Costello and von Otter are a match made in heaven.  Theirs is a musical love affair destined to entrance legions of new admirers for von Otter, while dazzling loyal Costello fans alike.   The pairing evolved over a series of events that started when Costello attended several of von Otter's concerts with his wife.  Spellbound by her singing, he began sending flowers backstage anonymously after each performance.  von Otter finally asked her manager to locate who was sending the bouquets, and was surprised to discover it was none other than Costello himself.  Despite their viscerally different backgrounds, they soon decided to work together.  Costello wrote a collection of songs for von Otter and The Brodsky Quartet (for whom Costello had earlier composed The Juliet Letters) in 1996 entitled Three Distracted Women, which later culminated in a concert tour. 

Costello has since called von Otter one of his favorite singers, and included her 1996 album Wings in the Night in his list of 500 favorite albums, published in Vanity Fair's Music Issue in November 2000.

For The Stars was recorded in Stockholm at the famous Atlantis Studio -- home to ABBA among others.  Having recorded 27 songs in two weeks, the creative juices flowed in abundance.  von Otter has recorded songs by legendary artists including The Beach Boys, ABBA, Tom Waits and Elvis Costello of course.  In addition to arranging and producing For the Stars, Costello can also be heard singing and playing various instruments on several tracks. 

Magical moments of the recording process were filmed resulting in a documentary also entitled "For The Stars."  Both artists were captured on tape performing as well as speaking about the evolution of the project, which is clearly a labor of love for them both.

Anne Sofie von Otter was born in Stockholm and studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.  Since the mid-1980's she has performed at many of the world's greatest opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera In New York, the Royal Opera House (Covent Garden), La Scala Milan and the Deutsche Opera Berlin.  Having toured the world over, she has made a name for herself singing a broad range of repertoire encompassing works from the Baroque period to 20th century music.  She began recording for Deutsche Grammophon in 1985 – her most recent recordings include the stunning holiday album, Home For Christmas, and the critically acclaimed disc, Folksongs.