Stargate (production team)

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Stargate
Origin	Trondheim, Norway
Genre(s)	R&B,Hip-Hop, Pop, Dance-pop
Occupation(s)	Producing
Years active	1997-present
Associated acts	Ne-Yo, Rihanna, Beyonce, Jordin Sparks, Lindsay Lohan
Members
Tor Erik Hermansen Mikkel S. Eriksen
Former members
Hallgeir Rustan

Stargate (sometimes written as StarGate) is a Norwegian record production and songwriting team, consisting of Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel S. Eriksen (often credited as Mikkel SE) working today in the genres of pop, R&B and hip hop, based in New York City.

Their breakthrough single in the United States was the Billboard Hot 100 #1 "So Sick" by Ne-Yo, which they produced and co-wrote with Ne-Yo. The follow-up was "Sexy Love", also a US Top 10 single. Stargate worked with Ne-Yo co-writing and producing Rihanna´s hit "Unfaithful", which reached #6 on the Hot 100, #1 in Europe, and top 5 in 22 countries. They also produced and co-wrote the US #1 single "Irreplaceable" for Beyoncé, topping the Hot 100 for ten consecutive weeks, becoming the biggest song of 2007 on the Hot 100 Billboard Year End Chart 2007.

In May 2008 the Rihanna-single "Take A Bow" became the production-team's third US #1 and fifth UK #1.

1 Background
2 Notable Collaborations and Awards
3 Partial Discography
4 External links

[edit] Background

Stargate started their successful career as producers in Trondheim, Norway in 1997. The production team were particularly successful on the British market with many Top 10 hits in the UK for artists such as Blue, Misteeq and Atomic Kitten.

The team originally consisted of Hermansen, Eriksen and Hallgeir Rustan. In 2005, Mikkel S. Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen relocated to New York, and quickly established themselves as associates of the hottest Hip Hop/R&B acts on the US market. The third original member, Hallgeir Rustan, remains a producer in Norway.

[edit] Notable Collaborations and Awards

They also wrote and produced Lionel Richie's "I Call It Love". Aside from mainstream production, they also co-wrote and produced the Nas track "Not Going Back" (featuring Kelis) from the rapper's latest album "Hip Hop Is Dead".

Stargate were the #1 Hot Producers on the Billboard Year End Chart 2006. Stargate received a Norwegian Grammy (Spellemann) in 2007. As songwriters Mikkel S. Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen received three awards at the ASCAP Pop Music Awards 2007 in Los Angeles, for the songs "So Sick" and "Sexy Love" with Ne-Yo and "Unfaithful" with Rihanna, and two awards at the ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Awards 2007 for "So Sick" and "Sexy Love".

They were named ASCAP/PRS Songwriters of the Year 2007 in London, receiving 9 awards including Song of the Year for "So Sick".

At the ASCAP Pop Awards 2008 Hermansen and Eriksen received five awards for most performed works.

Stargate were named Hitmakers of the Year in Rolling Stone Magazine´s "Best of Rock 2008".

In 2007 "Beautiful Liar" with Beyoncé and Shakira became another hit for the production team, hitting #1 in more than 10 countries, including UK and Europe. The song earned Hermansen and Eriksen the Ivor Novello Award for Best Selling British song (co-writers Amanda Ghost and Ian Dench being British).

Stargate also produced and wrote “American Idol” Season Six winner, Jordin Sparks' first single, “Tattoo” (US Top 10), and Rihanna's singles "Hate That I Love You" (US Top 10) and "Don't Stop The Music" (US Top 3, #1 Eurochart).

Their tenth US Top 10 single came with the Chris Brown-song "With You" in January 2008, which they produced and co-wrote with Johnta Austin, Espen Lind and Amund Bjorklund. That same week Stargate had four songs in the US Top 20 ("With You" #4, "Don´t Stop The Music"#7, "Tattoo" #12 and "Hate That I Love You"#19).

Stargate then went on to write and produce "Angel", a song on Leona Lewis's UK #1 album Spirit, and two songs for the Mary J Blige album "Growing Pains", "Fade Away" and "What Love Is". "Growing Pains" was the first US #1 album of 2008.

Eriksen and Hermansen received Grammy nominations for five separate songs in six categories for the 2008 Grammy Awards, including Record Of The Year for "Irreplaceable", Best R&B Song for "Hate That I Love You" and Best Dance Record for "Don't Stop The Music".

Stargate just recently finished producing "Bye, Bye", and "I'm That Chick" for Mariah Carey's new album E=MC² released April 15, 2008.

Stargate and long time writing partner Ne-Yo has also recently been in the studio with Ashanti help produce her new album The Declaration due out June 3, 2008. They are also in studio with Usher, Beyoncé and Lindsay Lohan.

[edit] Partial Discography

[edit] Number-one songs produced by Stargate

Year	Song	Artist	Chart positions							Album
Year	Song	Artist	WW	US	UK	CAN	AUS	GER	FRA	Album
2000	"Thank God I Found You (remix)"	Mariah Carey	8	1	10	2	27	28	28	Rainbow
2002	"Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word" (feat. Elton John)	Blue	5	-	1	-	43	3	6	One Love
2006	"So Sick"	Ne-Yo	3	1	1	1	4	11	11	In My Own Words
2006	"Irreplaceable"	Beyoncé	1	1	4	1	1	11	10	B'Day
2007	"Beautiful Liar" (feat. Shakira)	Beyoncé	2	3	1	2	5	1	1	B'Day
2007	"Don't Stop the Music"	Rihanna	1	3	4	2	1	1	1	Good Girl Gone Bad
2008	"Take A Bow"	Rihanna	3	1	1	1	5	-	-	Good Girl Gone Bad
	Total number-one hits		2	4	4	3	2	2	2
	Total top ten hits		7	6	7	6	5	3	4