On the Radar: Agnes Issue #43

Could she be the next Lady Gaga?

By Selena Fragassi
Published: May 25th, 2010 | 3:45pm

The 22-year-old singer may not have the crazy couture, but behind Agnes is the same 35-person team who made Lady G a star in 2009. She also grabbed the attention of Perez Hilton, who recently inflated the buzz surrounding Sweden’s 2005 Idol winner.

“They didn’t vote for me,” she says of the show’s fans when we met at the Hard Rock Hotel in Chicago. “I was eliminated, but the judges asked me back. So I returned, and I won.”

Agnes has been compared to Leona Lewis and Beyoncé—perhaps more for her look than for her music, which is crafted of pure club hooks. But with success already surrounding her first American single, “Release Me,” her rising star power is even more impressive when you consider she was the first woman to win the singing competition back home.

“That kind of competition is tough for women. There are so many young girls who watch and vote for the boys they love,” she says. “I think it’s a big step for a girl to vote for another girl because she actually likes what she’s doing.”