Melanie Thornton ep 21

On November 24 2001 Melanie and the girls from Passion Fruitt died in a plane crash near Zurich. Saturday night she performed in Leipzig and then she drove to Berlin where she took the plane to Zurich for radio and TV appearances (among others, the broadcast "Die Bar" on TV3, which was cancelled) to promote her new single "Wonderful Dream (Holidays Are Coming)". 

"Wonderful Dream" was a Christmas ballad recorded for a Coca-Cola TV commercial.

The irolny of the situation is the album was called "Ready to fly" and she died from a plane accident. Her album was planned to be re-released on the 26th of November.

Melanie was only 34 years old...

Thanks to Karine Sanche

Here is an reportage with Deborah St.Maarten ( Passion Fruitt) one of survival of that plane accident.

Melanie Thornton ep 19

2001 : Melanie released her first solo album entitled Ready To Fly on April 30th under the label X-Cell (Epic/Sony Music). According to an interview she gave and in which she explained that her favourite musical artists remained Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, we could guess that the album would not be eurodance related, unfortunately... Meanwhile she kept on doing club appearances in US clubs under the name of "Melanie Thornton, formerly of La Bouche" (she had the double nationality : American and German).

Melanie's third single to be released was Ooh Ooh (Talking About Love). The song has been remixed for the single release, to have much more power than it already had. Meanwhile her first album, produced by Julien Nairolf and Mitchell Lennox, reached #18 in the charts.

Thanks to Karine Sanche

Melanie Thornton ep 18

After "Love how you love me" was fallow up by another ballad called "HeartBeat", this single was released in April 9 2001. Also the maxi cd includes a few dance remixes.

Melanie Thornton ep 17

Her first solo single was released in October 2000 : "Love How You Love Me", a ballad ( the CD-maxi included a few dance versions also).
The single was, as she described it, 'an open confession to the great love, a love which grows silently and lasts eternally'.

Melanie presented her new single on 29th November on the RTL Spendenmarathon, and on the 1st December at the Dome in Berlin.

Thanks to Karine Sanche

Melanie Thornton ep 15

After "SOS" single with La Bouche, in February 2000 Melanie left the group,and was replaced by Natascha Wright, because her contract with BMG ended and she signed a record deal with Epic/Sony to start her solo career.
Meanwhile Melanie bought a house and then got married with her trainer, an she changed her look.
In an interview gave for german magazine Melanie explains :

"I think La Bouche was a wonderful opportunity - and part of me is La Bouche. But I don't just want to continue to be a dance artist, trying to be young and trendy, like dance artists have to be"

She started working with a group of producers both in Germany and in the United States.

Thanks to Karine Sanche

Melanie Thornton ep 14

"You Won't Forget Me" reached # 48 in Top 100 USA, # 29 in Germany and #24 in Sweden,after this was fallowed by a nice ballad " A moment of love " but without success.
But apparently second album didn't have the success expected and it was the last album with Melanie.
After a year La Bouche released the last single "SOS" who entred on Germany top 100 at # 78.

Melanie Thornton ep 13

After some silence La Bouche released finnally the single  "You Won´t Forget Me" in October 1997 and on the 17th November the new album "A Moment of Love" was released. 

The new album contains  9 songs, 3 remixes and, of course, "Bolingo" and "You Won't Forget Me". 

One of the 9 new songs isn't completely new... "Mama Look (I Love Him)" which was on the European release of "Sweet Dreams" can also be found on the new album ! Most tracks on the new album are uptempo dance tracks !

Thanks to Karine Sanche

Melanie Thornton ep 12

After "Fallin' in love" was released " I Love To Love". It went #6 in Australia. Fallowed by "Megamix" as a conclusion to this first album.Afterwards there was quite a long pause. 

Melanie explains in that periode : 

"Frank Farian held pretty much total control of the project and he had, since the beginning of La Bouche, picked up a whole lot of other projects. We'd been put on the backburner until he'd finished producing No Mercy (and others). He did record a single called Bolingo that was supposed to be the introduction of our second album, but it didn't work that way. It was like six months after the end of our first album and like a year before the actual release of the second album. It wasn't supposed to be that way, but it's just the way it happened. Basically it was just waiting on Frank Farian. First to be ready to start producing and then, second, to be satisfied with the work. There were also power struggles going on there. I would have to say a lot of it was disagreements between Frank and the labels". said Melanie

Thanks to Karine Sanche

Melanie Thornton ep.3

Melanie she had been singing on that period in a Macon, Ga band, Danger Zone, pulling down $50 on a good night.

However, Bob Chisolm told her that on a bad night in Germany she would make $150.On her second evening in her new homeland she was already on stage in Munich.
Thornton tried it, and soon found work in studios recording demos.

 "I did several studio sessions where for me it was just more income and fun work, new experiences, working in the studios, co writing with producers on these dance songs".  said Melanie

More tomorrow.

Thanks to Karine Sanche