Helienne Lindvall is an award winning professional songwriter, musician, and music and media writer for the Guardian. Born and raised in Sweden, she moved to New York City in her early twenties where she lived for six years, working as a session singer, recording artist and performer - while developing her craft as a songwriter. After relocating to London she signed a publishing deal with BMG Publishing Scandinavia.

The Guardian recruited her to blog the X Factor in 2007, which led to her weekly column, Behind The Music, going – as they put it – “behind the glitz and glamour to expose the grittier side of music”. In less than a year she was nominated for the Record of the Day Business & Technology Writer of the Year award. Since then she’s been covering - and analysing - all areas of the music business, from interviews with a wide range of artists about the creative process to the facts behind some of the deals that are being struck with new music services. She also writes for the Guardian media section, Netopia and the Australian, and is regularly recruited to appear as a music specialist on TV and radio shows such as Sky News, the BBC, Irish national radio, Swedish National Radio and Korean radio station eFM Primetime. Helienne has also co-written the book Myten of Internet (The Myths of the Internet), which was published in Sweden August 2012.

Helienne remains active as a professional musician and songwriter to this day collaborating with writers such as Jörgen Elofsson (Britney Spears, Il Divo, Westlife), Steve McEwan (Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood), Phil Thornalley (Natalie Imbruglia, Pixie Lott), Ghost (Robyn) and Steve Booker (Duffy, Sugababes). She’s written with and for recording artists on both sides of the Atlantic and co-wrote much of Roger Sanchez’s latest album. In 2009, Helienne won the OutMusic award for Best Dance Single of the Year for Breathe Life, a song she co-wrote with Jack D Elliott (Kelly Rowland, Ashley Tisdale) for Brian Kent.