Joy Denalane
Encyclopedia
Joy Maureen Denalane known as Joy Denalane, is a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

, known for her mixture of soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

, R&B
Contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B is a music genre that combines elements of hip hop, soul, R&B and funk.Although the abbreviation “R&B” originates from traditional rhythm and blues music, today the term R&B is most often used to describe a style of African American music originating after the demise of disco in...

, and African
Music of Africa
Africa is a vast continent and its regions and nations have distinct musical traditions. The music of North Africa for the most part has a different history from sub-Saharan African music traditions....

 folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 with lyrics in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

.

Early life

Denalane, the third of six children, was born in the Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

-Schöneberg
Schöneberg
Schöneberg is a locality of Berlin, Germany. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a separate borough including the locality of Friedenau. Together with the former borough of Tempelhof it is now part of the new borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg....

, the eldest daughter of a German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 mother and a South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

n father. A little later, the family relocated to the Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg, a part of the combined Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte since 2001, is one of the best-known areas of Berlin...

 dictrict where Denalane spent much of her childhood years.

At the age of sixteen Denalane left home and started focusing on music with first stage performances and the joining of the reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

 and soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 bands Culture Roots and Family Affair. At nineteen she was signed to a major pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 label but she and her management could not agree on what her music and image should be like and Denalane soon asked for a release. Afterwards she moved to Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

 where she met DJ Thomilla and Tiefschwarz
Tiefschwarz
Tiefschwarz is an electro house group comprising brothers, Alexander "Ali" and Sebastian "Basti" Schwarz, which formed in Stuttgart in 1996. Peter Hoff, who runs the Benztown studios in Stuttgart, joined later, and completed the first Tiefschwarz production team...

 (two already well-known producers active in the Kolchose
Kolchose
The Kolchose is a group of Hip hop artists in the southern German city of Stuttgart. The group was founded in 1993 and includes the artists Freundeskreis, Massive Töne, Afrob, Breite Seite and Skillz en Masse, to name a few....

) with whom Denalane co-wrote and produced the club hit "Music".

1999—2005: Debut and Mamani

Around the same time Denalane came in first contact with hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 group Freundeskreis
Freundeskreis
Freundeskreis also known as FK, was a German hip hop group from Stuttgart, whose songs were in German but also in English, French and Esperanto. The members were Max Herre, Don Philippe and DJ Friction....

, who searched for a female counterpart to lead singer Max Herre
Max Herre
Maximilian Herre is a German musician who rose to fame as a member of the group Freundeskreis.-Biography:...

's voice on their track "Mit Dir" then. However, the duet was released as a single in July 1999 and made the top ten in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, the top thirty in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, and the top fifteen in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

—pushed by the fact Denalane and Herre had become a couple simultaneously.

Afterwards Denalane joined the FK Allstars, which also consisted of Afrob
Afrob
Afrob is an Afro-German rapper of Eritrean descent. He is easily recognizable due to his trademark afro, from which his pseudonym is derived.- Biography :...

, Gentleman
Gentleman (musician)
Tilmann Otto , better known by his stage name Gentleman, is a German Reggae musician.- Personal life :...

, Sekou, and Brooke Russell, among others, and went on tour with them for more than two years. Later on she signed a contract with Four Music
Four Music
Four Music is a German record label founded by Die Fantastischen Vier in 1996.It was originally located in Stuttgart, but has moved to Kreuzberg, Berlin.The most popular musicians and groups signed on Four Music are...

 (founded by Die Fantastischen Vier
Die Fantastischen Vier
Die Fantastischen Vier , also known as Fanta 4, is a German hip hop group from Stuttgart, Germany. The members are Michael Bernd Schmidt alias Smudo, Andreas Rieke alias And.Ypsilon, Thomas Dürr alias Hausmeister Thomas D and Michael 'Michi' Beck alias Dee Jot Hausmarke...

) and began working on her debut album Mamani
Mamani
Mamani is the debut studio album by German singer Joy Denalane, released on June 3, 2002 via Four Music. It was entirely produced by Max Herre, with additional production from Timmy W., Don Phillipe, Franc Kuruc and Tom Krüger. The album peaked at #8 on the German album chart, selling over 300,000...

, which was released in June 2002 and debuted at number eight on the German Albums Chart
Media Control Charts
The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie...

. Inspired by African
Music of Africa
Africa is a vast continent and its regions and nations have distinct musical traditions. The music of North Africa for the most part has a different history from sub-Saharan African music traditions....

 roots, the album was primarily produced by husband Max Herre. In total Mamani spawned six singles, including the lead single "Sag's Mir", the socially critical track "Im Ghetto von Soweto" (featuring South African flugelhorn
Flugelhorn
The flugelhorn is a brass instrument resembling a trumpet but with a wider, conical bore. Some consider it to be a member of the saxhorn family developed by Adolphe Sax ; however, other historians assert that it derives from the valve bugle designed by Michael Saurle , Munich 1832 , thus...

 legend Hugh Masekela
Hugh Masekela
Hugh Ramopolo Masekela is a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer, and singer.-Early life:Masekela was born in Kwa-Guqa Township, Witbank, South Africa. He began singing and playing piano as a child...

), and "Kinderlied", a song dedicated to her oldest son Isaiah.

In 2003 Denalane went on a solo tour and finished collaborations with Youssou N'Dour
Youssou N'Dour
Youssou N'Dour is a Senegalese singer, percussionist and occasional actor. In 2004, Rolling Stone described him as, in Senegal and much of Africa, "perhaps the most famous singer alive." He helped develop a style of popular music in Senegal, known in the Serer language as mbalax, a type of music...

, ASD
Afrob
Afrob is an Afro-German rapper of Eritrean descent. He is easily recognizable due to his trademark afro, from which his pseudonym is derived.- Biography :...

, and Till Brönner
Till Brönner
Till Brönner is a German jazz musician, trumpet player, singer, composer, arranger and producer. He has a unique jazz approach influenced by bebop and fusion jazz, but also modern pop music, movie soundtracks , country music and even German pop songs...

. She also performed in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and Philadelphia for the first time and eventually received a Comet for Best Hip-Hop/R&B National and three ECHO nominations, including Best Female Artist. Soon after she released a live edition of Mamani on CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

, which was recorded during a special performance at Berlin's Tränenpalast and involved a set of previously unreleased remakes. In summer 2005 Denalane contributed vocals to the German version of Common
Common (rapper)
Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. , better known by his stage name Common , is an American hip-hop artist and actor....

's 2005 single "Go!".sada

2006—present: Born & Raised and Maureen

In April 2006 Denalane and husband Herre founded their own label, Nesola Records. Simultaneously Denalane prepared the release of her second album, Born & Raised, her first record in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

. Pre-programmed in Germany, the album was entirely recorded in Philadelphia and features appearances by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 rappers Lupe Fiasco
Lupe Fiasco
Wasalu Muhammad Jaco , better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco , is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, Lupe is the CEO of 1st and 15th Entertainment. He rose to fame in 2006 following the success of his critically acclaimed debut album, Lupe Fiasco's Food...

, Raekwon
Raekwon
Corey Woods , better known by the stage name Raekwon, is an American rapper and a member of the Wu-Tang Clan. He released his solo debut, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... in 1995, and has since recorded four solo albums, as well as work with Wu-Tang and an extensive amount of guest contributions with...

, and Governor
Governor (singer)
Governor Washington Jr., better known as Governor, is an Southern American Soul and R&B singer who was signed to T.I.'s label, Grand Hustle, under the aegis of Atlantic Records. He is signed to the newly formed G-Note Records which is a subsidiary label of 50 Cent's G-Unit...

. While its lead single "Let Go" reached a moderately successful number forty on the German Singles Chart, the critically acclaimed Born & Raised (released on 11 August 2006) debuted at number two (behind Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...

's Back to Basics
Back to Basics (Christina Aguilera album)
Back to Basics is the third studio album by American recording artist Christina Aguilera, first released on August 10, 2006 by RCA Records...

) on the national albums chart, making it Denalane's highest chart entry to date. Further singles from the album, "Heaven or Hell" and "Sometimes Love", failed to chart within the top one hundred. In spring 2007 Denalane released the single "Change" (featuring Lupe Fiasco) in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, but it failed to chart.

In 2008 Joy Denalane worked with Tweet
Tweet (singer)
Tweet is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter.-Early years:The youngest child of Tom and Shirley Keys, Tweet was born in Rochester, New York on January 21, 1972, and grew up singing in the church along with her parents and her four older siblings...

, Dwele
Dwele
Andwele Gardner , better known by his stage name Dwele is a soul singer, songwriter and record producer from Detroit, Michigan.-Biography:...

 and Bilal on the project The Dresden Soul Symphony
The Dresden Soul Symphony
The Dresden Soul Symphony is a German concert show. The musicians reinterpret soul hits and combine them with classical music. The musical ensemble contains the singers Joy Denalane, Bilal, Tweet and Dwele; the radio orchestra of the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk; four backing vocalists; the MDR...

 in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. They performed classic soul cuts like "Let's stay together", "Natural woman", "Its a man´s man´s man's world", "Ain´t nothing like a real thing" etc. with the MDR Symphony Orchestra
MDR Symphony Orchestra
The MDR Symphony Orchestra is one of the oldest Radio orchestras in the world and the oldest in Germany. It was founded in Leipzig, Germany in 1923 and therefore 9 months earlier than the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra...

. An album The Dresden Soul Symphony
The Dresden Soul Symphony
The Dresden Soul Symphony is a German concert show. The musicians reinterpret soul hits and combine them with classical music. The musical ensemble contains the singers Joy Denalane, Bilal, Tweet and Dwele; the radio orchestra of the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk; four backing vocalists; the MDR...

 and DVD were later released on October 24, 2008.

Denalane's third studio Maureen, titled after her middle name, is expected to be released in May 2011. It will be her second German-language album after Mamani (2002).

Studio albums

  • Mamani
    Mamani
    Mamani is the debut studio album by German singer Joy Denalane, released on June 3, 2002 via Four Music. It was entirely produced by Max Herre, with additional production from Timmy W., Don Phillipe, Franc Kuruc and Tom Krüger. The album peaked at #8 on the German album chart, selling over 300,000...

    (2002)
  • Born & Raised
    Born & Raised
    Born & Raised is the second studio album by German singer Joy Denalane, released by Nesola Records and Four Music on August 11, 2006 in Germany. It was primarily produced by No I.D., Jake One, BAB Gardeat and executive producer Max Herre, and features appearances by American rappers Lupe Fiasco,...

    (2006)
  • Maureen (2011)


Live albums

  • Mamani Live (2004)
  • The Dresden Soul Symphony
    The Dresden Soul Symphony (album)
    The Dresden Soul Symphony is an album by The Dresden Soul Symphony, released October 24, 2008. The musicians reinterpret soul hits and combine them with classical music...

    (2008)


External links

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