Robyn Is Here is the debut album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 by Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 singer Robyn

Robyn

Robin Miriam Carlsson , better known by her stage name Robyn, is a Swedish recording artist, singer, and songwriter. Robyn became known in the late nineties for her worldwide dance-pop hit "Do You Know " from her debut album Robyn Is Here . She co-wrote the song "Du gör mig hel igen" for...

. It was released by Ariola Records

Ariola Records

Ariola Records is a German record label. As of the late 1980s, it was a subsidiary label of BMG which in turn has since become a part of the international media conglomerate Sony Music Entertainment...

 in 1995 in Sweden, in 1996 in Japan by Sony Music Japan, and in the United States on 24 June 1997 by BMG

BMG

Bertelsmann Music Group, , was a division of Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Japan's Sony Corporation of America on October 1, 2008. It was established in 1987 to combine the music label activities of Bertelsmann...

 with an alternate track listing. In 1998, the album was certified platinum

Music recording sales certification

Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...

 in the U.S, and has sold more than 922,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan

Nielsen SoundScan

Nielsen SoundScan is an information and sales tracking system created by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett. Soundscan is the official method of tracking sales of music and music video products throughout the United States and Canada...

. Worldwide, the album has sold over 1.5 million copies. The album is mainly written and produced by Swedish production team Ghost

Ghost (production team)

Ghost is a Swedish record producing and songwriting team, composed of Ulf Lindström and Johan Ekhé, based in New York City. They are perhaps best known for writing and producing Swedish singer Robyn's three first studio albums, Robyn Is Here , My Truth , and Don't Stop the Music...

, with all songs co-written by Robyn. Denniz Pop

Denniz Pop

Dag Krister Volle , better known under the artistic name Denniz Pop , was a Swedish DJ, music producer and songwriter....

 and Max Martin

Max Martin

Martin Karl Sandberg, known professionally as Max Martin, is a Swedish music producer and songwriter. Raised in Stenhamra, a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden, he broke through as a producer and songwriter in the mid to late 1990s after crafting a string of hits for pop artists like the Backstreet Boys,...

 produced two of the album's four singles, "Do You Know (What It Takes)

Do You Know (What It Takes)

"Do You Know " is a song by Swedish recording artist Robyn from her debut album, Robyn Is Here. It was released as the third Swedish and as the second single in the United Kingdom in 1996. The song was released as her debut single in the United States in 1997...

" and "Show Me Love

Show Me Love (Robyn song)

"Show Me Love" is the fourth Swedish, third UK and second U.S. single from Swedish pop singer Robyn's debut album Robyn Is Here. The song is sometimes confused with Robin S.'s 1993 hit "Show Me Love", because of identical song titles and similar first names...

". Both peaked at number seven in the U.S., while the latter peaked at number eight in the UK.

Critical reception

Writing for Melody Maker

Melody Maker

Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...

in February 1998, Peter Robinson

Peter Robinson (journalist)

Peter Robinson is a British music journalist. He is the creator of the pop music-based blog Popjustice. Robinson first came to the attention of music fans with his self-published biography/fanzine of The KLF, Justified and Ancient History...

 described Robyn Is Here as an "impressive album" and highlighted it as an alternative to other contemporaneous pop acts; "While the music loses its edge stretched over 13 tracks, and at the same time surrenders its subtlety when heard on a song-by-song basis, "Robyn Is Here" is nonetheless a slinky, funky album, and for all those disappointed by the weediness of Louise

Louise Redknapp

Louise Elizabeth Redknapp is an English singer and media personality. She was a member of the girl group Eternal from 1992 to 1995, before becoming a solo singer . She has presented several television shows and served as a judge on the UK version of So You Think You Can Dance...

, disillusioned by the Spice Girls

Spice Girls

The Spice Girls were a British pop girl group formed in 1994. The group consisted of Victoria Beckham , Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell. They were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, "Wannabe" in 1996, which hit number-one in more than 30...

, or distracted by the hastily drafted in Kim Wilde

Kim Wilde

Kim Wilde is an English pop singer, author and television presenter who burst onto the music scene in 1981 with the number 2 UK Singles Chart new wave classic "Kids in America". In 1987 she had a major hit in the United States when her version of The Supremes' classic "You Keep Me Hangin' On"...

 lookalike factor of All Saints

All Saints (group)

All Saints were a British/Canadian girl group. Founded in 1993 as All Saints 1.9.7.5, the group consisted of founding members Melanie Blatt and Shaznay Lewis, and sisters Nicole Appleton and Natalie Appleton...

, Robyn's your gal." In his consumer guide for MSN Music

MSN Music

MSN Music was a part of the MSN web services. It delivered music news, music videos, spotlights on new music, artist information, and live performances of artists. In 2004, Microsoft created an MSN Music download store to compete with Apple's iTunes Music Store, though its sales in comparison were...

, critic Robert Christgau

Robert Christgau

Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...

 gave the album a B+ rating, indicating "remarkable one way or another, yet also flirts with the humdrum or the half-assed". Christgau described it as "So front-loaded it could almost be a vinyl album with a hot side and a cool side", but commented that "a few spins in, you notice a hint of velvet in her timbre—more like suede, really—that suggests not sensuality but emotional depth".

Swedish edition

Swedish re-release

U.S. edition

Charts

Chart (1995)	Peak position
Swedish Albums Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association ....	8
Chart (1997)	Peak position
Dutch Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top...	62
French Albums Chart Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry...	68
US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...	57
US Heatseekers Albums Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers refers to either of two separate "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by Billboard Magazine: the Heatseekers Albums chart or the Heatseekers Songs chart. They were introduced by Billboard in 1993 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new and developing musical...	1
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999...	51

Certifications

Country	Certification Music recording sales certification Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
Sweden Swedish Recording Industry Association Grammofonleverantörernas förening , or the Swedish Recording Industry Association in English, is an organization representing the music recording industry of Sweden...	2× Platinum
United States Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...	Platinum

Release history

Region	Date	Label	Format
Sweden	1995	BMG, Ariola Ariola Records Ariola Records is a German record label. As of the late 1980s, it was a subsidiary label of BMG which in turn has since become a part of the international media conglomerate Sony Music Entertainment...	CD Compact Disc The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
Japan	1996	BMG, Ariola
United States	24 June 1997	BMG, RCA RCA Records RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
Canada