Among her best known songs are "Private Emotion", a (duet with Ricky Martin) from his multi-Platinum album Ricky Martin (1999), and "All 'bout the Money", which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1998.
She gained much popularity in the West after her single "How Crazy are You?" was used as the main theme music for the Xbox video game Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball.
Meja was born Anna Pernilla Torndahl in Nynäshamn, Stockholm County. She had her stage debut at "Ystads City theatre" at the age of 7. She was brought up in a musical family, her grandfather, Per Lundkvist, was a composer of both classical and contemporary music and her mother, a recording artist as a child before choosing a path as a painter.
In 1986, at the age of 16, she moved to Mallorca, Spain, to study. She was introduced to American jazz trumpet player/singer Stephen Frankevich and started to take vocal lessons with singer Deborah Carter.
Meja went to Stockholm in 1990. She sang in different bands there before getting out on tour as a backup singer for the Swedish group Rob n Raz DLC in 1991. In 1992 Meja moved to Los Angeles to continue her studies at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood. She graduated from the vocal program in late 1992 then returned to Sweden.
n 1993, Meja worked with the dance project Legacy of Sound. She co-wrote with Anders Bagge the first single, "Happy", from the album Holy Groove. The song reached the Top 10 on Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club play, and it peaked at number 68 on the Top 100 during a 12-week stay on the chart. "Happy" was released in over 20 countries. Meja recorded one more album with Legacy of Sound in 1994, Tour de Force.
Meja teamed in 1995 with Swedish manager Lasse Karlsson, manager of Ace of Base, and writer/producer Douglas Carr to provide the vocals for the demo The Juvenile titled The Goldeneye.
The first solo album Meja, was released in 1996, with songs co-written by Billy Steinberg. In 1997 Meja had her first concert tour in Japan: The Flower Girl Jam Tour.
Meja released the album Seven Sisters in 1998. Later that year Columbia (Sony) launched the album in the U.S with the single "How Crazy Are You?"
Meja went to Miami in 1999 to record "Private Emotion", a duet with Ricky Martin for his debut album Ricky Martin. After shooting a video for the song, Meja stayed in Los Angeles to work on her next album Realitales (2000) with Steinberg. She also co-wrote two tracks for the album in London with Stephen Lipson. The artwork for this album was shot by Swedish director Jonas Åkerlund.
In 2003 Meja started to work with her former Sony Music boss, Richard Ogden. The album Mellow was released in 2004, with songs in Portuguese ("Água de Beber", "Dindi") and Spanish. She covered a Caetano Veloso song "O'Leaonzinho" that she named "Little Lion." The album was produced by Hamish Stuart. One song, "Simple Days-Walking the Distance", was used in the Japanese film Lakeside Murder Case.
In 2006 Meja went back to Los Angeles to collaborate again with Steinberg on a new album, also working with writers Jeff Barry, Billy Gibbons, Jed Leiber and Boz Boorer.
The first single "At the Rainbow's End" was released in June 2009, the second single "Regrets (I Have None)" in August, and the album Urban Gypsy was released on her own label Seven Sisters Network in October on a license deal with Sony Music. A remix of Mando Diao's "Dance with Somebody" was released early 2010.
The first release from the album Stroboscope Sky was the single "Blame it on the Shadows" (2013) produced by Ebbot Lundberg. Meja teamed with producer Nicolas Gunthardt and together with his sister Alessandra they wrote "Yellow Ribbon" which served as the theme song for the album. "Yellow Ribbon" was released as a single in collaboration with Amnesty International/Free the Angola 3 to help raise awareness of the case of Albert Woodfox. A remix EP was released with remixes by Deep Forest, Dj Swami, Gota Yashiki, DF Tram, NORD and more.
All 'bout The Money
Meja Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Inside my mind
When I realize
The crazy things we do
It makes me feel ashamed to be alive
It makes me want to run away and hide
[Chorus]
It's all 'bout the dumb dum,
And I don't think It's funny
To see us fade away
It's all 'bout the money
It's all 'bout the dumb dum,
And I think we got it all wrong anyway
We find strange ways of showing
Them how much we really care
When in fact
We just don't seem to care at all
This pretty world
Is getting out of hand
So tell me how we fail to understand?
[Chorus: x3]
Meja's song "All 'Bout the Money" is a powerful commentary on society's obsession with wealth and money, even at the expense of human values and decency. The opening line, "Sometimes I find another world inside my mind," suggests that the singer is grappling with the harsh reality of the world around her and how it seems to be motivated solely by greed and materialism. When she says, "it makes me feel ashamed to be alive," she is expressing her disillusionment and frustration with the way things are. The chorus makes clear that Meja believes that society's focus on money is misguided and ultimately leads to a loss of humanity and empathy.
The lines "We find strange ways of showing them how much we really care / When in fact we just don't seem to care at all" highlight the absurdity of the situation. People may talk about caring for others, but ultimately their actions speak louder than words, and those actions are often motivated by financial gain rather than genuine concern. The final line of the chorus, "And I think we got it all wrong anyway," is a powerful indictment of the entire system and suggests that society needs to rethink its priorities if we want to create a better world.
Line by Line Meaning
Sometimes I find another world
Sometimes I escape reality and create my own world in my mind
Inside my mind
This alternate world exists only in my thoughts
When I realize
When I become aware of
The crazy things we do
Our irrational actions
It makes me feel ashamed to be alive
These actions make me feel embarrassed and regretful to exist
It makes me want to run away and hide
I want to escape and hide from these situations and people who act in such ways
It's all 'bout the money
All this revolves around money
It's all 'bout the dumb dum,
It's all about people being foolish and blinded by money
And I don't think it's funny
I don't find it amusing
To see us fade away
Watching society and individuals deteriorate as a result of this obsession with money
And I think we got it all wrong anyway
Our priorities are misplaced and flawed
We find strange ways of showing
We exhibit peculiar methods of displaying
Them how much we really care
How much we truly care about others
When in fact
However, in reality
We just don't seem to care at all
We do not care at all
This pretty world
This beautiful world
Is getting out of hand
Is becoming chaotic and unmanageable
So tell me how we fail to understand?
Why do we fail to comprehend this reality?
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: DOUGLAS IAN CARR, MEJA ANNA PERNILLA BECKMAN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind