All That She Wants

Ace of Base were a Swedish pop group whose music defined the sound of dance music for the rest of the 90’s. Comprised of Ulf Ekberg and his three siblings: Jonas Berggren, Linn Berggren and Jenny Berggren. They released four albums from 1992 to 2002 and have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.

“All She Wants” is a reggae-pop hybrid that tells the story of a sexually promiscuous woman searching for her newest lover. The lead single off of their 1992 album “Happy Nation”. Inspired by the Swedish hit “Another Mother by Kayo, Ace of Base decided that was the direction they wanted their sound to go in. Originally, the song was in major key rather than minor, as well as having different lyrics. The track was sent to the producer of “Another Mother” Denniz PoP, who originally found the song unimpressive but due to it getting stuck in the tape player in his car, he was forced to listen to the track over and over again, leading him to make many changes to the song. He decided to scrap the original rap verse sung by Jonas and Ulf which was replaced with spoken word sections, as well adding an extra verse. The final version was a dark pop-reggae mix, which would lead to becoming the band’s trademark sound.

“All that she wants is another baby” would be the band’s most popular lyric, but did cause confusion and debate between fans for over two decades, attempting to decipher whether the lyric meant “baby” as a term of endearment or in the literal sense. In 2015, Jonas Berggren confirmed to Billboard magazine that it was meant to be a term of endearment.

The music video was shot in November 1992 and directed by Swedish director Matt Broadley. It had an extremely low budget and was filmed in one day in Copenhagen in only two takes. The music video features Ace of Base performing in a small apartment, showing shots of a women putting makeup on and getting read to head out. The unnamed woman heads out to a bar, meets a man and takes him home with her. The music video was uploaded to the official Ace of Base YouTube channel in October 2010, and has over 58 million views as of January 2019.

Release Date: 1st November 1992

Songwriter/s: Jonas Berggren & Ulf Ekberg

Producer/s: Denniz Pop, Jonas Berggren & Ulf Ekberg

Label/s: Mega / London / Arista

Music Video Release Date: 1992

Music Video Director: Matt Broadley

Chart Rankings, Certifications & Accolades: The track went double Platinum in Australia, and Platinum in New Zealand, the UK and the US. It went triple Gold in Germany, and Gold in Austria and France. It reached #1 in thirteen countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Greece. Iceland, Israel, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. The song has made its way onto many lists: Life Magazines “The Best Recordings of the 90’s”, MTV Dance’s 2011 list at #56 on “The 100 Biggest 90’s Dance Anthems of All Time, Vibe’s “Before EDM: 30 Dance Tracks from the ’90s That Changed the Game” at #6, Buzzfeed’s 2017 “The 101 Greatest Dance Songs of the ’90s” ranking at #18, Time Out’s 2018 lists “The 50 Best Pop Songs” at #36 and at #48 on their “50 Best ’90s Songs”.