Ooh ooh, aah aah, sexy eyes / I’m gonna take you to paradise…
No ’90s dance floor or car trip was complete without the sound of Whigfield pumping through the speakers.
The Danish singer, whose real name is Sannie Charlotte Carlson, was a chart sensation thanks to Saturday Night, Sexy Eyes and other upbeat, era-defining earworms.
Who could forget the Saturday Night music video? Those plaits!
Watch the video above.
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Though the single was released in 1993, it would be another four years before it hit the Aussie market – reaching similar success here.
Saturday Night was undoubtedly a bop, but it also broke records.
“The record was the fastest selling single, going straight to number one from a debut artist in the UK. I felt really honoured about that,” Whigfield told 9Honey Celebrity in 2019.
“I remember my grandmother used to keep all the magazines and I remember that was a big moment for me.”
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Whigfield may no longer be dominating the charts, but Carlson, now aged 53, is still making music under a plethora of stage names, both as a performer and a songwriter – and she’s also still touring.
Whigfield’s rise to fame
Born in Denmark in 1970, as a child, Carlson spent several years living in Africa before moving back home.
She studied music, worked as a model and played in a two-person musical act before producer Larry Pignagnoli discovered her in Italy – and the rest, as they say, is history.
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Whigfield debuted with her hit single Saturday Night, which entered Italy’s top five the same year it was released. It wasn’t until 1994, however, that it truly became an international hit.
“It was kind of weird for me because I was on tour in Spain and Portugal at the time and I remember being called up by the BBC and they just went live on radio saying, ‘Miss Whigfield, you’re number one!'” Carlson recalled to 9Honey Celebrity in 2019.
Saturday Night was the hit that finally dethroned Wet Wet Wet’s Love is All Around, which had spent 15 weeks at the top of the charts.
“And then they flew me out to London and there were 15 photographers there, and the rest was history.”
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What followed was hits Sexy Eyes and Gimme Gimme, but years later, Carlson said she wished she was warned earlier about what that level of superstardom would mean for her day-to-day life.
Why Whigfield wishes she was warned about becoming a global superstar
“I wish someone would have prepared you for these things because you’re kind of just pushed out into the whole thing,” Whigfield told 9Honey Celebrity.
“You need a strong personality and I think you have to be sure of what you’re doing. Because I love being on stage – I really enjoy it sincerely and I love the audience. But you need a lot of discipline for work, and you really need to love what you’re doing.”
What she has said she’s grateful for, however, is the fact that when she was at the height of her fame doing “naughty things”, social media wasn’t around to document it.
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”I’m sure there would’ve been so much more material out there,” Carlson said, laughing.
“It’s funny because in those days people would just bring their video cameras, they were just these huge machines. Now it’s an iPhone. How the world has changed!”
Where Whigfield is now
Carlson’s last hit as Whigfield – a name she chose in honour of her late music teacher – that scored a spot in the United Kingdom’s Top 40 charts was her 1995 cover of Wham!’s Last Christmas.
In the years since, she’s continued to record music, though for a period of time, she released it under the stage name ‘Sannie’.
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Her most recent single was 2022’s Megamix, which was released as part of her 2022 compilation’s album The Hits Collection.
Notably, in 2018, Carlson competed for the chance to represent Denmark at the Eurovision Song Contest, though Rasmussen was ultimately chosen instead.
She’s most recently been performing across Europe as part of various ’90s music festivals.
As for her personal life, not much is known – aside from the fact that she’s been engaged to her long-term partner Finn, an Italian music producer, since Christmas 2021.
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