DESCRIPTION:
PRESSRELEASE:

The danish singer Natasja Saad has died at the young age of 32.

She was involved in a car crash in Jamaica at 2 PM danish time, Sunday. There were 5 passengers in the vehicle when the driver lost control of the of the steering and crashed the car. Natasja died shortly after the accident. Among the passengers were also Natasja´s best friend Karen Mukupa, with whom Natasja started her career with in the all-girl group No Name Requested in the early nineties. Karen Mukupa did not receive any serious injuries in the accident.

Natasja´s death is even more tragic in light of the fact that she was in the middle of her career breakthrough, both nationally as well as internationally, after setting off on her musical path at the tender age of thirteen.

In conclusion, on behalf of employees, friends and colleagues, I would like to state that this is a terrible loss for all of us, and for danish music. Our thoughts and compassion go out to Natasja´s family.

Søren Krogh Hansen
General Manager, Playground Music
____________


Summer 2006 saw Natasja win Irie FM's influential "Big Break" contest in Jamaica! 700 contestants, 12 finalists -- but only one winner! NATASJA. She's the first non-Jamaican ever to win the contest, and the exposure she is getting over there is tremendous!

Born in Copenhagen 1974, Natasja grew up listening to her mother's collection of Dennis Brown and Bob Marley Records. This would mark the early steps in a life filled with music. - A life that has become as busy as ever during the past year.

Natasja's debut on stage was at the mere age of 13, when she started singing /"dee-jaying" in Copenhagen with local Jamaican soundsystem Sky Juice and was noticed at a concert opening for Macka B and Arriwa Posse, where Mad Professor himself was blown away by her talent.

She was ahead of her time alongside with Miss Mukupa and McEmzee introducing raggamuffin' to the Danish hip hop community in the early nineties with the group called No Name Requested.
During that period the girls did a lot of shows and travelled with artists such as: Queen Latifa, Das EFX, Tribe Called Quest and Massive Attack and opened shows for people like Ninja Man, Charlie Chaplin and Lexxus. Natasja's talent has impressed many people from the reggae scene, which has led to studio recordings, live performances and press coverage in Jamaica.

Unfortunately Natasja suffered serious injuries due to a crash with a racehorse in 1998, during her education to become a professional jockey. The accident slowed her musical career down for a while, but you can't keep a good woman down, so soon after she would be pursuing her recording career again...

During Summer 2004 Natasja released the 12" 'Cover Me' and later the 7" 'Summercute', followed one year later by her long anticipated debut album 'Release'. Furthermore she has featured on the hit-single 'Cigar' from Denmark's chartbusting dancehall trio Bikstok Røgsystem and has also recorded with German reggae institution Germaicans and featured on the latest album of Africa Unite. Natasja recently stepped up to the super league of reggae recording with icons Sly & Robbie in their studio in Jamaica. Furthermore she had legendary studio engineer Bulby do the mixing duties on the forthcoming revised international version of 'Release'.

Natasja and her band 'The Ragga Pack' has been touring many different countries during the last year. In 2006 you could find Natasja at Red Stripe Reggae Sumfest in Jamaica, Popkomm Reggae Festival in Berlin, Uppsala Reggae Festival in Sweden, SPOT, Roskilde Festival in Denmark and at the legendary Sting Festival in Jamaica to name some. Natasja is hitting more international stages in 2007 - Big tings a gwaan!

www.myspace.com/tasjamusic

Buy the album here:
http://www.cdskiven.dk/default.asp?view=albuminfo&albumid=791112&preorder=0&news=0&sale=0&secondhand=0&showGenre=0&showCat=1

Edited by Davor Krilic