Loona

Loona (2011)

Loona is a Dutch music project led by Marie-José van der Kolk (born September 16, 1974 in IJmuiden ). DJ Sammy was a member of the band until 2005, and since 2008 van der Kolk has continued the project alone.

Band history

Emergence

In the mid-1990s, van der Kolk got to know the music producer and disc jockey DJ Sammy, for whom she initially worked as a dancer in live performances. Later on, van der Kolk took over vocal passages to the music of DJ Sammy under the name "Carisma". The first singles and the debut album Life Is Just a Game were released under the name “DJ Sammy feat. Carisma ". The duo had a top 30 hit with Prince of Love , but the album only made it to number 62 in the German album charts.

Renaming and further cooperation

After the duo had changed the project name to “Loona” (based on the Spanish luna , moon), the Eurodance single Bailando was released, which was a cover version of the Belgian / Spanish duo Paradisio. Loona received the Echo for the song, which has received multiple gold and platinum awards . The following single Hijo de la luna , a cover version of the Mecano song of the same name , was recorded in collaboration with an orchestra.

In 1999 the album Lunita was released, from which the singles Donde vas and Mamboleo appeared. The song Mamboleo uses the melody from Herbert Grönemeyer's song Mambo . Since Herbert Grönemeyer disliked the original music video for Loona's Mamboleo so much and threatened to withdraw the use of the melody of his song Mambo , he was able to get a new black and white music video to be shot, which was for him artistically more demanding. A year later, the follow-up album Entre dos aguas was released with four singles. The band won the Echo for best dance single again in the same year. The single Salvador Dalí , also a cover version of Mecano, commemorated the deceased artist . This and the single La vida (es una flor) did not make it into the top 50.

The following year, Latino Lover, a cover version of You're the Greatest Lover of the disco formation Luv 'appeared . In 2002 Rhythm of the Night was released , an English-language cover version of the successful Turkish catchy tune Hadi Bakalim (album Gülümse , 1991) by singer and composer Sezen Aksu . In 2005 the album Wind of Time was released , in the same year van der Kolk became a mother and the duo separated.

In May 2008 van der Kolk signed a contract with Sony BMG / Ariola to continue Loona as a solo project. The single Por la noche was released on July 18, 2008 and was placed at number 64 in the German single charts . In October 2008 the album Moonrise was released . It could no longer build on its old successes. In the same year Marie-José van der Kolk was a member of the jury alongside Sido and Detlef Soost in the seventh season of the casting show Popstars .

The single Vamos a la playa , released in 2011, entered the French charts at the end of May through download sales and was able to work its way up to number 4, in the French dance charts it was number 1 in the same month. With this single Loona was for the first time in almost six Years back in the Swiss charts. It was also the first single since 2000 that made it back into the top 20 (16th place). On June 24, 2011, Vamos a la playa entered the Danish charts at number 31 and rose to number 26 the following week. For Loona, this was the first song to appear in both the Danish and Belgian charts. On August 13, 2011 he reached number 3 in the charts. The single Vamos a la playa was released for the first time without a record label at Feiyr itself by the artist and the label.

On July 8, 2011, the new song El Tiburón was released , which Loona presented on June 12 in the ZDF television garden with flash mobs in various German cities. She shot the music video together with Gina-Lisa Lohfink on the beach in Puerto Portals in Mallorca. The title started at number 43 in the German single charts.

Loona had herself photographed for Playboy for the June 2012 issue .

In November 2014 she released the song Ademloos door de Nacht , a Dutch cover version of Breathless Through the Night .

In the musical Cinderella Marie-Jose van der Kolk took over during the tour 2017/2018, the role of the fairy Jolanda.

Private

Van der Kolk lives in Zandvoort and Mallorca . She has been in a relationship with the Dutchman Mark van der Waal since 2010, whom she met in 1995.

From July 2011 to April 2012 van der Kolk and Gina-Lisa Lohfink staged a relationship. In July 2013, Marie-José van der Kolk gave marketing reasons for this.

Discography

Studio albums

year	Title music label	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
year	Title music label	DE	AT	CH	Remarks
1998	Life is just a game urban	DE62 (6 weeks) DE	-	-	First published: June 29, 1998 as Carisma
1999	Lunita Universal	DE13 (16 weeks) DE	AT8 (11 weeks) AT	CH7 (10 weeks) CH	First published: January 25, 1999
2000	Entre dos aguas Universal	DE57 (4 weeks) DE	-	CH49 (4 weeks) CH	First published: December 10, 2000
2002	Colors urban	DE84 (1 week) DE	-	-	First published: October 21, 2002
2005	Wind of Time Universal	-	-	-	First published: September 21, 2005
2008	Moonrise Sony	-	-	-	First published: October 10, 2008
2011	El Tiburon Universal	-	-	-	First published: July 8, 2011
2013	Tell It to My Heart Glamara	-	-	-	First published: March 14, 2013