AnnaGrace
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AnnaGrace (formerly known as Ian Van Dahl) is an electronic dance music group from Belgium. They have seen success on dance and pop charts around the world. Among their hit songs are "Castles in the Sky," "Will I?," and "Inspiration." Their third album, and debut under the AnnaGrace alias, is scheduled to be released in June 2010.
Members
Ian Van Dahl began in 2000 as Christophe Chantzis, Erik Vanspauwen and Martine Theeuwen, who was referred to as Marsha. Marsha was later replaced by vocalist Annemie Coenen. Later, Peter Luts and David Vervoort (more famously known as Dave McCullen) joined the group. In 2008, the group changed its name to AnnaGrace retaining only Annemie Coenen and Peter Luts as members.
As Ian Van Dahl
2001–2003: Ace
In 2001 the debut single "Castles in the Sky" was released by Ian Van Dahl. The vocals were originally recorded by Marsha, however, the producers felt that Marsha wouldn't make a good front woman for the act and therefore cast Cindy Mertens for the role. This decision proved to be quite controversial at the time as Cindy mimed to Marsha's vocals both in the video and during live performances. She was later replaced, however, by Annemie Coenen due to her poor performance at live shows. Annemie continued to mime to Marsha's vocals before a re-recorded version appeared on the debut album, Ace. The official video for the song, however, continues to contain Cindy Mertens as the vocalist. There are two different video remixes for the track. The first is the regular radio edit which shows a selection of dancers in an underground sewer. The second video uses the Peter Luts radio edit and features clips of an instrument being played amongst clips of the original video. The song achieved great success through-out Europe, charting at no.3 in the UK singles chart.
The second single "Will I?" was the first to officially feature Annemie Coenen as the vocalist and front woman. The song, again, was an international success, peaking at number five on the official UK chart.
Following the release of the first 2 singles, Ian Van Dahl released their debut album "Ace" to global success. The album charted at number seven in the UK album chart, achieving gold status after only 4 weeks.
The third single to be taken from the album "Ace" was "Reason" which charted at no.8 in the UK singles chart. "Secret Love" was chosen as the third single in a number of European countries instead.
The 4th single release "Try" reached number 15 in the UK charts.
2003–2005: Lost & Found
"Try" was then followed by the debut single from the new album "Lost And Found" called "I Can't Let You Go". Unfortunately, this single only charted at number 20 in the UK. It was then followed by the second single "Believe" which only managed to reach the UK top 30 upon its release resulting in the eventual cancellation of the UK release of the second album and a hiatus on the UK chart ensued for a number of years. The poor charting of these singles may have been due to the poor promotion by UK label NuLife which was experiencing financial difficulties at the time. NuLife Recordings would later cease to exist a number of months later. Lost & Found also featured "Where Are You Now?" and "Inspiration", the two other single releases, which became Billboard Hot Dance Airplay, Hot Dance Club Play and Hot Dance Singles Sales hits in America. "Inspirarion" was also released in the UK a number of years after its recording by a small dance record label known as "Tubulence Records" but unfortunately only charted at number 83.
The last singles released under the Ian Van Dahl alias were "Movin' On", which was released in December 2005, and "Just a Girl", which was released in July 2006. Both songs charted in Belgium and America to moderate success. Neither were released in the UK. Also, these did not appear on the second album and were anticipated to appear on the third Ian Van Dahl album. However, Peter Luts decided to produce new tracks with Annemie under a new name and AnnaGrace was born. In September 2008 A&S Productions released three further Ian Van Dahl tracks on Itunes, "Time 2 Go" (prev. unreleased radio edit), "Run" (prev. unreleased radio edit) and "Driving In My Car" (a track from the unreleased third album).
As AnnaGrace
2008-Present: Ready To Dare
In June 2008, the debut AnnaGrace single, "You Make Me Feel", was released in Belgium, shortly followed by a release in the United States, where it reached number one on Billboard's Hot Dance Airplay chart the following October. The track was remixed for the UK and given a digital only release through the Hard2Beat label in April 2009 but failed to make any impact on the charts.
The second AnnaGrace single, "Let the Feelings Go", was released in May 2009. An exclusive preview video for the new track was made available on April 16. The song achieved success in the Netherlands and Belgium. The track also became their second consecutive number one single on the US Billboard Hot Dance Airplay chart the following July, making them the first duo on this chart to reach number one with back to back singles. "Love Keeps Calling", the third AnnaGrace single, is now available to purchase as a digital download and physical CD. The song itself achieved moderate success in Belgium and the Netherlands. Her debut album is complete, and AnnaGrace has announced its release for June after the release of the next single. The next single, titled "Celebration", was released in Belgium on May 17, 2010.[1]
Discography
Albums
| Year | Title | Chart positions | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BE | UK | DN | FI | US Dance | ||
| 2002 | Ace | 41 | 7 | 40 | 10 | 16 |
| 2004 | Lost & Found | 29 | – | – | – | 13 |
| 2010 | Ready to Dare | - | – | – | – | - |
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BE | BDC* | UK | IE | DK | DE | NL | PL | FI | EU | US | US Dance | |||
| 2001 | "Castles in the Sky" | 35 | 4 | 3 | 13 | 18 | 43 | 43 | – | – | 22 | 91 | – | Ace |
| 2001 | "Will I?" | 14 | 4 | 5 | 12 | 10 | 48 | 51 | – | 17 | 14 | – | 18 | |
| 2002 | "Reason" | 31 | 5 | 8 | 18 | 17 | 51 | 75 | – | – | 26 | – | – | |
| 2002 | "Try" | 36 | 10 | 15 | – | 18 | – | – | – | 20 | 32 | – | – | |
| 2003 | "Secret Love" | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 2003 | "I Can't Let You Go" | 22 | 12 | 20 | 35 | – | 72 | – | – | – | 61 | – | – | Lost and Found |
| 2004 | "Where Are You Now?" | 23 | 5 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 24 | – | – | – | |
| 2004 | "Believe" | – | – | 27 | 40 | – | – | – | – | – | 75 | – | – | |
| 2005 | "Inspiration" | 23 | 1 | 83 | – | 11 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| 2005 | "Movin' On" | 24 | 2 | – | – | – | – | 48 | – | 7 | – | – | – | — |
| 2006 | "Just a Girl" | 35 | 2 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 9 | – | – | – | |
| 2008 | "You Make Me Feel" | 35 | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | Ready To Dare |
| 2009 | "Let the Feelings Go" | 5 | 1 | – | – | – | – | 26 | – | – | – | – | 1 | |
| 2009 | "Love Keeps Calling" | 23 | 2 | – | – | – | – | 15 | 26 | – | – | – | 1 | |
| 2010 | "Celebration" | 26 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
- (*) Belgian dance chart
- (-) Not released / did not chart
- Note that both "Movin On" and "Just A Girl" were expected to be featured on the 3rd Ian Van Dahl album prior to the project change.
See also
References
- ^ Staff. "AnnaGrace – Celebration". NEWS Digital Media. Retrieved May 6, 2010.