The Cardigans were a Swedish band formed in the town of Jönköping in October 1992. Their debut album Emmerdale (1994) gave them a solid base in their home country and enjoyed some success abroad, especially in Japan. It was not until their second album Life (1995) that an international reputation was secured. The band are best known outside of Swedish for their hit singles "Erase/Rewind" and "My Favourite Game" from the album Gran Turismo (1998) and "Lovefool" from the album First Band on the Moon (1996). Its inclusion in the soundtrack of William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet by director Baz Luhrmann secured their popularity.

Peter Svensson and Magnus Sveningsson, both heavy metal musicians, formed the group on 31 October 1992 in Jönköping, Swedish, with drummer Bengt Lagerberg, keyboardist Lars-Olof Johansson and lead singer Nina Persson. Living together in a small apartment, The Cardigans recorded a demo tape with Persson providing lead vocals on only one of the songs towards the end of the tracklist. A&R man Ola Hermanson heard the demo and signed the band to his Trampolene imprint. In 1994, they released their debut album Emmerdale in Swedish and Japan; it was re-released internationally in 1997. The album included the Swedish radio hit "Rise & Shine", which was later voted the best of 1994 in a poll in Slitz magazine.

The remainder of 1994 was spent touring Europe and recording Life, which was released worldwide in 1995. Life became an international success, selling more than a million copies and achieving platinum status in Japan. In 1996, Life was released under the label Minty Fresh in the US, but this release was essentially a compilation of tracks from Emmerdale and Life.

After their success with Life, The Cardigans signed to Mercury Records, under which they released First Band on the Moon worldwide in 1996. "Lovefool" was a hit worldwide, particularly in the US and Japan, where the album reached platinum status in three weeks. The album also achieved gold sales status in the US. "Lovefool" was shown on MTV in the late 1990s as a music video with clips from the 1996 hit film Romeo + Juliet starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. It also featured in the film Cruel Intentions (1999).

In 1997, the band played themselves on the graduation episode of Beverly Hills, 90210.

1998's Gran Turismo was followed by a long hiatus during which the band members pursued solo side projects. The same year they also released a compilation album of rare B-sides, The Other Side of the Moon as a Japan-only release. The video of the song "My Favourite Game" was censored by MTV for showing reckless driving. Despite this, it went on to become their second global hit song. "My Favourite Game" was featured on the soundtrack of the Playstation video game Gran Turismo 2 for the opening sequence of races. That year also saw their song "Deuce" appearing on The X-Files: The Album.

The Cardigans returned in 2003 with Long Gone Before Daylight, a collection of songs mainly written by Persson and Svensson. Long Gone Before Daylight became one of the best selling albums in Swedish in 2003. In the summer of 2004, The Cardigans toured with Liz Phair, Katy Rose and Charlotte Martin on the Chicks With Attitude tour.

On 28 April 2005 the band's iTunes Originals album was released through iTunes. On 19 October 2005 the band released their sixth album Super Extra Gravity to generally favorable reviews. Super Extra Gravity went straight to the #1 spot on the Swedish album chart and was certified gold (sales over 40,000).

The band are having another break from recording and touring. A Best of compilation album was released in January 2008.

During the break in 1999-2002, Nina Persson released an album as A Camp, and the Cardigans recorded a duet cover of Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House" with Tom Jones for his album Reload. Peter Svensson and Bengt Lagerberg worked on the project Paus with help from Joakim Berg from Kent, and Magnus Sveningsson recorded as Righteous Boy.

In 2006, Sveningsson restarted their old label Trampolene and became an A&R for it. The first signing was the Swedish popband The Animal Five, which was a minor success in Swedish and Germany.

In November 2006 Persson featured on The Cake Sale, an album set up by Oxfam Ireland. It contained nine tracks from some of Ireland's leading artists. Proceeds from the album went to the Fair Trade campaign.

Persson also appeared on the Manic Street Preachers' album Send Away the Tigers (May 2007), providing guest vocals on the UK Chart #2 single "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough". She shared vocals with Manics frontman James Dean Bradfield, who also appeared on stage with the band at the Glastonbury Festival 2007, and who has rated Peter Svensson as his second favourite guitarist.

In the band's break of 2007, Persson recorded the second A Camp album Colonia, which was released in early 2009.