EliZe

Elise van der Horst (born 22 July 1982), better known as EliZe, is a Dutch songstress. Born in Utrecht and grown up in Bussum, EliZe shared her mother's passion for singing. As an eight-year-old she was selected to sing in a children's television show, Kinderen voor Kinderen ("Children for Children"), in which she performed for six years.

Career

After starring in the national TV show Kinderen voor Kinderen (Kids for Kids) between age 8-14, she joined "Non Stop", a teenage choir, and participated in two amateur productions of the musicals Chicago and Les Misérables.

In 2004, EliZe recorded an album in Denmark. The songs were written and produced by Peter Hartmann and Jan Langhoff, who also worked with Aqua. The first single, "Shake", was released in 2004 in the Netherlands. Though the song received the title "Dancesmash!" by Radio 538, the single was a modest hit by peaking at number 32 on the Dutch Top 40. "Automatic (I'm Talking to You)", the second single, was released in 2005 in the Netherlands and also earned the title "Dancesmash!" shortly after its release. The song became her signature song, peaking at number 7 there and becoming her best-selling single to date. It is also the first song that has ever charted outside the Netherlands, charting in Finland and Belgium amongst others in the top 20. Her third single, "I'm No Latino", was released in August 2005, and became a TMF Superclip shortly after its introduction. The song did not perform as well as "Automatic" did, but still managed to peak at number 14 on the Dutch Top 40 and remaining in the chart for 6 weeks.

EliZe has signed a contract at CMM and placed her management activities under AT Productions. Her latest single "Into Your System" debuted at number 33 the week after its release in the national Top 40. The following week, it superstipped itself to number 23. Following the latest two singles, also "Into Your System" reached the top 20, peaking at number 18. Following the success of the singles, she released her long awaited debut album In Control on 29 September 2006. Of the album, which was released in the Benelux too, rumors were circulating it to be named Rhythm of Love. The album peaked at number 66 in the Dutch Mega Album Top 100. Many critics have the opinion the album should have been released after the success of her second single "Automatic."

In May 2008, she released the first single of her forthcoming album, "Lovesick." In Bulgaria she scored a #1 hit with "Lovesick". She stayed on #1 for 6 weeks.^[1] This has been her first and latest #1 hit. The second single from the unyet named new album is "Hot Stuff", a cover from Donna Summer. It was physically released on 19 September 2008. The track debuted at number 15 in the Dutch top 100, dropped to 16 in the second week to rise to #15 again in its third week. After that, "Hot Stuff" raised 4 spots to #11, where it peaked. It also debuted at #34 at the Dutch Top 40, peaking at #27 later.

It was announced in December 2008 that the third single from her upcoming album would be "Can't You Feel It", which got its full and physical release on 2 March 2009 in prior to the album.

Her second album More Than Meets the Eye was released on 26 June 2009 in the Netherlands.

In 2007, EliZe hosted the Dutch version of the TV show "Kids Top 20" and won the "Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards" in the category "Best Singer" while up against Netherlands' #1 singer "Marco Borsato" and "Hilary Duff". in 2008 EliZe hosted the first season for the Dutch version of the internationally acclaimed TV show "So You Think You Can Dance".

In 2009, Elize was voted the country's "Most desirable single women" and won the "Single & Famous award" ^[2]

Discography

Albums

Singles

Non-album appearances

Songs that feature EliZe or that she has sung but did not make the album cut:

References

• "Music Square.". Singles charts information. Retrieved 2 May 2006. 

1. ↑ http://acharts.us/bulgaria_singles_top_40/2008/28
2. ↑ http://www.nu.nl/achterklap/1969175/elize-wint-single--famous-award.html
3. ↑ Dutch Albums Chart
4. ↑ Dutch Top 40
5. ↑ Dutch Mega Single Top 100
6. ↑ German Top 100
7. ↑ Belgian Top 50
8. ↑ French Top 100
9. ↑ Finnish Top 20
10. ↑

External links

• Official website
• Official EliZe media site
• EliZe at the Internet Movie Database
• Fan-site