Daphne and Celeste

Daphne and Celeste are an American pop duo composed of Celeste Cruz and Karen DiConcetto. They are best known for their songs "Ooh Stick You" and "U.G.L.Y.".

Success and album reaction

They released three singles in the UK: "Ooh Stick You!", "U.G.L.Y." and a cover version of Alice Cooper's "School's Out".^[1] A full-length album, We Didn't Say That!, was released in Autumn 2000 to generally positive reviews (Melody Maker awarded it four out of five stars). Another single, "Party", was due in November 2000, but was never released.

During the Reading rock festival in 2000, the crowd's negative reception towards Daphne and Celeste's anachronistic pop music resulted in the duo being bottled by the audience.^[2]

Many pop fans were also vociferous in their dislike for Daphne and Celeste. "U.G.L.Y." in particular was criticised, many feeling that it promoted bullying. Daphne and Celeste countered this by saying their lyrics were meant to be tongue-in-cheek. In an interview included on the "U.G.L.Y." single, Daphne stated: "Everyone is indeed ugly in their own special way." Daphne and Celeste made an appearance at Feet First.^[3] Daphne and Celeste also had a television and film deal.^[4]

Following relatively low album sales, and the backlash against them, Daphne and Celeste were dropped by their label. Their official website closed down in October 2001, and their management company, Perfect Noise Limited, was dissolved in November 2002. After the band broke up Celeste went back to school.^[5]

Later activities

In a "Where Are They Now?" interview with Q magazine in 2005, Karen DiConcetto stated that the whole project was "100% manufactured", and that the girls auditioned for it in New York in 1998: "I just talked about shoes for an hour." She considered the Reading Festival to be the highlight of the whole experience, and mentioned her work in theatre afterwards, specifically a play called Tourrettaville, written by a boy with Tourette's syndrome. DiConcetto received positive reviews^[6] for her portrayal of "CB's Sister" in the FringeNYC award-winning Peanuts spoof Dog Sees God. That production was adapted for an Off-Broadway debut featuring a number of big-name celebrities, including Eliza Dushku and America Ferrera.

In the same interview, Celeste Cruz said that she had also worked in theatre and that the duo were planning to break into television. In 2004, Celeste also took the role of "Maria" in the movie Brooklyn Bound. Although not a main character, she is involved in a pivotal scene which fuels the tragedy of the denouement. She also features quite prominently on the DVD cover. In 2009 she appeared in an Emmy-nominated episode of 30 Rock entitled "Generalissimo". Celeste can also be found on Twitter. Unlike DiConcetto, she considered the Reading Festival incident the "end of the party for us".

Daphne and Celeste were also interviewed by Bad Horsey towards the end of 2005, with the questions coming from the B3ta web community. The interview was posted on the Estudio Caballito Malo website and featured in the Popbitch newsletter. An edited version was published in the January 2006 edition of the UK publication Fused Magazine.

DiConcetto has a role in Holger Ernst's The House Is Burning, which premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival on 26 May.^[7] The film was produced by Wim Wenders, and is considered a German production, despite being filmed around New Jersey. In 2005 Daphne and Celeste had a mini reunion tour in the UK with Lolly.^[8] Celeste Cruz sang guest vocals on a song for Kent Odessa.^[9]

On 29 March 2015, the duo announced that they had reformed, and released a new single titled "You and I Alone",^[10] produced by Max Tundra.

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

References

External links

• Brooklyn Bound at the Internet Movie Database
• The House is Burning at the Internet Movie Database