"Boten Anna" ("Anna the Bot") is a song by Swedish musician Basshunter, from his first studio album, LOL. Following the single's release in 2006, Basshunter gained popularity in his native Sweden, as well as Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Poland and the Netherlands. The song topped hit charts and, on 3 May 2006, was named Norway's official Russ-song of the year. It was also the most popular song at The Gathering LAN party 2006. An English version titled "Now You're Gone", sung by Sebastian Westwood, using unrelated lyrics, was released in December 2007. In 2023, Basshunter collaborated with Victor Leksell on "Ingen kan slå (Boten Anna)". It peaked on the Swedish singles chart at number four.
Lyrics and composition The Swedish lyrics of "Boten Anna" tell the story of a female Internet Relay Chat user who the vocalist believes is a bot but later finds out to be a beautiful woman, although she will always remain a bot in his eyes. The song is based on an actual experience of Basshunter. At the beginning of 2006 he created #basshunter.se channel in QuakeNet with the help of a fan. The fan created a bot with administrative capabilities; when this happened, Basshunter saw a new user with administrative capabilities named "Anna" enter the channel, and thought this was the bot. One day in March, Basshunter returned home after playing at the club La Cocaracha in Halmstad. He and his friends played the computer game Counter-Strike while they were connected to the chat program mIRC. Basshunter typed a command into the command line to the bot to kick himself out of the channel. His drunk friend had taken control of the bot and kicked everyone out of the channel except for the two of them. Channel users started laughing, and it turned out that Anna was his friend's girlfriend. The artist stated that the song is easy to understand and sing, even when the person singing does not speak the Swedish language. The Swedish word "bot" ("bot") was frequently mistaken for "boat" ("båt"). The double meaning of the word "kanal" – which can refer to an IRC channel, as well as a water canal, added to the confusion. "Boten Anna" has a tempo of 140 beats per minute and is written in the key of A minor.
Release Basshunter recorded "Boten Anna" in March 2006 in one night over the course of six hours. He made it available on his website for free download. The song was downloaded an estimated 37,000 times within twenty-four hours of its release. With this success, Basshunter received several proposals from managers and music labels. Swedish DJ and party organizer Joakim Jarny contacted Basshunter via Internet Relay Chat and Jarny was soon overwhelmed by hundreds of requests from club owners in Sweden, Norway and Denmark who wanted Basshunter to perform at their clubs. Jarny contacted his friend Henrik Uhlmann at Extensive Music and in April 2006, Basshunter signed with Extensive Music and Warner Music Sweden. On 9 May 2006, "Boten Anna" was officially released as a single. According to information published on 8 June 2006, the song had been downloaded an estimated over one million times. In that year, Basshunter moved to Malmö, where the headquarters of Extensive Music are located. "Boten Anna" was included on Basshunter's second studio album LOL. Basshunter said that it is impossible to record a whole album in style of "Boten Anna", or it would take him a very long time, and he wanted to show that he is able to mix different styles. Basshunter said that he wanted to continue recording Swedish songs until he had six or seven songs in Swedish which satisfied him and then he wanted to translate them into the English language.
Music video Three days were allotted for the production of the music video for "Boten Anna". The music video to the song deliberately plays on double meanings. It shows Basshunter riding a pedal boat in Malmö. The music video features the text-based chat system for instant messaging mIRC.
Reception An editor from Sundsvalls Tidning compared "Boten Anna" to the songs "Hej hej Monika" by Nic & the Family and "Axel F" by Crazy Frog. Christopher Lembke from Ystads Allehanda said that "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley is the only good song which can compete with "Boten Anna" for radio listeners' favor this summer. Brynjar Mår from FM957 recommended the song and said that "Boten Anna" is a hilarious dance song and has an addictive melody. Uffe Jørgensen from B.T. that "Boten Anna" consists of equal parts Swedish sense of pop and hard-hitting beats reminiscent of 90s hits such as "Mr. Vain" by Culture Beat. In 2010, Danish musician Henrik Marstal described "Boten Anna" as a model summer hit and explained that in the past, the summer hit was something that people bet on a lot and it was a matter of having a song that could hit the mark and live for a single summer. Tom Jerry Boman in his ranking of summer hits for Mitt i described "Boten Anna" as the most unlikely summer torment of all time but he noted it is both festive and gives nerds a certain amount of fresh feeling. In 2018, Finnish singer Nelli Matula admitted in the publication Ilta-Sanomat that she did not know that the song is not about a boat, but instead about a bot. This caused discussion of the lyrics and Anna Abreu, Laura Friman and Kimmo Sainio also admitted that they did not understand the lyrics. In 2007, Birgitte Söndergaard and Johan Andersson danced to the song on the Swedish television series Let's Dance. This year also saw the release of the computer game Singstar Pop Hits, the Scandinavian version of which includes the song "Boten Anna". "Boten Anna" was played in 2015 during The Gathering LAN party. In 2019, "Boten Anna" was ranked seventh in a Gaffa poll for the song that is the biggest summer torment. The 2022 song "Vandraren" by Daniela Rathana was inspired by "Boten Anna". On 20 November 2023, "Boten Anna" was the fourth most streamed Swedish language song on Spotify with 99 million streams. According to data published on 4 June 2024, "Boten Anna" was still the fourth most streamed Swedish language song in Spotify with over 107 million streams.
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