"Release Me" is a pop song recorded by Swedish singer Agnes Carlsson taken from her third studio album, Dance Love Pop (2008). The track was written by Carlsson, Anders Hansson and Sharon Vaughn. It was released as the album's second single in Sweden and as Agnes's debut single internationally. "Release Me" was another top ten hit for Agnes in Sweden and also charted in Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Worldwide, the single sold over 900,000 copies,^[1] making it Agnes' biggest hit to date.

In July 2010, "Release Me" was released outside of Europe for the first time, in Australia, on Warner Music.^[2] The song was also released in the United States on 18 August 2009 where it hit number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart.

Fraser McAlpine of the BBC's Chart Blog said: "73% of why this is a great song rests with those amazing swooping harmonies. That's not to take anything away from Agnes's vocal talents, it's just her honeyed-rasp, set to a synth-disco backing, is not THAT startlingly new a sound."^[3]

Nick Levine of Digital Spy described "Release Me" as "far classier" than other Europop songs performed by contemporaries such as September and Velvet. Levine compared Agnes's vocals to that of Leona Lewis and also praised the production, writing: "the all-conquering chorus and thumping beats are present and correct, but this has lashings of strings and lavish production flourishes too."^[4]

"Release Me" was released to radio stations and as a digital download in Sweden on 24 November 2008.^[5] and entered the Swedish Singles Chart at number sixty based solely on digital downloads and slowly climbed the chart and peaked at number nine.^[6] The song made its international debut on the Danish Singles Chart on 27 February 2009 at number thirty-nine and has so far peaked at number six and later sold gold with more than 15,000 copies sold.^[6] It debuted on the Flanders Ultratop 50 chart on 11 April 2009 at number forty-seven and peaked at number seven,^[7] in Wallonia the song debuted in the Ultratop 50 chart at number thirty-three and peaked at number six.^[7]

The single was released in the United Kingdom in May 2009 where it became a massive hit for Agnes. It debuted and peaked number 3 on the UK Singles Chart and has so far sold over 350 000 units since its release. It also peaked within the top 10 in Ireland.

During the summer of 2009 "Release me" was able to reach a lot of charts all over Europe; in Norway it entered the chart at thirteen and one week later it peaked at seven.^[6] In the Slovakian and Slovenian Singles Chart it peaked at seven and two respectively. After a few weeks on the French download charts and music video charts, "Release Me" finally entered the Official French Singles Chart at seven in late July. It entered a lot of French charts and became the third most played song on French radio during 2009. The song was also ranked high on a number of airplay charts all over Europe. In 2010 the song was translated to Italian and French by the investment banker/art producer Olivier Doria.

On 27 July "Release Me" entered the first chart outside of Europe, the Australian Dance Chart at eleven,^[8] on the overall ARIA Charts it peaked at No. 26. It has also entered the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play Chart at 38, and peaked at one.^[9][10] The song was released in 35 countries all over the world.^{[citation needed]}

After twelve weeks on the Swedish Singles Chart in early 2009, "Release Me" left the chart. But on 25 September 2009, the song re-entered at 44 after its appearance in Swedish Idol. Radio stations started to play the 2009 single again, and after Agnes's live performance at the final of Swedish Idol it climbed even higher on the charts. In January 2010, "Release Me" entered the top five at Swedish iTunes and reached number 11 on the official chart, giving the song a total of 31 weeks over three years (2008–2010) on the Swedish 60 Top Singles Chart.^[11]

The music video for "Release Me" premiered on 28 November 2008,^[5] the very same day that the song was released for sale in Sweden.

The video was directed by the swede Anders Rune, who also made the video for Agnes's single On and On that was made for the Swedish, Polish and Dutch market.^[5]

The video begins with Agnes laying in front of an orange wall. Then Agnes walks through the streets of Stockholm at night seeing people dancing and preparing for a night out at a club. In the next scene everyone has arrived at the club and they are dancing while Agnes is standing against a wall with a man holding her. Agnes then leaves the club and walks down the street to another club. The next scene shows a bathroom where Agnes is doing her make-up in front of a mirror while two other girls are dancing in the background. These are the main parts of the video, other sequences are shown of people dancing in various places and Agnes singing in front of the orange wall.

The music video had a massive impact in the UK, where it started to spin on radio stations and TV channels already in February 2009, almost four months before the release of the song. The song was also frequently shown in other parts of Europe, with honors like "song of the week" and "artist of the month" to follow.

Agnes performed "Release Me" live in the UK on morning TV show GMTV on 10 June 2009.^[14] On 5 July Agnes performed "Release Me" at the Dutch musicevent TMF Awards. The day after on 6 July she performed the same song in Sweden in the sing-along show Lotta på Liseberg, broadcast by TV4.^[15] One week later she returned to Gothenburg for the Gothia Cup Opening Ceremony, where she performed the song on Ullevi, the largest venue in northern Europe.

Later in July she headed back to the UK for another two performances, the first one was at the "Party in the Park" on 25 July in Leeds, where she performed among other stars such as Alesha Dixon and Pixie Lott. The next day she performed both "Release Me" and "On and On" at Nightingales in Birmingham. On 8 August Agnes performed the song in the Polish music competition "Sopot Hit Festival".

Agnes performed in the U.S for the first time in the morning show Good Day New York. On 11 December 2009, Agnes visited the Swedish Idol 2009-final to perform her single "Release Me", which was released in Sweden almost a year earlier.

During the spring of 2010 Agnes went to the U.S to start promote the single, which led to numerous performances on TV-shows and concerts all over America. Among others she performed at "White Party" in Palm Springs on Sunday 11 April, where Britney Spears wrote on her Twitter that she was on her way to check out Agnes.^[16]

Agnes performed "Release Me" at the 3rd annual NewNowNext Awards aired on 17 June 2010 in Los Angeles on Logo. On 16 May 2013, Agnes performed the song during the interval of the second semi-final of Eurovision Song Contest 2013.

• Vocals: Agnes
• Backing vocals: Britta Bergström and Agnes
• Written by: Anders Hansson, Sharon Vaughn and Agnes
• Produced by: Anders Hansson
• Strings by: Erik Arvinder
• Mixed by: Ronny Lahi at Hanssonic studios
• Mastered by: Erik Broheden at Masters of Audio
• Photo: Waldemar Hansson

Charts