Kåre Berrefjord

Kåre Oliver Berrefjord (pronounced Keuhreh Berrefyord; born April 17, 1967) is a Norwegian singer-songwriter, DJ, and music producer, and one of the founders of Second Beat Records. He rose to international prominence in the 1990s after co-producing/writing a string of hit singles such as Twelve's "Don't Stop Now" (1994), FanGirls' "The Power" (1997), and BabesXL's "You're Mine" (1999).

In 2019, he was named Knight First Class of the by  for his services to Norwegian music and his international success.

Early career
Berrefjord was born and raised in. As a child, he was a student of a music education program at his local school.

At the age of 16 he started his career in after being recommended to  by his cousin, the Italo-Disco singer Patrick Bail (real name Vegar Rønningen). He traveled with his grandfather (who chaperoned him) to to record a song titled "Raceway" which was written by. "Raceway", along with the associated album Hello Little Man, was released under the stage name of Karl Berry and was a major hit in several parts of continental Europe.

When their careers with Baby ended in 1988, Berrefjord and Bail returned to, where they met Johan Ellefson, Sebastian Malla, and Romeyn de Meyer, who were DJs at Club Heartbeat in Oslo. Berrefjord teamed up with the three DJs to create Heartbeat Productions A/S, based in. Berrefjord signed a new record deal with, and released a new song "Breakin' Outta The Nuthouse", which was the first project for Heartbeat Productions A/S.

Creation of Second Beat Records
In 1996, Berrefjord first listened to the ' debut single "Wannabe". Despite considering it "annoying", he considered forming his own girl group that could potentially rival the Spice Girls. Taking inspiration from the glam metal and pop rock songs he grew up listening to in the 1980s, earlier British girl group, and American all-female vocal groups such as , and , in early 1997 he sent his partner Barry Berlin to find performers in  and , two cities in. Berlin brought back six unknown performers selected during auditions at the in Toronto, choosing the name FanGirls. Never having been to Europe, shy and uneven, they were willing to put their careers in Berrefjord's hands due to the international success of Norwegian artists such as, and. Berrefjord produced much of their debut album, We're Gonna Meet Ya, which contained hit songs such as "The Power" and "Always Perfect for You". FanGirls became one of the biggest girl groups of all time, hitting gold, platinum, and diamond in 45 different countries. Berrefjord repeated the formula with two additional groups, BabesXL and T5, which sold in excess of 80 million records each.