The story

Nina Persson has spent most of her life involved with music, but she's still reluctant to call herself a musician. "I'm still only a singer," the artist best known for fronting Swedish indie-pop band The Cardigans likes to say. "I still haven't bothered to learn an instrument."

Persson was a bored teenager in the small town of Jonkoping, Sweden when she met eventual bandmates Magnus Sveningsson and Peter Svensson. "I was hired because they knew they wanted a girl singing," she told CNN. "We got along well, and I was willing to learn to sing. It totally saved my life."

Born in 1974, Persson loved music growing up, she says. But she never expected to make it a career, let alone become an international star. When she was recruited by The Cardigans, she was more into art and expected to become a painter or designer.

Joining The Cardigans changed her path. Shortly after forming in 1992, the five-person group moved to the coastal town of Malmo. (Persson says guitarist Svensson came up with the name for the band, drawing upon lyrics from a song by the British band The Sundays.) Watch Nina take CNN on a tour of Malmo

Persson fondly recalls the early days of the so-called "collective" they set up. There were "lots of parties going on," she says about the single apartment the group shared. But the band was also hard at work and quickly gained a following in Sweden with their debut album "Emmerdale." Read full article »