Melanie Thornton

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Melanie Thornton at her last appearance in Leipzig on November 24, 2001, a few hours before she was killed in a plane crash
Melanie Thornton at her last appearance in Leipzig on November 24, 2001, a few hours before she was killed in a plane crash
Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Ready to fly
  DE 5 
gold
gold
05/21/2001 (27 weeks)
  AT 20th 01/13/2002 (10 weeks)
  CH 4th 
gold
gold
05/20/2001 (24 weeks)
Singles
Love How You Love Me
  DE 15th 11/20/2000 (20 weeks)
  AT 48 04/15/2001 (12 weeks)
  CH 29 02/04/2001 (27 weeks)
Heartbeat
  DE 59 04/23/2001 (9 weeks)
  CH 95 04/29/2001 (2 weeks)
Makin 'Oooh Oooh (Talking About Love)
  DE 76 09/17/2001 (6 weeks)
  CH 90 09/30/2001 (1 week)
Wonderful Dream (Holidays Are Coming)
  DE 3 
gold
gold
12/10/2001 (117 weeks)
  AT 7th 12/09/2001 (91 weeks)
  CH 3 12/09/2001 (48 weeks)

Melanie Janene Thornton (* 13. May 1967 in Charleston , South Carolina ; † 24. November 2001 near Bassersdorf , Switzerland ) was an American Pop - R & B - and dance - singer . She was best known through the successful Eurodance project La Bouche .

Life

Thornton grew up in Charleston and Mount Pleasant in the US state of South Carolina . Even as a little girl, she dreamed of one day standing in front of a large audience on the stages of the world and singing. Inspired by artists like Aretha Franklin , Roberta Flack , the Temptations and the sound of the Motown label, she started singing in front of the mirror at home at the age of six. She began taking singing lessons at the age of eleven. During her college days, she financed this through jobs in cover bands. At times she was on the stage of blues and jazz bars and other clubs about four times a week. She worked in this way for two and a half years before she came to Kaiserslautern at the request of her sister . At this point in time, Germany offered good opportunities for entry into the emerging dance floor and eurodance music business.

Bob Chisolm, an uncle of her brother-in-law, had good contacts with German producers and musicians. These helped her to get by with vocal recordings for other bands (including Groovin 'Affairs and Schnapka) and projects. In 1993 she recorded the song Sweet Dreams with producers Amir Saraf and Ulli Brenner . The play, which was to become one of the biggest hits of La Bouche once caught the attention of Frank Farian , former producer of Milli Vanilli and Boney M . With the renowned label BMG in the back, everything went very quickly: Starting with Italy, the single climbed to the top of the charts across Europe. In their American homeland, the duo landed in the top five of the charts. La Bouche were also very successful in Japan, South America, Canada and Australia. The duo's initial success continued for some time, but then gradually faded.

In order to start a solo project, Thornton ended the contract with BMG in February 2000. Sony England brought Thornton to Sony Germany, where she was signed to the Sony subsidiary X-cell Records . She made a first impression with the single Love How You Love Me . The ballad was quite successful, but had little in common with her La Bouche time. Appearances on many television shows brought her face back into the spotlight. A Christmas commercial for Coca-Cola became her song Wonderful Dream (Holidays Are Coming) .

death

Tombstone

On November 24, 2001, Melanie Thornton was killed in a plane crash. Coming from a concert in Leipzig, she was on her way to Zurich to give a live performance in Langenthal as part of a promotion . During the approach to land on its flight from Berlin-Tegel to Zurich , the machine crashed in a forest near Bassersdorf in the canton of Zurich. 24 people died, including two of their dancers, their tour manager and tour technician, and two members of the Passion Fruit pop group .

Melanie Thornton is buried in the Mount Pleasant Memorial Gardens in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina .

Discography

Albums

  • Ready to Fly (May 7, 2001)
  • Ready to Fly New Edition (November 26, 2001)
  • Best of La Bouche feat. Melanie Thornton (May 21, 2002)
  • Memories - Her Most Beautiful Ballads (December 1, 2003)

Singles

  • Love How You Love Me (November 6, 2000)
  • Memories {2001}, source: Kuschelrock 16, CD 2, No. 8 and the official Swiss hit parade
  • Heartbeat (April 9, 2001)
  • Makin 'Oooh Oooh (Talking About Love) (September 3, 2001)
  • Wonderful Dream (Holidays Are Coming) (November 26, 2001, with video since November 24, 2003, as Pock It since November 15, 2004) (2006 DE: # 24)
  • In Your Life (La Bouche feat. Melanie Thornton) (November 25, 2002)

Other projects by Melanie Thornton

  • Danger Zone
  • Schnapka
  • Groovin 'Affairs
  • La Bouche
  • Le Click ("Tonight Is the Night")
  • Orange Blue (not to be confused with the better known German duo " Orange Blue ")
  • Joy Lab
  • Comic
  • 100%
  • Men Behind ("How Can I")
  • hysteria
  • Loop

literature

  • Lois Chisolm: Sweet Dreams Fulfilled: The Melanie Thornton Story . Lois Thornton Chisolm, 2012.

Web links

Commons : Melanie Thornton  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH
  2. ↑ Awards for music sales: DE CH
  3. ↑ "I live every day like it was my last". In: Deutsche Welle , accessed on November 9, 2017.
  4. ↑ Melanie Thornton website (German), accessed on November 24, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Thornton, Melanie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thornton, Melanie Janene (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American pop singer
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH Charleston , South Carolina , USA
DATE OF DEATH November 24, 2001
Place of death Bassersdorf , Switzerland