It is with great, great sadness that I bring you the following statement. Play was a huge part of my life and I will always look back at the group and smile. Thank you girls for another few years of music and memories. I love all of the girls and wish them all the best. And to everyone who has been loyal followers and visitors of Play Mania, I thank you with all of my heart.
As many of you know, since last summer I have worked with Play in planning the group’s return to the U.S. this year. I am very sorry to tell you that what started out with such great promise has ended unexpectedly and unhappily, for the girls had a disagreement and broke up over it. Since it does not appear they are going to make any kind of statement I feel I owe it to you, the fans, to try to put this past year in some perspective so we can all have closure from what has been an emotional ten year roller coaster ride with this group.
Before I met the girls I was a fan like you. Like most of you I hoped they might one day reunite. In late 2009 it became a reality. The problem is, with all things real there are inevitable bumps in the road. Anna was not invited to rejoin and some of you were unhappy about that decision. Then Rosie dropped out for unrelated reasons.
Still, with Anais and Faye I thought Play could conquer the world. As young women and artists they have many incredible qualities. They make an amazing team. Faye is one of the best vocalists and performers in the world as we all know, and Anais is so mature, polished, and determined. Anais walks in a room and just takes it over with her beauty, intelligence and presence, and no doubt she will be a great success no matter what she does. It was a strong trio because Sanne is not just window dressing, she is a formidable vocalist in her own right.
My work unexpectedly brought me in contact with Laila and I was given a chance to help the girls return to the U.S. When I first spoke to the girls I told them their timing was good because the world is waiting for the next big girl group to emerge, but if they wanted to fill that void they would have to work harder and with much greater passion than I had seen from them on the internet the past few months. They swore to me they were ready to do those things and would never give up. There was great excitement when the girls came to Los Angeles last August. Everyone loved them. Everyone was thrilled to have Anais and Faye back. We met with music people and television people and everything went perfectly. We went to Interscope Records, the biggest record label in the world, and they loved the girls. What was supposed to be a 20 minute meeting turned into a full day at Interscope. Before they left LA the girls gave a showcase before a large music industry audiance, and they performed with a passion that had been missing. People were buzzing with excitement, and everyone was convinced Play was a sure thing to be the next super girl group. The future looked so bright.
We were planning to finalize certain deals when Disney called and asked the girls to record Destiny. I was up all night negotiating the deal because the girls had to be in the studio the next morning. Then, out of the blue, Faye woke up, called Laila, and told her she had changed her mind and did not want to sing anymore. She quit, on the spot, with no notice. There was total hysteria. Total devestation.
Laila, Anders and Andreas had invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in the new Play, on a television show and an album. Faye had come to Los Angeles and met everyone, so it was a huge embarrassment to go back and tell people one of the members had left already. Sanne and Anais had to record Destiny alone. They cried all day. Anders, Andreas, and Laila met with Faye but she would not budge. They felt betrayed, and Anais and Laila, in particular, were grief stricken.
In retrospect, it probably should have ended when this happened because let’s face it, Faye is irreplaceable. But then Emelie came along, and I like Emelie a lot. She has her own cool style, she is very intelligent, and I thought it could still work. All three girls were here in January and they did well. We had funding in place, we had a game plan, and it was time to make the big push.
But when the girls returned home from the U.S. they went their separate ways and never got back together. At first it was as though they were taking a break, but that led to disagreements and misunderstandings. Certainly part of it was poor communication, and I was confident if they just sat down and talked they could work it out, but they never got together. Further, some members felt they were willing to sacrafice more and work harder but that the others did not share that same commitment. Whatever it was, in the end, after Rosie left and Faye quit, perhaps it was just not meant to be.
Why do I tell you all this? Because as fans who have supported the group for so long you deserve to know what happened as best it can be explained. The lesson is, as fans it is important to keep a grasp on the distinction between reality and fantasy.
Our heroes are human, they are imperfect, and what we get to see of them is often more illusion than real. The truth is always more complicated. When you meet the girls it is hard not to love them even when they do things that drive you crazy.
I prefer to remember Play as the girls appeared at the time the Replay album was released and the group seemed headed for immense success. Anais, Fanny, Rosie, and Anna, four girls who were talented, fun, sweet and pretty — if anything, ahead of their time. What they created was very special and gave us much joy. With all things in life it was fleeting. We will never know how far Play could have gone, then and now, if Fanny had stayed. In my mind, she made the difference between a group that was good and a group that was great (unstoppable)..
Play gave us something to smile about, and whether the girls ever understood or even cared, we were all fortunate to experience the magic.
Sincerely,
Glen Kulik
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I believe the whole made in sweden thing was the biggest mistake for the group, you can tell just by watching that there still some emotional scars like said before i hope there comes a time when the original members can sit down and talk to each other straighten things out and reunite i think it’s sad this broke up again oh well at least we got one last album out of them
Fanny just updated her Facebook page with talk of her solo album. Very brief but nice to hear something. Quick question: why did she change her name to Fanny?
She has a Facebook page?
Well, if you don’t know about it maybe its a fake. Please check!!
I don’t think that’s actually hers. I think someone is posing as her. There are a couple of articles though
http://www.popaganda.se/parkteatern/artister#fanny
http://swedishstereo.blogspot.com/2011/06/play-fanny-is-going-solo.html
The Swedish Stereo link that Brittany provided is the website that leads you to Fanny’s Facebook page. They say in the article that its her page. Someone should correct them :)
They also are apparently under the impression that Play is still together…? :P
As far as I know that is just a page for her made by a fan and not official or associated with Fanny.
Fanny is her birth name and the name she goes by personally and professionally since quitting Play back in 2003. Faye was just a nickname given to her to seem more American (to the US audience), it is not her real name.
For those of you who have visited my Sanne site, the URL is now sannekarlssonfans.com
ahhhhhhhhhhhh Anais just go solo dude lol I will love to see you do a solo album
their first problem is that faye left and ruined everything. they couldve gone SOOO far, if only she stayed, I kinda knew this was gonna happen. they should have invited Anna back. Thats what started it. If they had all of the members…they couldve gone far again but without anna…it wasnt the same so Rosie went and then Faye. In my opinion they shouldve invited all of the members back. maybe one day they can ALL, rosie anna anais and faye, sit down together and talk it out, forgive and forget, and make music like the album Replay. its sad to see such a good band go. But, it happens. I just hope one dayyy…..
The girls (Anais, Sanne, Emelie) need to just grow up and get back together! After reading everything that Glen said I think they really broke up for absolutely no real reason at all. faye leaving was not a reason for Anders, Andreas and Laila to quit and the girls should have just got together after going home from LA but insted they decided to act ALOT younger than they really are and be immature. I am very disappointed in all three of them. =,(
team janet
Hey, does anyone know when “destiny” will be released on one of Disney’s upcoming compilation albums? I know that somebody said Disney would release it on an album with other soundtrack songs.
Music like this was soo good it travelled to my ears in Australia. My jaw was dropped the whole time I read Glen’s Article. People used to laugh at me because I listened to Swedish music but I didn’t listen to them because I was listening to real music. PLAY sang the words to the world that I couldn’t. I wish that they would see that this is a lot bigger than them. It was really nice listening to something that I thought was real. However, PLAY just wasn’t what I believed, hoped and imagined it was.
For those of you who are still sad and still enjoy hearing further information about Play let me tell you about some television “facts” you might find interesting. In January, we were working with two television production companies on two separate concepts. With the first group we went to MTV. As I told you months ago, we had a first meeting in LA and MTV liked the girls enough that they wanted to meet with them and me alone in New York, so the girls and I flew to NY to have that second meeting just ourselves. The execs in NY told us they really liked the girls but didn’t understand the actual premise of the show the producers had presented, and they asked us to tell the producers to submit a final written outline by that Friday so they could make a decision. Unfortunately, the “show runner” (executive producer”} whom the production company had attached to write our show was not able to come up with a final product that the production company liked and thus nothing was ever turned in, and MTV decided to go ahead instead with a show called the Electric Barbarellas (if any of you saw it, it was pretty lame in my opinion). The second group of producers we were working with we liked much better. The executive producer is a man by the name of David Von Ancken who has directed many episodes of shows like Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries, Californication, etc. The writer is a women (Elisa) who is married to the lead singer of the group Linkin Park, so she has seen the struggle when a group is first starting and what you have to do to be successful. We absolutely loved those two people and they came up with a great concept for a one hour scripted show I know you all would have loved. Everyone was very optimistic, and we went to ABC Family but they passed. They had already decided to air “Switched at Birth” and the show about the girl who was really a cat in her former life, and they had no more room for more series. The thing is, those were the only two networks that were hearing pitches at that time of the year, and we were just waiting until summer so we could go to the CW network in particular since the girls of Play are a bit more sophisticated and classy than the typical ABC Family or MTV show. Unfortunately, the girls broke up which was very embarrassing for me to have to tell David and Elisa. but they are still planning to pitch the show to CW in the next month without Play. If necessary, they will cast the parts with actresses. Anais is the one they would very much like to be in their show so I contacted her and she said she is no longer interested. She has taken a job with an event planning/public relations firm in Stockholm and said she is going to give that a try. David and Elisa are still going to try to sell their show to CW in the next month or so, and if they do, I will contact the girls again to see if they are willing to change their mind (it won’t happen without Anais, however). I really, really like David and Elisa and their concept, and I know you will love it to, whether or not Play is in it. I can’t understand how the girls can turn down the chance to be in a series but if the series does sell and the girls are not in it you and I will still know they inspired the show.
Hope you find this interesting. There is a little more television information I can tell you, pertaining to the shows X Factor and The Sing Off, which I’ll write to you about soon.
As a matter of fact, that’s very interesting and I appreciate the update. Thank you.
As for Anais, I hope she finds some happiness and stability in her new incarnation.
Glen,
Thank you for continuing to communicate with us here while we “grieve.” It is incredibly interesting to hear the behind the scenes workings of pitches and meetings and such… such a shame the girls threw it all away. Really makes me wonder what happened to make Anais refuse to be a part of a television show even though she was so outwardly passionate about it just months ago. Makes me wonder if she’ll regret stepping away from music like she did before this most recent reunion.
Anyway, these are all hypothetical thoughts with no real answers.
Thank you again for checking in and keeping up with us… it’s nice to have someone who continually talks with us instead of just dropping a bombshell and leaving it at that.
–Darian
Call me naive but I just KNEW that when all the dust died down and once they saw how disappointed the supporters were that they would come and make an official statement.
I know this has got to be an emotionally taxing experience for them but it has been months, I have to imagine that we’ll probably never hear anything.
My heart goes out to you, Lisa. And kudos for keeping the website up & running after all this. I know hosting isn’t free and I doubt I would have had the patience to continue w/ it.
Best Wishes
That’s cool, and also pretty depressing. Why would they pass up such an opportunity? I’m shocked Anais is no longer interested in a showbusiness career, didn’t she do that interview while she was there talking about how badly she wants it? I don’t think I’ll ever understand these girls, talk about wasting and throwing out your opportunities. Yeesh, there are millions of people who would kill to be in their shoes with such an opportunity.
My question is however, why does it have to be with Anais or none at all? Could you maybe contact Anna? She is an actress as it is, as well as a singer and model, she has an established fan-base with us and she’s also very sophisticated and sweet. I could imagine she would be very interested in this opportunity.
Anais has by far the most talent as an actress, as her English is flawless, she is the most expressive, and she knows how to act in front of a camera. So what I meant was Sanne and Emelie would not be in it without Anais. In all honesty, knowing how I think, if this dream every became a reality and the show were sold to the CW Network I would first go to Anais, Fanny and Rosanna and try to convince them to do it. I know how very, very unlikely that is, but unfortunately I sometimes like to dream big and try the impossible. No matter what, I think Anais is the key because she has the makings of a very good actress. But since the girls have taken themselves out of the project, even if the show were to sell it is a longshot the producers would go back in that direction for fear they would quit again. People in the entertainment industry have a huge phobia about getting your hopes up and investing lots of money in someone and then have them quit. Once you get that reputation it is hard to overcome it. But once again I caution you not to get too excited since statistically it is very hard to sell a pitch so the chances of any of this happening are very small. But if it does I’ll let you know.
I have no doubt that Anais would make a fantastic actress, but Anna was not a part of this reunion, has not quit any of her jobs even if they weren’t going to be her “big break” as an actress, and her english is flawless now as well if her radio interviews or public speaking gigs were any indication. She didn’t even really have an accent anymore. This didn’t used to be the case but you have to remember she was also the youngest and not the front woman of the group, like Rosanna she mostly handled harmonies. She has lived in the U.S. for many years now in N.Y.C. And unlike the rest of the girls, Anna has real experience as an actress in front of the camera and on a stage. It just seems like it makes the most real sense to me.
From what I’ve seen of Anna she is not that good of an actress, I’m sorry. Highly doubtful that Anna will be seriously considered, in my opinion.
Your point is a good one and I don’t disagree. I can only tell you there appears to be major differences between Anna and the other girls of Play which has existed for many years. Whenever I mentioned Anna’s name I did not get very far. Still, I am going to keep this in mind because you are right, Anna lives in the U.S, and her English must be very good by now. She is also a descendent of the legendary actress Greta Garbo which might be of interest to some people. As i said, the first step is the biggest one, seeing if the network is interested. I should know by the end of August. The next step is, the network would pay to write a script. If they like the script they would then order a pilot episode. That is when the show would be cast.