History

Their music is recognizable for using Italian and sometimes Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 lyrics together with hip hop beats and rapping

Rapping

Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...

 performed in English. The members of the act were the singer Nicole Heiland and the rappers Dean Burke and Patrice "Lady Scar" Gansau. Their music is written and produced by Mike Michaels, Mark "MM" Dollar and Mark Tabak, who are also behind the artists and bands such as Music Instructor

Music Instructor

Music Instructor is a German electro-dance music project. The producers and songwriters of Music Instructor are Mike Michaels, Mark "MM" Dollar, and Mark Tabak, also known as Triple-M Crew. Triple-M has also produced other artists and bands such as Highland, The Boyz, Overground, Before Four, US5...

, The Boyz

The Boyz (boy band)

The Boyz was a German boy band created in Berlin at the end of 1996 with encouragement from music producer Triple-M. Their largest success was in 1998 when their single "One Minute" made it to the Top-10 both in Germany and Switzerland...

 and Ayman. Dean Burke has also worked with Music Instructor and Lunatics. Highland as an act; however, existed only for a few years. The Lyrics of the tracks were written by Hardy Krech, Mark Nissen and Toni Berardi. The project was produced by Hardy Krech and Mark Nissen (Elephant Music) and co-produced by Triple M. and Andreas Pohle.

Their first single, "Bella Stella" the refrain of which was performed in Italian by Nicole Heiland and the raps performed by Dean Burke and Patrice "Lady Scar" Gansau in English was released in late 1999 which eventually became a hit entering the top-10 both in Germany and Austria also reaching number 12 in Switzerland. In 2000, they released the album also entitled Bella Stella which peaked at number 52 in Germany and number 87 in Switzerland. Three more singles were released "Se Tu Vuoi" which structure-wise followed the same technique as its predecessor peaking at number 20 on the German single chart and number 12 on the Swiss chart, their third single "Solo Tu" charted moderately reaching number 47 in Germany and 62 in Switzerland, this single; however, differed from the former two singles. It was a pleasant Europop dance track with only Nicole Heiland's refrain performed in Italian as usual and the spoken/singing produced in English by Patrice "Lady Scar" Gansau. The fourth single "Veni Vidi Vici" (which sounded very much like the first two singles) consisted (on the album version) out of only female rap produced by Gansau and the refrain performed in Italian by Heiland, while the radio version and extended mix also contained male rap produced by Dean Burke. The track managed to chart only in Germany eventually peaking at 59 position on the single chart.

In 2001, Highland also released the single Magic Fortuna, which was based on "O Fortuna

O Fortuna

"O Fortuna" is a medieval Latin Goliardic poem written early in the thirteenth century, part of the collection known as the Carmina Burana. It is a complaint about fate, and Fortuna, a goddess in Roman mythology and personification of luck....

", a movement

Movement (music)

A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...

 from Carl Orff

Carl Orff

Carl Orff was a 20th-century German composer, best known for his cantata Carmina Burana . In addition to his career as a composer, Orff developed an influential method of music education for children.-Early life:...

's Carmina Burana

Carmina Burana (Orff)

Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff in 1935 and 1936. It is based on 24 of the poems found in the medieval collection Carmina Burana...

. The song comprised Eurodance tunes as well as Heiland's vocals performed along with other male-vocals in the background. The single peaked at number 33 in Germany and charted moderately in other German-speaking countries peaking at number 80 in Switzerland and 66 in Austria.

The act released their second album Dimmi Perché in 2008. It featured remastered versions of some of their previous hits, this time without the rap performances, and eight new songs. Dean Burke contributed to new material, but Patrice Gansau was not featured on the album. While somewhat formulaic (Occhi Blue very closely resembles Se Tu Vuoi, as one example), the original songs had plenty of fresh ideas, some of them similar to the works of Highland's fellow German group, Lesiëm

Lesiëm

Lesiëm is a German musical project created in 1999 by the producers Sven Meisel and Alex Wende. The project's music combines elements of rock, pop, electronica, New Age, enigmatic and ambient music, as well as Gregorian chant and other choral music. It is frequently compared to French project Era...

.

Nicole Heiland in was involved the Gothic Pop-Rock band Heiland with the guitarist Martin Otto.

Singles

• Bella Stella (1999)
  1. Bella Stella (Radio Mix)
  2. Bella Stella (Non-Rap Radio Mix)
  3. Bella Stella (Extended Mix)
  4. Bella Stella (Club Mix)

• Se Tu Vuoi (2000)
  1. Se Tu Vuoi (Radio Mix)
  2. Se Tu Vuoi (Non-Rap Radio Mix)
  3. Se Tu Vuoi (Extended Mix)
  4. Se Tu Vuoi (Club Mix)

• Solo Tu (2000)
  1. Solo Tu (Radio Mix)
  2. Solo Tu (X-Mod Radio Mix)
  3. Solo Tu (Extended Mix)
  4. Solo Tu (X-Mod Extended Mix) - only available in Spain
  5. Solo Tu (Club Mix)
  6. Solo Tu (Radio Mix Instrumental)

• Veni Vidi Vici (2001)
  1. Veni Vidi Vici (Radio Mix)
  2. Veni Vidi Vici (Album Mix) - only available on the 2000 album of 'Bella Stella'
  3. Veni Vidi Vici (Non-Rap Radio Mix)
  4. Veni Vidi Vici (Extended Mix)
  5. Veni Vidi Vici (Club Mix)

• Magic Fortuna (2001)
  1. Magic Fortuna (Single Edit) - only available on the 2008 album of 'Dimmi Perché' as the 'New Version'
  2. Magic Fortuna (Original Version)
  3. Magic Fortuna (Extended Mix)
  4. Magic Fortuna (Munsta Club Mix)
  5. Dominus Et Domina

Albums

• Bella Stella (2000)
  1. Bella Stella
  2. Solo tu
  3. Veni Vidi Vici
  4. Se tu vuoi
  5. Salva mi
  6. Tu con me
  7. Che Sara
  8. Angelo
  9. Quo Vadis
  10. La Verita
  11. Piano Piano
  12. E musica

• Dimmi Perché (2008)
  1. Dimmi Perché
  2. Under Blue Sky (Pod nebom golubym) see also Город Золотой — Russian song by Vladimir Vavilov; well-known in Boris Grebenshchikov
     Boris Grebenshchikov
     Boris Borisovich Grebenshchikov also known as Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov, is one of the most prominent members of the generation which is widely considered the "founding fathers" of Russian rock music...
     
     's performance
  3. Ave Maria
  4. Bella Stella (New Version)
  5. Eternita
  6. Cometa Magica
  7. Se Tu Vuoi (New Version)
  8. Kyrie Eleison
  9. Magic Fortuna (New Version)
  10. Occhi Blue
  11. Figlia de la Luna
  12. Veni, Vidi, Vici (New Version)