Joy Denalane

Joy Denalane at the Open Source Festival (2014)

Joy Maureen Denalane [ dinalaːni ] (* 11. June 1973 in West Berlin ) is a German soul - and R & B - singer combines the arrangements of Anglo-American and African music with German lyrics.

Life

Joint appearance with her future husband Max Herre (1999)

Denalane was born in Schöneberg and grew up in Kreuzberg . She was the third of six children and was named Joy ("joy"). The father, a South African , fell in love with Denalane's mother, a Heidelberg native, during his studies in Germany and stayed in Germany. Denalane left home at the age of 16, graduated from high school at the age of 22 and from then on devoted herself to music.

Beginnings of the musical career

Her boyfriend at the time persuaded Denalane to audition at the age of 19, which helped her to get engagements as a singer in the reggae and soul bands Culture Roots and Family Affair . In 1996 she got her first record deal as a solo performer in the formation Joy, Sugar & Cream , which released a single produced by Martin de Vries in 1997 . The contract turned out to be a big disappointment, however, as Denalane was not given any musical freedom and wanted to make her a pop musician . This contract finally took her to Stuttgart , where Denalane first worked with the well-known producers DJ Thomilla and Tiefschwarz and wrote the song Music .

At the time, the hip-hop band Freundeskreis was looking for a suitable singer for their duet Mit dich and found her in Joy Denalane. This love song became a summer hit in 1999. Freundeskreis frontman Max Herre became Denalane's friend.

Denalane at the soundcheck in 1999

Then Denalane broke the contracts with their record company and toured with the band for two years. She became part of the FK Allstars , which in addition to Freundeskreis included Afrob , Gentleman , Sékou , Deborah von Sens Unik and Brooke Russell. The live album En Directo emerged from the joint tour . In 2001, with the help of Herre, she signed a contract with Four Music , the record company of Fantastischen Vier , to which Freundeskreis was also under contract at the time.

Debut album Mamani

Denalane decided to release a soul record in German, as the language has redefined itself for her through her encounters with many German MCs . Denalane began work on her debut , on which she wanted to represent her South African roots. She was supported by her friend and producer Max Herre and by co-producers Don Philippe , Frank Kuruc , Tommy Wittinger and Tom Krüger.

After the birth of their first son, Denalane traveled to South Africa to research her origins and the history of her family and the country. There Denalane won the support of many African musicians for their album, such as that of jazz musician Hugh Masekela . Back in Germany, Denalane processed the impressions of her trip in the songs Setho , which she sings in the South African language isiXhosa , Mamani (mother, grandmother, or female ancestor) on Tsonga , which she dedicated to her mother, the funeral song Mathatha Agotlokamna with the Mahotella Queens and In the Soweto Ghetto . This song is divided into three stanzas and forms a cross-section through recent South African history. It is about apartheid , the Soweto student rebellion and the pass laws to the present day and AIDS . The music is funky with an African background choir. Hugh Masekela plays the trumpet in the piece.

For her son, Denalane sings the nursery rhyme and High Time , In Whom The World Belongs , she sings about discrimination against blacks and women, and in the play Four Women she interprets Nina Simone's Four Women with Sara Tavares from the Cape Verde Islands, Chiwoniso Maraire from Zimbabwe and Freundeskreis- Singer Deborah New. She recorded a cover version of the Billie Holiday classic I Cover the Waterfront for her father .

Joy Denalane's album also features classic love songs like Miscommunication , the old school piece Whatever, and the separation blues Go Now. Tell me it was Denalane's first single. Mamani , which was released on June 3, 2002, entered the German album charts at number eight.

Tours and honors

Joy Denalane live in Munich (2006)

Joy Denalane completed three sold out tours. She was referred to as the "ruler of soul and hip-hop" (Hamburger Abendblatt) and "Queen of German Soul" (Focus). She worked with Youssou N'Dour , went on tour with jazz trumpeter Till Brönner , gave concerts in New York and Philadelphia and was a guest on German television and radio programs. It won a Comet in the Best Hiphop / R&B National category and received three Echo nominations .

In 2003 Denalane went on an acoustic tour , accompanied by the three musicians Dalma Lima (percussion), Frank Kuruc (guitar) and Fontaine Burnett (bass). On March 11, 2004 Joy Denalane gave a concert in Berlin's Tränenpalast . In addition to her music trio, she was supported by the brothers Matteo (drums) and Lillo Scrimali (keyboards) as well as Sebastian Studnitzky (trumpet). This acoustic set was recorded and released as a live album and DVD in autumn 2004.

Born & Raised

After the DVD recording, Joy Denalane began work on her second studio album Born & Raised , the songs of which she presented on the club tour For the Love Tour in summer 2005 . The album was released on August 11, 2006, the first single is called Let Go . In contrast to Mamani , it only contains songs in English.

In April 2006 Denalane, Max Herre, Götz Gottschalk and Sophie Raml founded a new label called Nesola ( Esperanto : “not alone”).

In September 2006 she gave a concert in the Nikolaisaal in Potsdam with the Babelsberg German Film Orchestra under the direction of Scott Lawton .

In spring 2007 Joy Denalane released the single Change with Lupe Fiasco in the UK . She performed at various festivals in the UK, Japan and South Africa in 2007. Change didn't make the UK charts.

The Dresden Soul Symphony

In November 2008 Joy Denalane performed with the singers Tweet , Dwele and Bilal together with the MDR Symphony Orchestra, the MDR Children's Choir and other accompanying musicians in the Dresden Soul Symphony .

Maureen

Max Herre and Joy Denalane during an appearance at the Splash Festival 2012

Gurten Festival in Bern / Switzerland. From left: DJ Friction, Brooke Russel, Joy Denalane , Don Philippe, Déborah, Frank Kuruc, Tommy Wittinger, Max Herre, Christoph Sauer (2000)

On May 20, 2011, Denalane's fourth studio album Maureen was released . She already recorded some of the songs live in advance, including with Max Herre as a guest, and published them as video sessions on the Internet. Maureen is named after Joy Denalane's middle name. The first single Nobody was released as a rap version on the CD of the Juice magazine. Joy Denalane recorded Maureen in Berlin and Philadelphia with, among others, producer Steve McKie ( Jill Scott ), bassist Tony Whitfield (Bilal), ghostface and T.I. producer Jake One and the Jazmine Sullivan songwriter Anthony Bell. A version of the album with English lyrics was released a year later.

Track triangle

The fourth studio album entitled Gleisdreieck was released on March 3, 2017 , followed by a tour of Germany.

Anti-AIDS commitment

Thanks to their commitment to the fight against AIDS and their support for Wola Nani , a South African organization that helps women suffering from AIDS by selling their handicrafts, the German AIDS organization became aware of Denalane in 2003 . As a result, she became the face of the social exclusion campaign .

Private

Joy Denalane lives with her two sons in Berlin-Charlottenburg . In February 2007 Denalane and her husband, the musician Max Herre separated . Musically, they remained connected and looked after their sons' upbringing together. In March 2011 Denalane and Herre announced that they had found each other again.

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	AT	CH
2002	Mamani	DE8th gold (30 weeks)DE	AT44 (5 weeks) AT	CH54 (5 weeks) CH	First published: May 16, 2002 Sales: + 150,000
2004	Mamani Live	DE44 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	First published: October 18, 2004
2006	Born & Raised	DE2 gold (13 weeks)DE	AT42 (4 weeks) AT	CH5 (9 weeks) CH	First published: August 11, 2006 Sales: + 100,000
2008	The Dresden Soul Symphony	-	-	-	First published: October 24, 2008 ( MDR-Sinfonieorchester & Jun Märkl feat. Joy Denalane, Bilal , Dwele & Tweet )
2011	Maureen	DE8 (9 weeks) DE	AT36 (3 weeks) AT	CH11 (6 weeks) CH	First published: May 20, 2011 First published German version: March 30, 2012
2017	Track triangle	DE8 (5 weeks) DE	AT36 (1 week) AT	CH25 (2 weeks) CH	First published: March 3, 2017

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	AT	CH
1999	Can't Stop, Won't Stop	-	-	-	First published: May 3, 1999 (feat. Scorpio)
	Esperanto with you	DE9 (19 weeks) DE	AT30 (6 weeks) AT	CH12 (13 weeks) CH	First published: July 5, 1999 ( Freundeskreis with Joy Denalane)
	Time Heals the Pain	-	-	-	First published: December 25, 1999
2001	Tell me mamani	-	-	-	First published: August 13, 2001
2002	Now go Mamani	DE64 (4 weeks) DE	-	-	First published: May 6, 2002
	Whatever Mamani	DE86 (1 week) DE	-	-	First published: September 23, 2002
2003	In the Soweto Mamani ghetto	-	-	-	First published: February 17, 2003
	Nursery rhyme Mamani	-	-	-	First published: May 12, 2003
	So Many Men Nothing’s in Vain (Coono du réer)	-	-	-	First published: December 8, 2003 ( Youssou N'Dour with Joy Denalane)
2004	High time Mamani Live	-	-	-	First published: October 4, 2004
	1st love Max Herre	DE33 (10 weeks) DE	-	-	First published: August 30, 2004 (with Max Herre )
2005	Go! (Remix) Be	-	-	-	First published: September 5th, 2005 ( Common feat. Joy Denalane)
2006	Let Go Born & Raised	DE45 (9 weeks) DE	-	CH46 (4 weeks) CH	First published: June 16, 2006
	Heaven or Hell Born & Raised	-	-	-	First published: October 6, 2006 ( feat.Raekwon )
2007	Sometimes Love Born & Raised	-	-	-	First published: March 9, 2007
	Change Born & Raised	-	-	-	First published: June 25, 2007 ( feat.Lupe Fiasco )
2011	I am and will remain your Maureen	-	-	-	First published: April 29, 2011
	Free Maureen	-	-	-	First published: May 6, 2011
	Never again, never again Maureen	-	-	-	First published: May 6, 2011 (feat. Julian Williams )
	Nobody (which we don't) Maureen	-	-	-	First release: May 13, 2011 (feat. Max Herre ; remix with Megaloh & Samy Deluxe )
2012	No More Maureen (English Version)	-	-	-	First published: March 9, 2012
2014	Do They Know It's Christmas? (German version)	DE1 (5 weeks) DE	AT10 (3 weeks) AT	CH21 (2 weeks) CH	First published: November 21, 2014 (with Band Aid 30 Germany )
2015	No religion	DE97 (1 week) DE	-	-	First published: February 2015

Web links

Commons : Joy Denalane  - Collection of Images

• Official website
• Joy Denalane's label Nesola
• Joy Denalane at laut.de
• Joy Denalane on culturebase.net
• Literature by and about Joy Denalane in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hanna Gieffers: My life's work. (PDF; 1.5 MB) "I rebelled - with Prince". In: hannagieffers.de. Neon, 2017. Retrieved October 17, 2018 . 
2. ↑ 2001 - Four Music goes full throttle. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 10, 2013 ; Retrieved May 12, 2013 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Susanne Oehmsen: Master of Soul and HipHop. In: Hamburger Abendblatt . March 27, 2003, accessed May 12, 2013 . 
4. ↑ Michael Steppen: Joy denalane - The soul mom. In: Focus Online . August 14, 2006, accessed May 12, 2013 . 
5. ↑ So Many Men (single) by Joy Denalane and Youssou N'Dour. Amazon.com , December 8, 2003, accessed May 12, 2013 . 
6. ↑ Hannes Ross: Joy Denalane - Deep from the soul. (No longer available online.) In: Stern.de . October 9, 2004, archived from the original on July 3, 2013 ; Retrieved May 12, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ Stefan Franzen: First in English, then in German. In: Badische Zeitung . May 17, 2011, accessed May 12, 2013 . 
8. ↑ Hanno Busch : Joy Denalane at TV Total. Retrieved December 21, 2015 . 
9. ↑ Comet for Tote Hosen: Düsseldorfers get double cream in Cologne. In: Spiegel Online . August 17, 2002, accessed May 12, 2013 . 
10. ↑ 2003 - Echo for Four Music. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on July 17, 2013 ; Retrieved May 12, 2013 . 
11. ↑ 2004 - The first # 1 albums for Four Music. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on June 25, 2013 ; Retrieved May 15, 2013 . 
12. ↑ Joy Denalane - News of April 14, 2011
13. ↑ Album review for "Maureen"
14. ↑ Gala.de "Joy Denalane: Happy United" ( Memento from August 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
15. ↑ ^{a b} Chart placements: DE AT CH
16. ↑ Awards: DE