FOR OFFICIAL DHT TOUR CALENDAR, CLICK HEREBelgian dance-pop duo D.H.T. featuring Edmée (vocalist Edmée Daenen, 20, and MC/DJ/writer/producer Flor Da Rick Theeuwes, 28) have done in recent weeks what no other Belgian act in the last thirteen years has done: Reach the Top 5 in pop radio play in the United States.
D.H.T.’s single, Listen to Your Heart, is a powerful double-sided cover of the late-1989 No.1 single originally written and performed by the Swedish duo Roxette. D.H.T.’s two new versions, included on the Robbins CD single along with other extended dance mixes, zoomed to top 5 in airplay among radio stations in the mainstream pop format. In addition, an unplugged piano-led ballad version of Listen to Your Heart has also spread the song’s radio groundswell.
The duo have brought a highly original approach to their debut album, LISTEN TO YOUR HEART, released July 19, 2005 on Robbins: it’s a clearly mainstream creation -- but hardly watered-down, built as it is from entirely uncompromised elements of global dance styles, with a balanced slate of often unexpected cover tunes, and an equally surprising and solidly-written set of heartfelt original pop ballads and dance tunes.
"First and foremost, we try to maintain a unique style for all songs we do", says Flor, "But as with every song, there are many great classics which we look up to". "We respect a lot of artists in pop-dance, and all other music".
Edmée adds: "It’s impossible to name a specific artist or group as an influence, because we listen to a lot of different styles of music".
Their eclectic, enthusiastic and indisputably fresh perspective on the pop songbook is reflected in their eye-opening dance treatment of Janis Ian’s At Seventeen, which Edmée delivers as trenchantly as the original writer; the hard-trance re-imagining of Rushlow’s top 20 country song I Can’t Be Your Friend; and their remake of Sniff N the Tears 1979 Driver’s Seat. In D.H.T.’s cover of Paul Davis’ I Go Crazy, the listener almost waits expectantly for a hard beat to drop -- but the song is instead carried by the modern production and Edmées touching vocal.
D.H.T. had begun life five years ago as a high-energy dance outfit, when Flor’s encounter of Edmée as a 15-year-old studio singer immediately changed the group’s concept. She was too young to join the group in it’s many local club gigs, but recorded several songs, including the eventual album tracks My Dream and Why. With "Listen to Your Heart", as Edmée turned 18, she began performing onstage with D.H.T. Released in Belgium early in 2004 (by Impart Productions), the single "Listen to Your Heart" spread from its immediate welcome in local clubs and reached the top 20 on the Belgium singles chart.
Subsequently, the group was called to perform in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Switzerland. The record was picked up for the American market by Robbins Entertainment, the label which has carved a unique niche for itself in the dance-starved U.S. pop radio of recent years by breaking a string of European club and rhythmic crossovers by DJ Sammy, Ian Van Dahl, Lasgo, Milky and Narcotic Thrust.
"The eventual flood of radio play came as a total shock", admits Flor. "Over the years, we’ve grown musically. We only made dance music prior to recording "Listen to Your Heart", and the moment we made the unplugged version was a turning point. You could say D.H.T. was growing up. Our ambitions got bigger -- but whats happened has exceeded all our expectations."
Edmée and Flor began their first major tour of the U.S. in mid-June 2005 to support the massive success of the single -- the first top 5 pop radio hit by a Belgian act since the run of Technotronic, in the early 1990s.
Flor notes that the difficult part of their album debut was making the necessary creative decisions about which songs and mixes to include -- but the group had already been broadening its musical palette through diversifying its mixes with each single release. "The easy part was just working together, and being able to make music and have fun with it. Hours flew by in the studio -- and a lot of laughter and fun and emotions with them. That was a great experience". Edmée adds: "Some songs were easier to sing than others; each of them required a different feeling or emotion to get exactly the right mood".
Her vocals lend a haunting, compellingly human quality even to an electronic track as hard as I Miss You, and to the moody mid-tempo Why.The album hits and holds an impressive consistency of production value, vocal performance, and musical ambition. But according to Flor, one critical uniting aspect is that whether it is a happy song or a love ballad, we think emotion is what bonds any artist with a listener.
LISTEN TO YOUR HEART is, therefore, not only the title single of D.H.T.’s first album as a major international breakout act -- but also an invitation addressed to everyone who encounters this surprisingly warm and distinctly different dance-pop album.
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