Eiffel 65

Eiffel 65 is an Italian music group that was formed in 1998 in the studios of the Turin record company Bliss Corporation, consisting of Jeffrey Jey, Maurizio Lobina and Gabry Ponte. They gained global popularity with their singles "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" and "Move Your Body," from their 1999 studio album Europop. The singles reached number one in many countries, while the album peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 chart. Their following two albums, Contact! (2001) and their 2003 self titled album did not gain as much success, but still managed to gain success in Italy.

Eiffel 65
Eiffel 65 in 2016
Background information
OriginTurin, Italy
Genres
Years active
  • 1998–2005
  • 2010–present
Labels
Associated acts
Websiteeiffel65.com
Members

Over the course of their career, the group won a World Music Award in 2000 for the World Best Selling Italian Group, and a B.M.I USA in Los Angeles, rewarding the most-broadcast song on radio in the United States. They were also nominated at the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording for "Blue (Da Ba Dee)."[1] Europop was crowned as the greatest album of the 1990s by Channel 4.[2]

Eiffel 65 also composed remixes of numerous popular songs, and they recorded "One Goal," one of the official songs of the UEFA Euro 2000, and "Living In My City," for the 2006 Winter Olympics. With more than 20 million copies sold[3] and many gold, platinum and diamond records, Eiffel 65 is one of Italy's most popular electronic groups.

In 2005, DJ Gabry Ponte left the group to focus on his solo career, and later that year, the remaining members Jeffrey Jey and Maurizio Lobina formed their own duo called Bloom 06. In 2010, the original group reunited; although Ponte does not participate in record production and concerts, he never officially left the group.

History

Formation

Randone, Ponte and Lobina met at Bliss Corporation, which was founded in 1992 by Massimo Gabutti. A computer chose the name Eiffel randomly from a group of words the three had selected but the number 65 was added to it by mistake: the producer had written a phone number on a piece of paper and two digits of it ended up on the label copy. The graphic artist who received it assumed that it had been added afterwards so he just fused it to the band name for their first release.[4]

1996–2005

Eiffel 65 became famous for their international chart-topping hits "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" and "Move Your Body." Both songs were featured singles on their debut album Europop, which was released on 22 November 1999.

The band achieved considerable success in Italy and the rest of Europe,[5] in the United States, Canada, and Australia.[6] Europop peaked in the top five on the Billboard 200[7] and in the Billboard Canadian Albums.[8] "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100,[9] got to 1 in UK[10] and in Germany[11] and to number 3 in Italian charts.[12] Their second album, Contact! was released in 2001, with "'80s Stars" peaking at #9 in Italy. A self-titled album was released in 2003.

Eiffel 65 also remixed, between 1999 and 2002, other artists' tracks, like "The Bad Touch"[13] by Bloodhound Gang, Nek's hit single "La vita è" and S Club 7's "Reach"[14] and in early 2005 a remix of Yo Yo Mundi's "L'ultimo testimone".[15]

Bloom 06
DJ Gabry Ponte

In early March 2005, the group's DJ, Gabry Ponte, left to focus on his solo career. On 16 May 2005, the remaining members, Maurizio Lobina and Jeffrey Jey, decided to leave Bliss Corporation to continue with their own production company. Since the name "Eiffel 65" was a property of Bliss Corporation, the duo decided to continue under a new name, as announced in June 2005, Bloom 06.

Eiffel 65's long anticipated fourth album, under the working title Crash Test, had already finished production by the time of Maury and Jeffrey's departure from Bliss Corporation. It was renamed Crash Test 01 and was released by Bloom 06 on 13 October 2006. The album contains lyrics in English and Italian.

Reunion
Lead singer Jeffrey Jey and keyboardist Maurizio Lobina performing at Ethias Arena, Hasselt, in April 2013

Bliss Corporation confirmed that a new Eiffel 65 lineup would make their debut in the summer of 2007 but the debut was postponed. In 2009, Bliss Corporation began to promote work from older bands by subtitling music videos and releasing "unseen" video footage from Eiffel 65. In June 2010, it was announced on the Bloom 06 website that Eiffel 65 would reunite once again to produce new music as well as touring.[16] In an April 2012 interview, Jeffrey Jey commented on the progress of the new album:

The progress is slow because we work in three different place and of all the demos probably two, maybe three of these songs are what we call "the candidates" for our new single. We're not able to get a unanimous decision on one song, so that is what's making the release continuously slide. It's really hard to say when we will release a new song. Hopefully within the next two or three months we will be fixing the songs that we think are the good candidates and putting them online.[17]

In the meantime they toured Europe with their New Planet Tour, a multimedia show with wide screens and in the summer of 2012, they announced a mini tour in Australia on their site. The band is currently touring, mainly in Italy and occasionally in the rest of Europe and the world.[18][19]

On 2 April 2016, a demo of Eiffel 65's new single "Panico" was posted on Bliss Corporation's YouTube channel.[20] "Panico" and its English version "Critical" were officially released on iTunes on 1 June 2016. However, their fourth album release date is still unknown.

Zorotl

"Zorotlekuykauo Sushik IV "Zorotl"[21] is a character created by the Bliss Corporation and featured in the videos of "Blue (Da Ba Dee)," "Move Your Body," and "Lucky (In My Life)." Zorotl was supposed to be a malicious character but since he was designed with a funny round body, the authors of the "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" video decided to portrait it as tender, changing the script and giving it a happy ending.[22] In 2000, Bliss Corporation made a video for the unreleased Eiffel 65 song "I Wanna Be." An alpha version of the video appeared as enhanced content for Eiffel 65's single "Too Much of Heaven". The song is credited to Zorotl even though it was recorded by members of Eiffel 65, so Zorotl is considered a virtual group.

Members

Discography
Main article: Eiffel 65 discography
Eiffel 65 wordmark

Awards and nominations
Award Year Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
BMI Pop Awards 2001 Award-Winning Song "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" Won [23]
Grammy Awards 2001 Best Dance Recording "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" Nominated [24]
World Music Awards 2000 World's Best Selling Italian Group Themselves Won [25]
Hungarian Music Awards 2000 Best Foreign Dance Album Europop Won [26]
International Dance Music Awards 2000 Best HiNRJ 12' "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" Won [27]
Smash Hits Poll Winners Party 1999 Best Dance Choon "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" Won
The Record of the Year 1999 Record of the Year "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" Nominated [28]

References
  1. "Rock On The Net: 43rd Annual Grammy Awards - 2001". Rockonthenet.com.
  2. "Eiffel 65 | Music". Eiffel65.com.
  3. "Eiffel 65: revival dance a "Zarro night"". Milano.corriere.it. June 4, 2016.
  4. "Eiffel 65 Are the Fathers to Your Style Even If You're Too Much of a Dick to Admit It". vice.com.
  5. Hung, Steffen. "lescharts.com - Eiffel 65 - Blue (Da Ba Dee)". Lescharts.com. Retrieved 2018-06-05.
  6. Hung, Steffen. "australian-charts.com - Discography Eiffel 65". Australian-charts.com. Retrieved 2018-06-05.
  7. "Eiffel 65 Europop Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved 2018-06-05.
  8. "Eiffel 65 Europop Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved 2018-06-05.
  9. Billboard.com - Artist Chart History - Eiffel 65
  10. "blue (da ba dee) | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company". Retrieved 2018-06-05.
  11. GmbH, musicline.de / PhonoNet. "Die ganze Musik im Internet: Charts, Neuerscheinungen, Tickets, Genres, Genresuche, Genrelexikon, Künstler-Suche, Musik-Suche, Track-Suche, Ticket-Suche - musicline.de". Musicline.de (in German). Archived from the original on 2008-12-06. Retrieved 2018-06-05.
  12. "Hit Parade Italia - Indice per Interprete: E". Hitparadeitalia.it. Retrieved 2018-06-05.
  13. "The Bloodhound Gang* - The Bad Touch (Remixes)". Discogs.com (in Italian). Retrieved 2018-06-05.
  14. "S Club 7 - Reach". Discogs.com (in Italian). Retrieved 2018-06-05.
  15. Yo Yo Mundi (2007-08-24), Yo Yo Mundi (remixed by Eiffel 65) - L'Ultimo Testimone, retrieved 2018-06-05
  16. "bloom06.com". bloom06.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-11. Retrieved 2012-05-10.
  17. "IlTedesco, Eiffel65's forum Mod, made an interview with Jeffrey Jey". Bliss Corporation. Archived from the original on 1 July 2012. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  18. "Eiffel 65 - New Planet Tour". Official Eiffel 65 Website. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  19. "Eiffel 65 - New Planet Tour Schedule". Facebook. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  20. "Eiffel65 - "Panico" ( Rough Mix Demo Version) [Lyrics Video]". Retrieved 3 April 2016.
  21. "Zorotl Official Website". zorotl.com. Retrieved 2015-11-03.
  22. Gianotti, Celestino. "Zorotl Official Website". Zorotl.com. Retrieved 2017-02-25.
  23. https://www.bmi.com/press/entry/534741
  24. "Eiffel 65". GRAMMY.com. November 19, 2019. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  25. Inc, Nielsen Business Media (June 10, 2000). "Billboard". Nielsen Business Media, Inc. Retrieved April 25, 2020 – via Google Books.
  26. "Nyertesek 2000". www.fonogram.hu. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  27. "31st Annual International Dance Music Awards - Winter Music Conference 2017 - WMC 2017". July 4, 2017. Archived from the original on July 4, 2017. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  28. "BBC News | ENTERTAINMENT | Westlife win song award". news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
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