Boten Anna

The Swedish lyrics of "Boten Anna" tell the story of a female Internet Relay Chat user who the vocalist believes is a bot but later finds out to be a beautiful woman, although she will always remain a bot in his eyes. The song is based on an actual experience of Basshunter. At the beginning of 2006^[2] he created #basshunter.se channel in QuakeNet with the help of a fan.^[3] The fan created a bot with administrative capabilities; when this happened, Basshunter saw a new user with administrative capabilities named "Anna" enter the channel, and thought this was the bot.^[3] One day in March, Basshunter returned home after playing at the club La Cocaracha in Halmstad. He and his friends played the computer game Counter-Strike while they were connected to the chat program mIRC.^[2] Basshunter typed a command into the command line to the bot to kick himself out of the channel.^[3] His drunk friend had taken control of the bot and kicked everyone out of the channel except for the two of them.^[2] Channel users started laughing, and it turned out that Anna was his friend's girlfriend.^[3]

The artist stated that the song is easy to understand and sing, even when the person singing does not speak the Swedish language.^[3] The Swedish word "bot" ("bot") was frequently mistaken for "boat" ("båt").^[4] The double meaning of the word "kanal" – which can refer to an IRC channel, as well as a water canal, added to the confusion.^{[citation needed]}

"Boten Anna" has a tempo of 140 beats per minute and is written in the key of A minor.^[5]

Basshunter recorded "Boten Anna" in March 2006 in one night over the course of six hours.^[3] He made it available on his website for free download. The song was downloaded an estimated 37,000 times within twenty-four hours of its release.^[6] With this success, Basshunter received several proposals from managers and music labels.^[7] Swedish DJ and party organizer Joakim Jarny contacted Basshunter via Internet Relay Chat and Jarny was soon overwhelmed by hundreds of requests from club owners in Sweden, Norway and Denmark who wanted Basshunter to perform at their clubs. Jarny contacted his friend Henrik Uhlmann at Extensive Music^[8] and in April 2006, Basshunter signed with Extensive Music^[9] and Warner Music Sweden.^[10] On 9 May 2006, "Boten Anna" was officially released as a single.^[11] According to information published on 8 June 2006, the song had been downloaded an estimated over one million times.^[6] In that year, Basshunter moved to Malmö, where the headquarters of Extensive Music are located.^[12] "Boten Anna" was included on Basshunter's second studio album LOL. Basshunter said that it is impossible to record a whole album in style of "Boten Anna", or it would take him a very long time, and he wanted to show that he is able to mix different styles. Basshunter said that he wanted to continue recording Swedish songs until he had six or seven songs in Swedish which satisfied him and then he wanted to translate them into the English language.^[3]

Three days were allotted for the production of the music video for "Boten Anna".^[13] The music video to the song deliberately plays on double meanings.^{[citation needed]} It shows Basshunter riding a pedal boat in Malmö.^[14] The music video features the text-based chat system for instant messaging mIRC.^[15]

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An editor from Sundsvalls Tidning compared "Boten Anna" to the songs "Hej hej Monika" by Nic & the Family and "Axel F" by Crazy Frog.^[17] Christopher Lembke from Ystads Allehanda [sv] said that "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley is the only good song which can compete with "Boten Anna" for radio listeners' favor this summer.^[18] Brynjar Mår from FM957 recommended the song and said that "Boten Anna" is a hilarious dance song and has an addictive melody.^[19] Uffe Jørgensen from B.T. that "Boten Anna" consists of equal parts Swedish sense of pop and hard-hitting beats reminiscent of 90s hits such as "Mr. Vain" by Culture Beat.^[20] In 2010, Danish musician Henrik Marstal described "Boten Anna" as a model summer hit and explained that in the past, the summer hit was something that people bet on a lot and it was a matter of having a song that could hit the mark and live for a single summer.^[21] Tom Jerry Boman in his ranking of summer hits for Mitt i [sv] described "Boten Anna" as the most unlikely summer torment of all time but he noted it is both festive and gives nerds a certain amount of fresh feeling.^[22] In 2018, Finnish singer Nelli Matula [fi] admitted in the publication Ilta-Sanomat that she did not know that the song is not about a boat, but instead about a bot. This caused discussion of the lyrics and Anna Abreu, Laura Friman [fi] and Kimmo Sainio [fi] also admitted that they did not understand the lyrics.^[23]

In 2007, Birgitte Söndergaard [sv] and Johan Andersson danced to the song on the Swedish television series Let's Dance.^[24] This year also saw the release of the computer game Singstar Pop Hits, the Scandinavian version of which includes the song "Boten Anna".^[25] "Boten Anna" was played in 2015 during The Gathering LAN party.^[26] In 2019, "Boten Anna" was ranked seventh in a Gaffa poll for the song that is the biggest summer torment.^[27] The 2022 song "Vandraren" by Daniela Rathana was inspired by "Boten Anna".^[28] On 20 November 2023, "Boten Anna" was the fourth most streamed Swedish language song on Spotify with 99 million streams.^[29] According to data published on 4 June 2024, "Boten Anna" was still the fourth most streamed Swedish language song in Spotify with over 107 million streams.^[30]

"Boten Anna" entered the Swedish singles chart at number three on 8 June 2006 and peaked in its ninth week at number one.^[31] It was certified Platinum^[32] and became the fourth single of the year to be certiied.^[33] The song sold 60,000 copies in Sweden.^[34] In Denmark, "Boten Anna" debuted at number two on 23 June then peaked at number one the next week and spent a total of 14 consecutive weeks at number one.^[35] It was sold in 27,000 downloads, 23,000 ringtones and 11,000 units of streaming, music video and bundle downloads (including the album) in 2006.^[36] "Boten Anna" was certified triple Platinum in the beginning of 2007.^[37] "Boten Anna" entered the Dutch singles chart on 29 July and it peaked at second place on 19 August, where it spent six consecutive weeks at number two.^[38] On 16 and 23 September, Basshunter's "Boten Anna" was at second place while the Gebroeders Ko version was at third.^[39][40] "Boten Anna" peaked at number one on the Swedish^[41] and Norwegian ringtones chart.^[42] In December, "Boten Anna" entered the Austrian singles chart and peaked at number two in 2007. The song spent 39 weeks on the chart^[43] and was certified Gold.^[44] "Boten Anna" charted at number 30 on the European Hot 100 Singles.^[45]

• CD single (9 May 2006)

1. "Boten Anna" (Radio Mix) – 3:29
2. "Boten Anna" (Club Mix) – 5:26

• CD single (4 September 2006)

1. "Boten Anna" (Radio Edit) – 3:29
2. "Boten Anna" (Club Remix) – 5:26
3. "Boten Anna" (DJ Micro Spankin Club Remix) – 5:30
4. "Boten Anna" (Backslash Fluffy Style Remix) – 4:40
5. "Boten Anna" (SkillsToPayTheBills Remix) – 4:34
6. "Boten Anna" (Instrumental) – 3:20

An English version of "Boten Anna" titled "Now You're Gone", sung by Sebastian Westwood^[75] using unrelated lyrics by DJ Mental Theo's Bazzheadz which was originally released in 2006, became the music to a video by Basshunter with the same title in November 2007. The video and the track were met with worldwide chart success and became the most requested record in summer holiday resorts around Europe in early 2008. As people returning from their holidays wanted to hear it again, TV channels in the UK were inundated with requests for the video.^{[citation needed]} On 13 January 2008, "Now You're Gone" entered number one in the UK Singles Chart and spent five weeks at the top of the chart, ending Leon Jackson's three-week run with "When You Believe".^[76] In the sixth week after the song's release, it was knocked off the top by Welsh singer Duffy, with her song "Mercy".^{[citation needed]}

In 2006, the company JME Data used "Boten Anna" with different lyrics for an advertisement.^[95] An Israeli band called Hovevey Zion (חובבי ציון) spoofed "Boten Anna" with their popular single, "Rotze banot" (רוצה בנות, meaning "I Want Girls").^[96] "Dicke Anna" by Kid Bob [de] was released on 20 April 2007. It charted on the singles chart in Austria and Germany.^[97][98] In 2010, Swedish band Torgny Melins released their studio album Dansbandsnatt, which cointaned a cover of "Boten Anna".^[99] Dansbandsnatt peaked at number two on the Swedish albums chart.^[100] In 2021, "Boten Anna" was covered by electronic music act Finnish Millennium Project.^[101]

• List of number-one singles of the 2000s (Sweden)
• List of number-one songs of the 2000s (Denmark)
• List of number-one singles of 2007 (Finland)
• List of Dutch Top 40 number-one singles of 2006