One early morning in 2006, Linda Carlsson couldn´t sleep. She was lying awake thinking about buying a piano and start writing songs. She didn´t exactly know how to play a piano, but she decided that nothing was going to stop her this time.

Later that day, a brand new piano stood in her tiny apartment in Stockholm, where she recently had moved from her birthplace Borlänge, and she instantly started writing songs under the name Miss Li.

Already a few months later she came in contact with the recordlabel National and that autumn in 2006 she released the first album Late night heartbroken blues. She was so inspired and the following year she released another two albums (God put a rainbow in the sky and Songs of a rag doll) all within one year, plus a Best of compilation (including a bonus CD with 8 previously unreleased tracks) with the best songs from that first year. She had also found the perfect producer and songwriting partner in Sonny Boy Gustafsson, who had a past in the swedish rock’n roll band Captain Murphy. Together with Sonny and the rest of the band she toured the whole world with that jazzy, uptempo pop they were playing which had become the signature for Miss Li. She also had a huge hit (Om du lämnar mig nu) together with Lars Winnerbäck, Swedens most popular male-singer at the time, and the song is still a top-10 hit after 4 years on the charts.

In 2009 the fourth album Dancing the whole way home was released, and it had a new sound compared to the earlier albums. It had a marvellous response from both the audience and critics. Several of the songs have since been used in TV-shows such as Grey´s anatomy, Desperate housewife´s and Weeds. The song Bourgeois Shangri-La was used in a world wide commercial campaign for Apple’s Ipod nano. Her song Oh Boy became massive all over the world after it appeard in a commercial for Volvo. And now, after touring the world several times, it´s time for Miss Li to release  a new and more soulful album called Beats & Bruises. And so the story continues...

Words from one sister to another

First of all I want to say that I am very honoured and happy to write this text about you - my sister.

I clearly remember the telephone call we had in February 2006. I called you up to see how you were doing and you said that you had a friend over helping you out in the bedroom. I said I was sorry to interrupt and was about to hang up when you started to go on about your new solo project. After clearing the first minor misunderstanding you told me that you and your friend were in the bedroom recording the songs for your upcoming demo. My first thought was okay, another one of your musical projects. I have heard you singing everything from opera, classical, musical, jazz, blues to rock, in musicals, shows and in different constellations of bands during the years, but as much as I knew your last band had recently split up. I have to admit that at that point I did not take your new project too seriously.

Then you told me that you had bought yourself a piano and now you were going to do your own thing with just your voice and a piano. That was the part when I got really sceptical. I asked you if I had missed something because as much as I knew you had not touched a piano since you were forced to play an instrument in Junior school. You said: “that’s correct but what the hell, I don’t need to play that well to make it sound nice”.

A few weeks later the demo arrived in the mail and all I could do was to admit that you were right. What I got to hear was the first stage of what was going to be Miss Li, a hint of what was to come. You started performing in bars and clubs and all I could think was that this has been typical you - for all your life - you decide to do something that you really want, throw yourself out without a parachute and you make a perfect landing.

Since the first demo and performances you have found yourself some amazing musicians, Clas Lassbo on contrabass and Gustav Nahlin on drums, who will back you up on the record and gigs.

Here you are, nine months after our telephone call, with your debut album in your hand, and a heart filled with expectations, pride and joy. I know that your wish is not to conquer the world, Sweden or anything at all, but to make people happy. All I can say is that your intense, ironical, cheerful, naïve and self exposed songs - with a huge portion of self distance – comes straight from your heart and will make people dance for a long time. Even mum and dad are dancing.