Ulf Ekberg

Ulf Ekberg
Ekberg in 2012
Background information
Birth name	Ulf Gunnar Ekberg
Also known as	Buddha
Born	(1970-12-06) 6 December 1970 Gothenburg, Sweden
Genres	Pop
Occupation(s)	Musician, singer, songwriter, businessman, television producer, film producer
Instrument(s)	Keyboards, vocals
Years active	1983–present

Ulf Gunnar Ekberg (born 6 December 1970), also known as Buddha, is a Swedish musician, best known as a founding member of the pop group Ace of Base, along with siblings Jonas Berggren, Linn Berggren and Jenny Berggren.

Life and career

Ace of Base released its debut album in 1992 and went on to attain major chart success throughout the 1990s. Ekberg played an integral part in the production of the Happy Nation album, co-writing nearly all of the album's tracks. Ekberg would continue to provide writing and production for the group's future works, notably the singles "Love in December" and "All for You."

Ekberg has produced several artists, TV productions, films and events and has sold over 50 million records worldwide.

In 2009, he started a new music production/publishing and management company together with Jonas Berggren based in LA, London and Stockholm.

After Ekberg experienced the tsunami in Phuket, Thailand, he founded the Surin Relief Fund to support affected children by providing facilities to educate children and care for orphaned children.

On 27 March 1993, Expressen reported that Ekberg had once been a member of a band called Commit Suiside [sic], which was active in Gothenburg from 1984 to 1986, when Ulf was between the ages of 14 and 16. In 1998, the Swedish record label Flashback Records released Uffe was a Nazi!, an unauthorized, five-track compilation of what it said were Commit Suiside recordings the label had found in its archives. The songs contained explicitly violent and racist lyrics, including celebratory allusions to the Ku Klux Klan and calls for the killing of black people, immigrants, and others. A photograph allegedly depicting Ekberg making a Nazi salute and wearing a shirt emblazoned with a Ku Klux Klan symbol commonly called a "Blood Drop Cross" was used for the record's front cover.

Ekberg has denied that Commit Suiside wrote or performed the songs released on Uffe was a Nazi!, and that the band made racist or political music of any kind, describing it as "a New Wave music band creating and performing electronic music on synthesizers without any political touch or agenda." Despite reports to the contrary, Ekberg has also denied ever being a member of the Sweden Democrats, a far-right political party founded in 1988 that, while having moderated somewhat since the late 1990s, has its origins in a militant anti-immigration subculture and counts among its founders Gustaf Ekström, a former Waffen-SS member, and Anders Klarström, who had previously been involved in the openly Neo-Nazi Nordic Realm Party and was one of Ekberg's bandmates in Commit Suiside.

Nonetheless, Ekberg has acknowledged being involved in neo-Nazi skinhead culture in his youth, and has repeatedly expressed regret for his views and actions during that part of his life. In the 1997 documentary Our Story, Ekberg said: "I told everyone I really regret what I've done. [...] I took the experience from it, I learned from it. But that life is not me. It's somebody else." In 2013, he said: "During the early 1990s I did dozens of interviews, all around the world, about the people I sometimes found myself surrounded by in the 1980s and how profoundly regretful I am now about associating with such individuals. Those interviews covered every aspect of my past, as I strove to be an open book to anyone who asked. [...] The teenage mistakes I did make in terms of my chosen ideas at the time were unfortunate and if I were to live through those days again I would have done things very differently! I'm truly deeply sorry for any hurt and disappointment this has caused for our fans, and I want to be very clear that Ace of Base never shared any of these opinions and strongly oppose all extremist opinions on both the right and left wing."

Personal life

Ekberg in 2008

Ekberg dated the Swedish model/actress Emma Sjöberg from 1994 to 2000. Until summer 2010, Ekberg lived in London. He currently lives in Stockholm with his girlfriend Johanna Aybar and their three children.

Writing

Ekberg has written and produced the following songs:

With Jonas Berggren

• "Wheel of Fortune"
• "All That She Wants"
• "Young and Proud"
• "Living in Danger"
• "My Mind"
• "Dancer in Daydream"
• "Happy Nation"
• "Voulez-Vous Danser"
• "Waiting for Magic"
• "Münchhausen (Just Chaos)"
• "Blah, blah, blah on the Radio"
• "Southern California"
• "One Day"
• "Doreen"
• "Precious"
• "Black Sea"
• "Vision in Blue"
• "Who am I"
• "Told My Ma"

With Jonas, Jenny, & Malin Berggren

• "Hear Me Calling"
• "Love In December"
• "Change With the Light"

With StoneStream & John Ballard

• "Qué Será"
• "Perfect World"
• "Edge of Heaven"
• "Look Around Me" (Unreleased)
• "Angel of Love" (Unreleased)

With John Ballard

• "Mercy Mercy"
• "I Pray"
• "Don't Go Away"

With Jonas Berggen & Jonas Saeed

• "All For You"
• "The Golden Ratio"

With Jonas Berggren, Ari Lehtonen and D. Massy

• "Mr Replay"

Vocals

Ekberg has contributed vocals to the following songs:

• "All That She Wants"
• "Wheel of Fortune"
• "Living in Danger"
• "My Mind"
• "Happy Nation"
• "Don't Turn Around"
• "Waiting for Magic"
• "Fashion Party"
• "Münchhausen (Just Chaos)"
• "Hear Me Calling"
• "Perfect World"
• "I Pray"
• "Change With the Light"
• "All For You"
• "Mr Replay"
• "Prime Time"
• "Look Around Me"
• "Angel of Love"

External links

• Ulf Ekberg at IMDb