Natalia (Belgian singer)

Natalia Druyts (born 3 December 1980), best known by her stage name Natalia, was the first runner-up of the first season of Idool 2003, the Flemish version of Idols, in which she lost to Peter Everard who got 50.7% of the votes.

Early life

Natalia was born in Westerlo, Belgium. She has graduated as translator English-Spanish. Before participating in Idool 2003 she sang with a cover-group called Secret Me. They sang at lots of weddings. Natalia also performed as opening act for Belgian singer Raymond van het Groenewoud.

Career

After Idool 2003 Natalia released a CD-Single "Without You", who included the three songs she sang during the Finals of the show. The single peaked at #2 in the charts, and Natalia won some Awards. One of them was the "Tien Om Te Zien Trofee 2003". Not much later, Idool-jury Jan Leyers wrote two songs for her, which she performed in the Belgian movie Team Spirit II, releasing "I've Only Begun To Fight" as second single, while she recorded her full-album, This Time. The CD was released, and Natalia started her tour. At the same time, she performed at the Preselections for the Eurovision with "Higher Than The Sun".

In October 2005, Natalia released a single together with The Pointer Sisters, "Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves", which reached number 2 in the Belgium charts. She performed 10 concerts with The Pointer Sisters in January 2006 during "Natalia Meets The Pointer Sisters" in Sportpaleis, Antwerp, attended by more than 130,000 people.

Natalia released a single together with En Vogue called "Glamorous" in October 2007; it reached number 2 in the Belgium charts. In January 2008 she performed with En Vogue & Shaggy during "Natalia Meets En Vogue, Feat Shaggy" at the Sportpalies in Antwerp. 75,000 people attended the six shows.

In January 2011, Natalia planned a new concert with an international superstar, this time she chose Anastacia. They recorded a single called "Burnin' Star", and in January 2011 toured as "Natalia Meets Anastacia".

Natalia has sold over 400,000 albums, and over 1 million concert tickets between 2003 and 2010 in Flanders.

While she's a great star in Flanders, she's almost unknown in Wallonia.

Studio albums

Singles

• * I survived you, Heartbreaker & Still With Me were only released digitally

DVD

• Back For More live (2005) (#1)
• Natalia Meets En Vogue feat. Shaggy (2008)

Awards

Idool

• Antwerp Auditions:

"Joyful, Joyful" by Lauryn Hill

• Theatre Round Day One:

"Joyful, Joyful" by Lauryn Hill

• Theatre Round Day Two:

"I Say A Little Prayer" by Aretha Franklin

• Theatre Round Day Three:

"Strong Enough" by Cher

• Top 50 - 'little Live-Show':

"When You Believe" by Whitney Houston & Mariah Carey

• Top 10 - "My Idol":

"I Wanna Dance With Somebody" by Whitney Houston

• Top 9 - 80's:

"I'm So Excited" by The Pointer Sisters

• Top 8 - Dutch:

"De Roos" by Ann Christy

• Top 7 - Movie:

"Think" by Aretha Franklin

• Top 6 - Disco:

"Blame It On The Boogie" by The Jackson Five

• Top 5 - Big Band:

"It's Oh So Quiet" by Björk

• Top 4 - Latino:

"Hijo De La Luna" by Loona Conga by Gloria Estefan

• Top 3 - Choice of the Juries:

"Natural Woman" by Aretha Franklin "It's Raining Men" by The Weather Girls

• Grand Final:
  • "For You"
  • "Without You" by Mariah Carey
  • "Think" by Aretha Franklin

Belgian Preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest

In February 2004, not so long after Idool 2003, Natalia gave it a shot during "EUROSONG'04", the Flanders' Preselections with the song "Higher Than The Sun". She managed to get into the Final, in which she ended second, after Xandee, who represented Belgium at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "1 Life". Belgium did not score much that same year, and there were lots of speculations whether Natalia would have done a better job or not. Natalia's "Higher Than The Sun" reached number 2 in Belgium charts. Xandee took the first place in the same chart.

Dancing With The Stars

The Belgian television company "VTM" asked Natalia to join "Dancing With The Stars" in January 2006 (in Dutch: Sterren Op De Dansvloer). Together with her professional dancer, she reached the finale and ended up second.

Natalia Backstage

After recovering from her voice-troubles, Natalia's management decided to do a short TV-show, to show the fans what's going on behind the scenes, how the new record is recorded, photoshoots, new tour, etc. It was a 4-episode show on VTM, called "Natalia Backstage"

Biography-book

Met Hart En Soul (in English: "With Heart and Soul) was written by Natalia, and a ghost-writer. It's about her ealy life and career.

The book was released on October 8, 2007.

Tours

• Her first tour, "This Time", began on 13 January 2004 and was her first live tour (with live band). The original 20 shows were expanded to a 90 date tour.

• Her second tour, "Back For More", started on 5 November 2004. The show played over 100 dates. and included her own songs and some covers, such as an Elvis medley, Tina Turner medley and "Hanky Panky" by Madonna. This tour is released on DVD.

• Her third tour was the ""Natalia Summer Live"" tour during the summer of 2005.

• Her fourth tour, "Me & my Producer", started on 1 November 2005, in which her producer appeared on stage. This show featured fewer musicians and more backing vocals.

• In January 2006 "Natalia with The Pointer Sisters" gave 10 sold-out shows in Belgium's largest concert hall, Sportpaleis in Antwerp. More than 130,000 people attended the shows.

• Her fifth tour, "Everything & More Summertour", in the summer of 2007, played to over 200,000 people.

• In January 2008 Natalia did another concert run, "Natalia Meets En Vogue, Feat Shaggy", at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp Six dates (75,000 tickets) where sold out. This was released on DVD and went platinum in sales.

• Her sixth tour, the "Glamorous Arena Tour" in the fall of 2008, was the largest moving tour ever by a Belgian artist. The tour played in cities across Belgium, selling 60,000 tickets.

• Her seventh tour, the "Wise Girl Summertour" in the summer of 2009, played in both open air and venues to over 100,000 people.

• Her eighth tour, "Acoustelicious" in the fall of 2009, played in venues all over Belgium to over 30,000 people. A live recording of one of the shows was released.

• Her ninth tour, "Natalia Summertour" in summer of 2010 plays both open air and inside venues in cities across Belgium.

• Her tenth tour, "Natalia Meets Anastacia" has 75,000 tickets on sale for four dates at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp for January 2011; Natalia and Anastacia performed 6 times in the Sportpaleis in Antwerp.^[1]

References

External links

Official sites:

• NataliaDruyts.be - NataliaMusic.be - NataliaMusic.nl
• Natalia at My Space

Official site for Natalia Meets Anastacia

• Nataliameets.be