUY X
	Sex & Violins	10th Feb 1995	BUY X
	Farm Out	2nd Oct 2000	BUY X
	Best Of The West	18th Nov 2002	BUY X
	Cotton Eye Joe	2003	BUY X
	Saturday Night Beaver	2010	BUY X
	Greatest Hits & Remixes 2 CDs	2nd Aug 2019	BUY X
	Ballads & Remixes	2022	BUY X

Rednex DVDs and VHS

The Best Of The West

DVD

Rednex singles

	Cotton Eye Joe	6th Aug 1994	BUY X
	Old Pop In An Oak	17th Nov 1994	BUY X
	Wish You Were Here	6th May 1995	BUY X
	Wild'n Free	4th Sep 1995	BUY X
	Rolling Home	5th Dec 1995	BUY X
	Riding Alone	11th Jun 1997	BUY X
	The Way I Mate	Aug 1999	BUY X
	The Spirit Of The Hawk	Feb 2000	BUY X
	Hold Me For A While	21st Dec 2000	BUY X
	The Chase	5th Nov 2001	BUY X
	Cotton Eye Joe 2002	21st Nov 2002	BUY X
	Fe Fi (The Old Man Died)	2006	BUY X
	Mama, Take Me Home	Mar 2006	BUY X
	With Bells On Promo only	2007	BUY X
	Anyway You Want Me	Mar 2007	BUY X
	Looking For A Star	May 2007	BUY X
	Football Is Our Religion	2008	BUY X
	Desert Town	2009	BUY X
	Devil's On The Loose	7th Jan 2010	BUY X
	Racing	20th May 2012	BUY X
	The End	24th Sep 2012	BUY X
	Innit for the Money	2nd May 2016	BUY X
	Where You Gonna Go (2000) Not on label	16th Feb 2017	BUY X
	Manly Man Not on label	15th Aug 2018	BUY X
	Nowhere in Idaho	29th Mar 2021	BUY X
	Glad Rags Jug	28th Oct 2022	BUY X

Rednex remixes

	Cotton Eye Joe (The Armand Van Helden U.S. Remixes)	1995	BUY X
	Old Pop In An Oak (Dj Cerla & Moratto Rmx)	1995	BUY X
	Hold Me For A While (Valentine Version)	6th Feb 2019	BUY X

Featurings and collaborations

	Hand In Hand For Children - Children	Apr 1996	BUY X
	Pook - Cotton Eye Jojo	15th Jul 2022	BUY X
	Maduar - Show How Mad U Ar	14th Jun 2023	BUY X

Rednex biography

Members : Billy Ray, Bobby Sue, BB Stiff, Ken Tacky. Vocalists : Mary Joe (Annika Ljungberg), Scarlet (JulieAnne Tulley), Whippy (Mia Löfgren). Owner of the Rednex trademark : Örjan "Öban" Öberg, Jan Ericsson and Ranis "Pat Reiniz" Edenberg.

Rednex is the phonetic way of writing the word Rednecks, name given to the US South farmers during the 19th century. The Rednex concept is, according to their creators, "an organism of ideas, rather than built around certain individuals, which traditionally constitutes music acts. It can be compared to an open book where different authors write a chapter each, doing it whenever there are ideas and enthusiasm. Many people are involved. When it started, a bunch of friends that were musicians, producers, actors, video directors, art designers, stylists, animators, software programmers etc., decided to start a hobby-project to let out ideas that could not be used in their various commercial professions. These were controversial ideas with a dirty, non-esthetic, rough flavor, but with a general playful, partying and happy feeling".

The legend tells that, once upon a time, a Swedish producer called Pat Reiniz went to a town called Brunkeflo to search for his relatives that moved there in the 19th century. It turned out that the whole inbreded citizens of Brunkeflo were his relatives. Since they all were very talented musicians he took the bests of them with him to Stockholm and shut them in a studio...

In 1994, Rednex exploded on the charts worldwide. Their debut single Cotton-Eye Joe (originally a traditional folk song) was a European No.1 and went on to become one of the biggest dance-singles of the 90's, with platinum sales in UK and many other countries, and gold in USA. In Germany, they went multi platinum and stayed for a record breaking 10 weeks at # 1. It was covered by Italian project Isaac Payton Sweat.

It was followed up by two other #1 multi platinum singles : Old Pop In An Oak and the ballad Wish You Were Here (composed by L. Teijo and also released in an amazing dance version by Urgent C). The press revealed that the true singer wasn't Ken Tacky.... It was a countrysinger called Göran Danielsson.

After Wish You Were Here came the single Wild'n'Free. The follow-up Rolling Home was released afterwards under ZYX. It included 6 tracks, among them The Ultimate Rednex Megamix and new mixes for Old Pop In An Oak.

In 1997, Wish You Were Here was covered by Blackmore's Night on their album Shadow of the Moon.

Then they did not release anything during 5 years. The single The Way I Mate, which was very similar to the first hits, was not very successful. In 2000 they made an amazing comeback with the single Spirit Of The Hawk, which went to #1 in Germany and sold gold in less than 5 weeks, just like they did 5 years ago. It was used for the German version of the TV-game Fort Boyard. The song was at first recorded by an Axel Breitung studio project called Indiansphere, then given to Rednex (was it the price for authorizing Axel Breitung to cover Wish You Were Here a few years earlier ?). Then came Hold Me For A While, a ballad, and The Chase in 2001.

The amount of members in Rednex varies from day to day. The original squad that started the project is today living in various countries and several people has invited themselves into the project, creating what is today an international creative collective. Some people has left or taken a break and members go in and out as they please from their original work which constitutes of producing web sites, TV & radio, computer arts, design, media etc. Rednex is still regarded as a hobby-project for everyone involved, in spite of the commercial success, even though it's much more than a full-time job from time to time for some, especially for the performers on tour that are obviously also carrying the responsibility of performing when there are shows, which have been committed to. For example, in 1996 female voice of Rednex started a solo carrier as Annika but this project wasn't successful. Anyway she released album and the 1st single from it was called Flower In My Garden.

The Rednex creators explain that "Since there is no set strategy, apart from the original intentions that created this playhouse, it will always be unreliable to predict when there will be a new record or a tour. However, when it happens, it will likely be considered as the mischief of the music business as it is the nature of Rednex".

In 1997 the record-company ZYX-Music released the single Riding Alone. No one knew why, because it wasn't even a new song and not even the group-members knew about it...

2000 was the year of the Rednex-comeback. They brough a new singer named Whippy (Mia Löfgren) who replaced Mary Joe. Their male singer Ken Tacky left the group.

2001 : Whippy left the project and was replaced by Scarlet (JulieAnne Tulley).

2002 : There were some changes among the Rednex team. BB Stiff, Bobby Sue and Billy Ray argued with the legal owner of the band name, so they left the band, and recreated a new formation called "The Original Members of Rednex". Rednex very first female singer Annika Ljungberg took part on the "Melodifestival" to be chosen as "representative for Sweden" at Grand Prix d'Eurovision . The name of the song was Sail Away. Rednex released Cotton Eye Joe 2002, a remix of the hit that started it all... As well as a best of called Best Of The West which includes all their single plus 5 unreleased songs.

2003 : Mary Joe did some performances as Rednex Revival Band.

2005 : Annika Ljungberg (aka Mary Joe, the very first vocalist) has joined Rednex again, while Scarlet left after spending about 4 years with the group. Other members were Dagger (Anders Sandberg), Ace Ratclaw (Tor Penten) and Boneduster Crock (Björn Scheffler, from Germany). Annika got the power to run Rednex and represent the trademark through a contract ending January 1st 2009.

2006 : Rednex competed to be selected to represent Sweden at the Eurovision contest. The song was entitled Mama, Take Me Home. They were not selected, but the single sold gold in Sweden. Their next single was entitled Fe Fi (The Old Man Died). It was performed live at the grand opening cermony of the World Athlete Championships in Helsinki. Meanwhile, Scarlet founded the Rednex Tribute Band. Wish You Were Here was covered by Schlager singer Anna-Maria Zimmerman on her Love Songs album.

2007 : A "Memorandum of Agreement" was signed between Rednex AB and Annika Ljungberg on January 1st 2007 where she agrees to gain the exclusive world wide rights to use the trademark Rednex during a term of 2 years, provided that she pays a royalty percentage to Rednex AB and presents third party agreements for Rednex AB

Rednex and the Romanian band Ro-mania participated to preselections to represent Romania at the Eurovision Song Contest. The song was called Well-o-wee. They won the semi-finals but were finally disqualified by a TVR evaluation committee because the song was broadcasted publicly before October 1st.

In April, the Rednex project was for sale on eBay ! Auctions for the Swedish project started at 1 500 000 $... but ended without any bids. Annika explained that the reason why they were for sale is that their original creators were not really interested in continuing the project, and that the amount of rights they had to pay to original contributors everytime they performed their hit singles on stage and TV shows was so high that they did not earn any money at all from their performances.

Their hit single Cotton Eye Joe will be featured on the soundtrack of a Snoop Dog movie called Hood of horror.

2 new singles were released : Anyway You Want Me in March, and Looking For A Star in May. Looking For A Star was a country more than dance song which remained 5 weeks in the Swedish charts. A new album was initially planned for release in September. At that moment, members of the project were Mary Joe, Maverick and Snake.

In June, they gave a concert in Mangalia by the Black Sea in Romania, and the city honored them with their own stone in the pavement.

2008 : Rednex appeared with other great eurodance projects such as Haddaway and Culture Beat at the Hit-FM DiscoAward concert on 12th January in Kiev (Ukraine). After being disqualified in 2007, Rednex tried again to qualify for Eurovision Song Contest for Romania this year, with a new song entitled Railroad Railroad, once again a collaboration with Ro-mania. But were not selected. Cotton-Eye Joe was covered by projects Fun Tastic 3 and Starsound Orchestra.

In May they released they new single. Entitled Football Is Our Religion, it was composed for the Euro 2008 soccer championship. The same month, Scarlet released Wish You Were Here with Jan Wayne. She also wrote songs and recorded for German DJ Gollum.

Football Is Our Religion went to #1 in Sweden in the summer.

In September, a press release announced that the whole Rednex band would get exchanged from January 1st 2009. The new band would consist of the previous members Scarlet, Dagger and Ace Ratclaw and more. The current band, lead by Mary Joe, would from that date no longer have the permission by the Rednex owners to keep performing for Rednex. Her contract ended in January 2009, and "It was an experiment to let Annika get power over Rednex, since we were doing other stuff at the time", says the Rednex owners and founders via a press release on rednexforsale.com.

Rednex owners explained that have mostly been positive to tribute bands, even though they do not contribute economically. So the previous year, they did not appreciate when Annika tried to sue Scarlet's tribute band, all the more that they had legal rights to perform. "When she created ill will by suing people and also getting rid of Dagger and Ace, two of the best performers that we ever had, we lost trust in her ability and intention to maintain the welcoming attitude that Rednex stands for." Anyway, they realized the potential of their brainchild and got motivated to go back to it more seriously : "We somehow better understood the value of Rednex and that we need to take better care of it, and the first thing that we will do is to bring back the positive and explosive party atmosphere that has always been a part of Rednex."

"I am very excited to be back in Rednex", says Scarlet. "The music business is in a big and chaotic change at the moment. We have a lot of new ideas in the band so it will be a lot of fun to create the future and shake it up a bit. A little turbulence is something that we in Rednex always welcome."

2009 : the new Rednex are about to go back on a European club tour and a new album is being written. They will also perform with a "Wild West" musical that is currently in its casting phase and is planned to premier next fall in Germany. In November, the title of their forthcoming single was revealed : Devil's On The Loose. In December, they announced that it would be out on 7th of January and that the forthcoming album would be entitled Saturday Night Beaver.

2011 : Rednex's new single was planned to be Raise Your Glass but it was eventually withdrawn. Cotton-Eye Joe was covered by project Power Music.

2012 : current Rednex members were Dakotah, Misty Mae, Dagger, Ace Ratclaw, Joe Cagg and Boneduster Crock. But Scarlet would still be able to perform in the group too. Hence, Rednex could always play anywhere at anytime, with mixed line-ups, and this would also mean more freedom for all performers. In May, they released their new single Racing. Cotton-Eye Joe was covered by SAIFAM project DJ Kee. In November they released their new single The End. Videoclip was shot in September in Budapest (Garay Utca, Sörfesztival and Szimpla Kert).

2015 : second female singer Whippy (Mia Löfgren) rejoined the band to replace Flood. Boneduster Crock was back too.

2016 : a new single entitled Innit for the Money was released.

2017 : Rednex released a new version of Wish You Were Here, sung by Misty Mae, in memory of American Deputy Carl Howell.

2018 : the Rednex performers team included not less than 17 people. Most recent additions were Zoe, Moe Lester the Limp and Jiggie McClagganahan. They started a live streaming channel on Twitch, to live stream themselves 24/7 in connection to all their shows. The new single Manly Man was released in July, along with a video featuring Dagger and Misty Mae. In September Abby Hick, Rattler, Boneduster Crock and Joe Cagg left the project, while Whippy, Billy Ray and BB Stiff became reserves.

2019 : they released a Valentine Version of Hold Me For A While, featuring Cash, Jiggie McClagganahan, Moe Lester The Limp, Pervis The Palergator and Zoe.

2022 : they were are back with a new single entitled Glad Rags Jug. Video was shot in a village in Hungary. The players of German national women soccer used Cotton-Eye Joe as anthem.

Rednex offical site
Rednex Fanclub
Thanks to Tavi Meran, Denis "Denis "DJ Hooligan" Zhabkin, Anton "MC Ka$per" Skaletsky, Ivo Ivanov, Anders Bøgh and DJ Stakan, and to the Rednex team themselves

Rednex biography was last updated Mon, June 3rd 2019

Charts (singles)

Cotton Eye Joe	#8	#1			#10	#1	#1	#1	#1	#1	#1	#25
Old Pop In An Oak		#1			#50	#2	#11	#1	#1	#2	#12
Wish You Were Here		#1	#50			#1	#26	#1	#3	#1
Wild'n Free		#12		#11		#18			#37	#24
Rolling Home		#18				#42			#32
The Way I Mate		#22				#34	#58		#7	#37
The Spirit Of The Hawk		#1				#1	#78		#10	#3
Hold Me For A While		#16				#25				#19
The Chase		#44				#65				#54
Cotton Eye Joe 2002		#32
Fe Fi (The Old Man Died)									#4
Mama, Take Me Home									#3
Anyway You Want Me									#8
Looking For A Star									#4
Football Is Our Religion						#59			#1

Links to Rednex

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