Janet Leon

Early life Janet Ava Owji was born on 19 October 1990 in Gothenburg, Sweden to an Iranian father and a Spanish mother. She is an only child. Leon grew up in the Gothenburg borough Johanneberg and was in her childhood interested in music, theatre and football. She began playing the violin at the age of four

Leon began participating in talent shows as a singer at the age of seven; one of her earliest stage appearances was performing Spice Girls songs alongside some of her friends at a school talent show. In her youth, Leon and some of her friends were part of a blues band

Leon's musical idols and inspirations include Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Eminem,

Career

2003–2005: Member of Play Leon's professional music career began in 2003 when she at the age of 13 joined the Swedish pop group Play as lead singer in December 2003. She replaced the band's former lead singer, then 16-year-old Faye Hamlin, who left to finish her studies at school.

In late 2008, Leon was chosen to be one of two participants in the Swedish television show Made in Sweden, hosted by Laila Bagge, Anders Bagge and Andreas Carlsson. Made in Sweden saw the producers attempt to forge successful musical artists; in Leon's case the programme followed her over the course of two months as she worked on and prepared her first solo studio album. The album, titled Janet, was released in 2009 and became a hit, Leon's debut single, "Let Go" (2009), also nearly topped the charts In 2010, she played a part in a Swedish musical stage production based on the film Grease (1978), which transplanted the plot of the film to 1960s Sweden. In 2011, Leon recorded vocals for the song "Fire Fly" on the Childish Gambino album Camp. On 3 December 2012, Leon released an acoustic version of the new song "These Chains" through the newspaper Expressen; "These Chains" was intended to eventually be part of her second album.

2012–2014: Melodifestivalen

While working on her potential second album together with songwriter Jörgen Elofsson, the two had the idea to send in a song as a competing entry to Melodifestivalen, an annual Swedish song competition which selects the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest. Leon performed "Heartstrings" in Skellefteå on 16 February 2013 and placed fifth in her semi-final, failing to qualify for the final. Leon had planned to release her second studio album in 2013 shortly after Melodifestivalen but it as of yet remains unreleased.

On 7 May 2013, Leon's new single "New Colours" was selected as the official song for Stockholm Pride 2013. The song was co-written by Leon, along with songwriters Jörgen Elofsson, Lisa Desmond and Jesper Jakobson and debuted at number 10 on the Swedish music chart Svensktoppen. Also in 2013, Leon provided backing vocals for Agnetha Fältskog's album A.

In November 2013, Leon was announced as a contestant for Melodifestivalen 2014, competing with the song "Hollow". The song was written by songwriters Karl-Ola Kjellholm, Jimmy Jansson, and Louise Winter and was performed by Leon in Örnsköldsvik on 22 February 2014. Leon placed eighth and last in the semi-final and did thus not qualify for the final.

2014–present: Career in the United States In late September 2014, Leon moved to Los Angeles, California to further pursue her dreams. Beginning in 2014 she worked as a songwriter and A&R, for instance at the entertainment company DEFIENT. She has in this capacity worked together with various artists, including Elva Hsiao.

On 7 April 2021, Leon partook in the Clubhouse talk "Women in Music – Goddess Power Unite", hosted by Swedish musician Josefine. The talk also featured various other female musicians and music creatives and also brought attention to the UK-based social organization Girls Out Loud.

On 14 April 2023, she stated that she would no longer be using the stage name "Janet Leon", citing as reasons the strange experience of growing up in the music industry and not being herself. She instead announced that she would henceforth use the stage name OWJI (pronounced O-G), adapted from her family name. Leon revealed in February 2012 that she then lived in Stockholm together with her boyfriend, whom she had been dating for sixteen months. Leon has since moved to Los Angeles in 2014 but frequently travels back to Sweden.

Released: 18 February 2009 Label: Sony BMG, Columbia Formats: CD, digital download 14

As a member of Play: 2004: Don't Stop the Music 2004: Play Around the Christmas Tree

Singles + List of singles as lead artist, with selected chart positions and certifications, showing year released and album name Title Year Peak chart positions AlbumSWE "Let Go" 2009 3Janet "Heartache on the Dance Floor"34 "These Chains" 2012 — — "Heartstrings" 2013 36 Melodifestivalen 2013 "New Colours" 10 — "Hollow" 2014 — Melodifestivalen 2014