Vengaboys

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Vengaboys
Cover for The Platinum Album, featuring the more well known incarnation.
Cover for The Platinum Album, featuring the more well known incarnation.
Background information
Origin Netherlands
Genre(s) Europop
Years active 1997-2001
Label(s) Breakin' Records/Violent Music
Former members
Robin Pors
Kim Sasabone
Roy Darman
Denise van Rijswijk
Yorick Bakker
Mark
Lilly
Travis McQueen

Vengaboys are a Dutch Eurodance group that came to prominence in 1997. Some of their most successful singles include "Uncle John from Jamaica", "We're Going to Ibiza", "Boom Boom Boom Boom" and "We Like to Party". As in Spanish, the V in their name is pronounced with a soft "B" sound, so that it is pronounced like "Bengaboys". A guest-singer from Spain, for the producer's previous project Nakatomi, kept repeatedly singing Venga in their songs, which means "come" in Spanish. This led to the name Vengaboys as their following project.

Never critically acclaimed, the group continued making records that were distinctly Eurobeat (the music video of "Kiss" even features one of the dancers from ParaParaAllstars performing a ParaPara dance), following in the footsteps of previous Dutch-Dance sensations 2 Unlimited. The ploy worked and by the beginning of the year 2000, the group had achieved four top 10 entries, including two number-one hits ("Boom Boom Boom Boom" and "We're Going to Ibiza"). The group's success continued throughout the beginning of the 21st century, with the "Platinum Album" (their third album release) going top 10, spawning three big hits ("Kiss", "Shala Lala" and "Uncle John From Jamaica") and two lesser-known tracks ("Cheekah Bow-Bow," which included their fifth cyber-member Cheekah, and the ballad "Forever As One," which gained more notoriety for its video, which was banned after the group used unlicensed pictures of them meeting pop group Westlife). By mid-2001, after nearly ten top 10 hits, the group partly disbanded and went back to working on the club scene.

Contents

[edit] Members


The band was produced by the two producers Dennis van den Driesschen and Wessel van Diepen who called themselves Danski and DJ Delmundo. In autumn 1996, The Vengaboys were formed with Kim, Robin, Roy and Denice, who were originally dancers for the two DJs. They now fronted and sang the music produced by Danski and DJ Delmundo. [1] In 1999, Robin left the band to pursue a solo career and his place was taken by his friend Yorick, a former dolphin trainer. In early 2002, Denice and Yorick left to pursue solo careers, and Mark and Lilly joined in their place. [2]

[edit] Trivia

  • On February 9, 2004, Vengaboys gave a final collective performance, with all members, past and present, getting together to perform for a small audience.
  • On July 15, 2006, three members (Denice, Kim & Yorick) and a new Venga-cowboy, Todd Eastwood, reformed Vengaboys for a Revival Show, and performed at London's G-A-Y club.
  • On Friday September 22, 2006, Vengaboys performed live at the University of Sheffield's 'Octagon Centre' to an estimated crowd of over 1,500. The set-list included all of Vengaboys' biggest hits, including an encore performance of "Vengabus" ("We Like to Party").
  • The Vengaboys are scheduled to make an appearance at the University of Strathclyde's "Fresher's Week" in Glasgow in September 2006. They will also be appearing at the "Freshers' Ball" in Swansea University.
  • The Vengaboys were to perform at Ireland's largest gay venue and nightclub in Belfast, "The Kremlin", on September 30th 2006. The Vengaboys turned up to the venue, thus fulfilling their commitment, but due to the club exceeding capacity, decided that the security risk was too great to perform on stage. The official word however was "technical difficulties". The unofficial word (and likely the truth) is that the stage was "too small" for them to perform on. But the Vengabus will return to this venue (due to confirmation) on 25th November 2006 where they really will be performing live on stage.
  • On the 2nd October 2006 the Vengaboys performed live at the new underground club "Sub Zero" at the University of Essex freshers week.
  • The Vengaboys will perform at York University Fresher's week in mid-October.
  • On the 13th November 2006 the Vengaboys successfully appeared at Zanzibar's SHAG Monday student night, in Leicester. A video of the event can be found here:[3]
  • The Vengaboys performed live at Norwich's Lava/Ignite night club on 23rd November 2006 to a packed club. The club was so full of people jumping up and down, the floor started to repeat this motion.
  • The Vengaboys are performing at Loughborough Students Union's End of Term Party in December 2006.
  • The rumor that a track named "City Lights Shining" is going to be the new single has been rejected by official sources. The rumor is not true. The Revival Show contains the old Vengasongs [citation needed]. The rumor may have started as an unreleased Venga song has been discovered 'Take Me To The City'. It was recorded for the Charlie's Angels Soundtrack but was decided to be used on their forthcoming album (which never was to be as the act split before any more recording was done). "Forever as One" was the acts final single.
  • The Vengaboys are playing at Loughborough Union on the 14th December 2006.

[edit] Discography

Cover Date of Release Title Label Charted Certification Catalog Number
Albums
1998 Vengaboys - -
1999 The Best Of - -
1999 The Party Album #86 (US) Gold (US)
1999 The Remix Album - -
2000 The Platinum Album - -
Greatest Hits - -

[edit] Singles

Year Single Album NZ Singles Chart Certification
1997 "Parade des Tettas" - -
1998 "Brazil" - -
1998 "Up & Down" The Party Album #4 (UK) -
1998 "We Like to Party" The Party Album #3 (UK)
#7 (AUS)		 -
1998 "Boom Boom Boom Boom" The Party Album #1 (UK)
#6 (AUS)		 -
1999 "We're Going to Ibiza" The Party Album #1 (UK)
#27 (AUS)		 -
1999 "Kiss (When The Sun Don't Shine)" The Party Album #3 (UK)
#17 (AUS)		 -
2000 "Shalala Lala" The Platinum Album #5 (UK)
#4 (AUS)
#1 (BRA)		 -
2000 "Uncle John from Jamaica" The Platinum Album #6 (UK) -
2000 "Megamix" The Platinum Album - -
2000 "Cheekah Bow Bow (That Computer Song)" The Platinum Album #19 (UK) -
2001 "Forever as One" #28 (UK) -

[edit] Media occurrences

  • The song "We Like to Party" was played in Busch Stadium after the final out of the 2006 World Series, which was broadcast on Fox.
  • The beat from the song "We Like to Party" was played in numerous ads for Six Flags.
  • The song "Boom Boom Boom Boom" was the main song of Jeux Sans Frontieres 1999.
  • For several seasons in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Arsenal Football Club were called the "Wenger Boys", a reference to the Vengaboys. In turn on the popular Sky Sports show "Soccer AM" whenever the reference was made it would be accompanied by two members of the crew dancing to the Vengaboys track "We Like to Party".

[edit] Similar artists

  • Aqua (Most successful Danish band world wide)
  • Toy Box (famous for their hit "Tarzan & Jane")
  • Smile.dk (famous for their hit "Butterfly")
  • Hit'n'Hide (famous for their hit "Space Invaders")
  • Daze (famous for their hit "Superhero")
  • Vengaboys (famous for their hit "Boom Boom Boom Boom")
  • Me & My (famous for their hit "Dub I Dub")

[edit] External links

[edit] See also

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