Corona is an Italian
Eurodance
Euro-Dance (sometimes referred to as Euro-NRG, Euro-electronica or Euro) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in Europe. It combines many elements of hip hop, techno, Hi-NRG, house music, and Euro-Disco. This ...
project. Initially as a band originally formed by the Brazilian-born singer and model
Olga Maria de Souza and the producer Francesco "Checco" Bontempi (a.k.a. Lee Marrow), it found commercial success with the worldwide hits "
The Rhythm of the Night
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
" (1993) and "
Baby Baby" (1995). After the second album, Bontempi left the band and was replaced by Francesco Conte and Paolo Dughero.
History
Beginning of the band's career: 1993–1996
Corona's first
single
Single may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Single (music), a song release
Songs
* "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004
* "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008
* "Single" (William Wei song), 2016
* "Single", by ...
, "The Rhythm of the Night", was released in
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
in November 1993 on
Roberto Zanetti's DWA
record label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...
and became an instant hit. It featured the voice of the Italian singer Giovanna Bersola, better known by her stage name
Jenny B
Giovanna Bersola (born 20 July 1972), better known by her stage name Jenny B, is an Italian singer.
Biography
Bersola was born in 1972 in Catania, Sicily, Italy, to a Sicilian mother and Senegalese father. In the early years of her music caree ...
. It stayed at
number 1 on the Italian music
chart
A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...
for eight consecutive weeks, but was not released elsewhere until the following year. A remixed version of the song became a number 2 hit in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
in September 1994. Like several early 1990s
Eurodance
Euro-Dance (sometimes referred to as Euro-NRG, Euro-electronica or Euro) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in Europe. It combines many elements of hip hop, techno, Hi-NRG, house music, and Euro-Disco. This ...
/
Hi-NRG
Hi-NRG (pronounced "high energy") is a genre of uptempo disco or electronic dance music (EDM) that originated in the United States during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
As a music genre, typified by fast tempo, staccato hi-hat rhythms (and the ...
songs that eventually became
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
hits, "The Rhythm of the Night" did not become popular in the United States until well after its success had peaked in Europe. However, by spring 1995, the song was all over American
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
and clubs, eventually reaching #11 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100. It was later released as a track in the 1995 studio album ''
The Rhythm of the Night
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
''. Lead vocals for the remaining songs in the album were by the Welsh singer
Sandy Chambers who also sang on the group's second album, ''Walking On Music''.
Corona followed up with the 1995 singles "
Baby Baby" and "
Try Me Out", with similar success. The single "
I Don't Wanna Be a Star
"I Don't Wanna Be a Star" is a song by Italian band Corona, released in November 1995 as the fourth and final single from their debut album, '' The Rhythm of the Night'' (1995). It was a club hit in many European countries, but unlike the previ ...
" was a moderate hit. A fifth single, "Do You Want Me", became a regional hit in
discotheque
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gene ...
s in the Eastern U.S. ''The Rhythm of the Night'' album sold modestly, peaking at #2 on the US
Top Heatseekers
Top Heatseekers are "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new an ...
chart and at #154 on the
''Billboard'' 200.
1996–2004
In 1996, after the demise of
Discomagic Records
Discomagic Records (1979–1997), owned by Severo Lombardoni, was the largest dance record label in Italy. It spawned a large number of sub-labels from the early 1980s to the early 1990s and it set the standards for an entire genre of music, rang ...
, DWA Records reorganized its staff due to internal conflicts. As a result, the production of Corona was moved from DWA Records to Bontempi's own label (World Of Music, which was also a sublabel of Discomagic).
The third album, ''And Me U'', was released in 2001 by
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
's
Abril Music, under the name Corona X. This time the vocals were by new vocalists, the sisters Bernadette "Brandy" Jones and Bambi Jones' (who died of cancer in 2010). Again, de Souza was just the face but still not the voice, as many people thought. Although Bontempi co-wrote some of the material in the album, he did not participate in the
production
Production may refer to:
Economics and business
* Production (economics)
* Production, the act of manufacturing goods
* Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services)
* Production as a stati ...
and left the band. In 2004, as a tribute to de Souza's native Brazil, Corona sang "A cor dos teus olhos" ("The Colour of Your Eyes") which was distributed by 5000. De Souza described the song like an imprint of her childhood memory. It was an immediate hit. The same year "Garota Brasileira", a song with spicy samba sounds, became a hit in Japan.
2005–2009
Towards the end of 2005, Souza finally sang on the records for the first time and re-emerged onto the European music scene with "Back in Time", peaking at #36 in the Italian charts. It was followed by "I’ll Be Your Lady" (2006), the first song co-authored by de Souza.
2010–2016
Corona's album ''Y Generation'' (2010), reached #1 on the Italian iTunes dance album chart. The first single was "Angel"”, followed by "Saturday" and "My Song". Corona's last single, "Super Model" reached #44 on the
Italian Singles Chart
The Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana (FIMI) is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy. It was established in 1992, when major corporate labels left the previously exist ...
and was later included in a re-edition of the album called ''Y Generation Remixed''.
Discography
Studio albums
Singles
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Italian electronic music groups
Italian Eurodance groups
Italian house music groups
Italian pop music groups