| Corona | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Italy |
| Genres | Eurodance |
| Years active | 1993–present |
| Labels | DWA |
| Members | |
| Olga Souza | |
| Past members | |
| Francesco Bontempi | |
Corona is an Italian dance and pop group, who found success in 1994 with the worldwide hit, "The Rhythm of the Night". Although she did not sing on most of the act's hits, Corona is fronted by Brazilian performer Olga Souza.
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The project's debut single was "The Rhythm Of The Night". It was released in Italy in December 1993 on the DWA record label, and became an instant hit. It stayed at number 1 on the Italian music chart for thirteen consecutive weeks. However, the song was not released elsewhere until the following year. A remixed version of the song became a number 2 hit in the United Kingdom in September 1994.[1] It contained samples from Bizarre Inc's song "Playing With Knives", and Say When!'s "Save Me".[2]
Like other 1990s Eurodance/Hi-NRG songs that eventually became American hits as well, such as "Get Ready For This", "Twilight Zone" and "Tribal Dance" by 2 Unlimited and "Strike It Up", "I Don't Know Anybody Else" and "Everybody Everybody" by Black Box, "The Rhythm of The Night" did not catch on in the United States until well after its success had peaked in Europe. By spring 1995, however, the song was all over American radio and clubs, eventually reaching #11 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Corona followed up its hit with the 1995 singles "Baby Baby" and "Try Me Out", which saw similar success. The single "I Don't Wanna Be a Star" was a moderate hit. A fifth single, "Do You Want Me", became a regional hit in discotheques in the Eastern U.S. The album, The Rhythm Of The Night sold modestly, peaking at #2 on the US Top Heatseekers chart and #154 on the Billboard 200.
Corona's second album, Walking On Music was released in 1998 on the independent record label of Francesco Bontempi. The album did not produce any major hits in Europe or North America. However, the album did yield two minor Stateside dancehall hits with "Walking On Music" and "The Power Of Love". In 2000, Olga Souza released the third Corona album, this time on the Abril Music label in Brazil. Francesco Bontempi co-wrote some of the songs on the album, but he did not participate in the album's production. The album was called And Me U and Corona's name was changed to Corona X.
Towards the end of 2005, Corona re-emerged onto the European music scene with "Back In Time", peaking at #36 in the Italian sales chart.
In late 2006, Olga De Souza returned with a new single under the Corona moniker entitled "I'll Be Your Lady", which she sang and had co-written herself.
In 2007, Swedish dance group Sunblock did a cover version of "Baby Baby" featuring the original singer, Sandy Chambers. Recognition came late for Chambers, whose name is credited on the 2007 Sunblock version of "Baby Baby", whereas she goes completely unmentioned on Corona's album, Rhythm of the Night, which included the same song.
Corona returned in 2010, with the album Y Generation (it reached #1 on the Italian iTunes dance album chart). The first single release was "Angel". The videoclip of "Angel" was recorded in Italy, with "Saturday" becoming the second single release from the album, followed by "My Song" in 2011.
Many people participated in the Corona project, including: Francesco Bontempi (songwriting, arrangement, producing, mixing), Francesco Alberti (engineering), Graziano Fanelli (engineering), Olga Souza singer (vocals), Jenny B (real name Giovanna Bersola) singer for the first single "The Rhythm of the Night", (vocals) songwriters - Antonia Bottari, Ivana Spagna, G. Spagna, Annerley Gordon, Fred Di Bonaventura, Gaffurini, V. Marcolin, M. Marcolin, M. Anthony, Michael Gaffey, Pete Glenister, F. Martinelli, A. Puntillo, Marco Baroni, A. Bellucci, L. Ratti, S. Tonelli, N. Heathen, I.G. Off, A. Martin, E. Bertolini, Claudio Silvestri, M. Cimoli, A. Puthli and D. Zimmermann.
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUS | FIN | SWI | U.S. | U.S. Heat |
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| The Rhythm of the Night |
|
10 | 30 | 35 | 154 | 2 | ||||||||
| Walking on Music |
|
— | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
| And Me U |
|
— | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
| Y Generation |
|
— | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | ||||||||||||||
| Year | Title | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) |
Album | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUS [3] |
AUT [3] |
FRA [3] |
GER [4] |
IRE [5] |
ITA [6] |
NED [3] |
NOR [3] |
NZ [3] |
SWE [3] |
SWI [3] |
UK [1] |
U.S. | |||||
| 1993 | "The Rhythm of the Night" | 8 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 3 | — | 7 | 28 | 4 | 2 | 11 | The Rhythm of the Night | ||
| 1995 | "Baby Baby" | 7 | 13 | 16 | 41 | 8 | 1 | 26 | 9 | 22 | 10 | 11 | 5 | 57 | |||
| "Try Me Out" | 10 | 20 | 11 | 40 | 7 | 2 | 45 | 17 | 43 | — | 23 | 6 | — | ||||
| "I Don't Wanna Be a Star" | — | 25 | 18 | 69 | — | 2 | — | — | — | 37 | — | 22 | — | ||||
| 1997 | "Megamix" | — | — | 40 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 43 | — | 36 | — | Single only | ||
| "The Power Of Love" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Walking on Music | |||
| 1998 | "Walking On Music" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Magic Touch" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
| 2000 | "Good Love" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | And Me U | ||
| 2006 | "Back In Time" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Singles only | ||
| "I'll Be Your Lady" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
| 2007 | "La Playa Del Sol" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| 2010 | "Angel" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Y Generation | ||
| "Saturday" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
| 2011 | "My Song" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart * denotes unknown peak positions |
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