Jonas Åkerlund

Hans Uno Jonas Åkerlund (born 10 November 1965) is a Swedish film director, screenwriter, music video director, and drummer. His video for Madonna's song "Ray of Light" won a Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Short Form, and a record of five awards at 1998 MTV Video Music Awards, including the Video of the Year. In 2008 he won another Grammy Award, this time around for "Best Long Form Music Video" for another work with Madonna – directing "The Confessions Tour" DVD. In 2014 he won this Grammy Award again (that meanwhile changed the name to "Best Music Film"), this time for "Live Kisses", a Paul McCartney concert film. Jonas Åkerlund, David Mallet and Bob Smeaton are the only directors to have won this award twice sharing the record for most wins in this category (check here all winners and nominees of Grammy Award for Best Music Film). Åkerlund was briefly a member of the Swedish black metal band Bathory from 1983 to 1984, before their career took off. He also directed Candlemass' first video "Bewitched". He first found fame as the main video director for Roxette. In 1997, he directed the acclaimed video for The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up", which sparked controversy due to its depiction of drug use, violence, and nudity. In 1998, he worked with Madonna for the song "Ray of Light", and has since worked with acts such as Metallica, Christina Aguilera, U2, Blink-182, P!nk, Rammstein, Britney Spears, and Lady Gaga. He has directed the music video for the Smashing Pumpkins' "Try, Try, Try", from which a short film entitled Try was spawned. He was also the designer and photographer for the Roxette album Room Service in 2001. In 2002, his first full-length film, Spun, debuted. Åkerlund directed commercials for Swedish clothing retailer MQ and the re-imagining of the Devo song "Watch Us Work It" used in Dell Computers commercials. He is a long-time collaborator of Madonna, having worked on such music videos as "Music", "American Life" (which was pulled due to its graphic content and the Iraq War), and "Jump". He also directed a documentary film I'm Going to Tell You a Secret about Madonna and her concert special The Confessions Tour: Live from London. Some of his other work includes the controversial pornographic music video for Rammstein's "Pussy", the video for the song "Telephone" by Lady Gaga and Beyoncé, "Moves like Jagger" by Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera, and Duran Duran's single "Girl Panic!". Åkerlund's second movie, Small Apartments (2012), went direct to DVD. Per Gessle, of Roxette, was credited for the music and soundtrack.