Cappella is the name of one of the oldest dance acts in the world. The name Cappella was used for the first time around 1975! At first they used the name "The Cappella Project". The name "Cappella" was used for the first time in 1987.

The name "Cappella" comes from the frescos and chapels as they can be found throughout Italy. It also stands for the concept of rebirth, like in the myth of the phoenix which arises from it's ashes.

'Cappella' is also the latin word for 'chapels', like the ones you find in churches, where a choir takes place and sings. You can recognise the choir sounds in most Cappella songs, like "Move On Baby", "U Got 2 Know ", "U Got 2 Let The Music" and of course "U & Me".

The big man behind this project is Italian top producer Gianfranco Bortolotti. He's got his own team of DJ's and musicians working for him. They go under the appropriate names of Media DJ's Team and Media Musicians Team.

Every Cappella track is written by a different teams of top DJ's/musicians with the finishing and producing touch of Gianfranco Bortolotti himself. This explains why every Cappella song sounds different, but still has that typical Italian Cappella sound.

At the end of the 80's/the beginning of the 90's Cappella had several successful club traxx, some of which you might have heard before, like "Bauhaus (a.k.a. Push The Beat)", "House Energy Revenge" and " Be Master In One's Own House".

In 1992 "Take Me Away" was released featuring Lolleatta Holloway. Lolleatta has worked with another Italian top dance act, called Blackbox, on the European smash hit "Ride On Time" - ed.). This single was the first of many with that typical, commercial Cappella sound we've all gotten to know of Cappella.

The first big breakthrough came with, what is now one of the biggest club-anthems, "U Got 2 Know". "U Got 2 Know", sung by a session vocalist, reached several top 10's all over the world, incl. the UK.

The follow-up was "U Got 2 Let The Music". This one was an even bigger hit than "U Got 2 Know". "U Got 2 Let The Music" was the first single with vocalist Kelly Overett and rapper Rodney Bishop fronting the group. (Ooops! Forgot to mention that Rodney could also be heard on the previous single "U Got 2 Know"!)

Kelly was a former dancer of another dance-act called SL2, with whom she had a huge chartbuster in 1992 called "On A Raga Tip". This song was re-released in 1996 and in 1997, so all you Kelly fans out there can still see her when the video to these songs are being played, because they didn't change the video!!

What nobody expected suddenly happened. Who thought that Cappella couldn't top the success of "U Got 2 Let The Music" were proven wrong when in 1994 "Move On Baby" saw the light. "Move On Baby" reached the nr. 1 position in many countries all over the world incl. Holland, Belgium, and France.
An interesting fact to mention is that the raps on "Move On Baby" (and "U & Me",) weren't done by Rodney, but by Dutch rapper/DJ MC Fixx It, who previously had a big success with a remix of Twenty 4 Seven's "I Can't Stand (No More)" and who is also the rapper on the remix of the AntiCappella single "Move Your Body".

Additional info on MC Fixx It:
MC Fixx It is in real life Guan Elmzoom. Nowadays he works as a deejay in Amsterdam nightclub the iT. He also released another solo single in 1995 produced by Twenty 4 Seven's Ruud Van Rijen. Together with his friend Ricardo Overman, Guan helped remix and re-write "Move On Baby" and "U & Me", just like they did with AntiCappella's "Move Your Body". ("Move Your Body" has been remixed and re-released in late 1997! New versions have been done by Boston DJ's and Madame X. - ed.). Ricardo is currently in another act called R'n'G who are succesfull in Germany.

As some of you might have noticed the radiomixes of the Cappella singles differ from country to country, but the videomixes are all the same. The radiomixes are being adjusted to the style which is hot at the moment of release in that particular country.

When you take a look at "Move On Baby", you can hear that the radiomixes of the German and UK-releases are more Techno-like. But when you look at the Dutch/Belgian radiomix (Mars Plastic Edit) you can hear a more 'Italo Eurodance' sound, which was very hot at the moment of release in Holland.

After "Move On Baby", the long awaited album was released, called "U Got 2 Know - the Album -", containing all hitsingles plus new material.

From the album "U & Me", "Move It Up", "Don't Be Proud" and "The Big Beat" were released as singles. Each and every one of them became big hits, except "The Big Beat", but you can read more about that later on.

Additional Information:
"Don't Be Proud" wasn't released in every country... but then again, "The Big Beat" wasn't released as a double B-Side to "Move It Up" in every country either.

"Don't Be Proud", released in the spring of 1995, was the last single with Kelly Overett (a.k.a. Kelly-O-). She left Cappella to start a solo career, which resulted in one solo single called "Follow Your Heart". "Follow Your Heart" is a very nice, upbeat eurodance track which unfortunately didn't do much in the charts.

Additional Information:
In an interview with Kelly -O- she reveiled that the "U Got 2 Know" album was already finished in 1993, even before "U Got 2 Let The Music" was released! This is according to her living proof of the ability of all Cappella songs to withstand the test of time.
For example: Remember "Don't Be Proud"? This song was released 2 years after the album was finished and most of all... the single version was just an edit of the album mix! They even didn't have to remix the radio version! (The maxi-single did contain several mixes - ed.) And it still reached the Dutch top 20! So this means that we didn't think it sounded 'dated'!
Kelly said that Cappella always work ahead and that they have loads of new material stacked away in their Media Records homebase! And hey, if a track does sound dated (which won't happen too often) or if Gianfranco doesn't like the sound of a particular song anymore, they've still got a dozen of DJ's hanging around the Media Records building who can remix the track... This is part of the concept of rebirth, of which was spoken about in the beginning!

Allison Jordan joined the group after several auditions. She was supposed to form a duo with Patric Osborne, who had a minor hit with the song "Love Me", which was also produced by Gianfranco Bortolotti and his Media Records Team! But she and Patric couldn't get along quite well, so just before the release of "Tell Me The Way" he left the group and Rodney stepped back in the picture.

Allison can be heard for the first time on the massive "Tell Me The Way", the first pre-release taken from the album War In Heaven. Although "Tell Me The Way" is a real uptempo, hi-nrg dance-track, it didn't top the success of the previous singles.

The second pre-release of the new album, called "I Need Your Love", with a hook taken from "Tell Me The Way" got lots af airplay, but still didn't have the impact as "Move On Baby" and "U & Me".

A couple of weeks after the "I Need Your Love"-release in the beginning of 1996, the long-awaited second album, War In Heaven, was presented to the market.

The album was received by the critics with very different opinions. There were people who thought that the new album sucked big time, but on the other hand there also were many people who thought it was very good.

I have to say that I expected a little bit more of it, after the superb first album. This doesn't mean that the album is bad, on the contrary!! War In Heaven has got 10 traxx which are each very dancable, but some traxx just seemed to be little rip-offs of "Move On Baby" and "U Got 2 Know" etc. Just listen to "Another You" and "Music & Harmony". They are great dance tunes, but I just expected a little more originallity!! Come on Gianfranco, I know you can do better than that!!!

In September 1996 a 3^rd single was taken from War In Heaven. "Turn It Up & Down" was completely remixed by Italian DJ Mars Plastic. He also added some raps, which were in fact taken from "Back In Your Life".

If you're from Holland you might have noticed the similarity of the Dutch radioversion of "Move On Baby" and the radio/video version of "Turn It Up & Down"! But hey... they both were remixed by Mars Plastic, so it kind of figures! Although it was a pretty awesome track it didn't even reach the Dutch main charts!

The beginning of 1997 saw the Cappella release of... "The Big Beat/Be Master In Ones Own House"! This track was only released in the Netherlands! Why didn't they just release another track from the War In Heaven album!?! It was probably because of the oldschool dance revival... or was it because of a coming switch to another dance-label (Ala Bianca Benelux)???

In the Scandinavian countries "Do You Run Away Now" was released as the 4th single taken from the War In Heaven album!

Why wasn't "Do You Run Away Now" released in all countries? This single sure had it all to become a huge smash hit... So why???? Media Records is being a little bit secretive about it, but hey... we're used to that, aren't we?

There were also some other tracks from the War In Heaven-album which were released as a single. "Back In Your Life" was released in Australia as a double A-sided single to "Another You". But it is also said that some other tracks were released as singles. "War In Heaven" and "Music & Harmony" are also among the supposed single releases. If there is anyone out there who has any of these singles... please contact Me!!! I'm dying to get my hands on them.

"Be My Baby" was one of the most long awaited singles among eurodance lovers. The announcement of this particular single release raised many questions. Would Rodney still be with Cappella? Would they still be able to produce the superb songs like the ones they've treated us to before? The answer came in spring 1997 with the release of this song.

"Be My Baby" is a brandnew track with a brandnew Cappella sound (Future Trance)!! It was released in virtually all countries, even the US, but again there were some differences between the various releases...

The Dutch release features 3 Radio mixes, where as in most other countries it only has 1 (Bix Radio Remix)! The radio mixes which were added to the Dutch version were the MAS Radio Edit and the DNB XXX Mix!!! The US version however contains even more radio versions like the Latino Edit and the Energy Edit!

The second pre-release of the new album has also been the reason for much confusion! This song which was released in Italy (12 Inch DJ release only), Germany and Scandinavia is called "U Tore My World Apart". Again Rodney is nowhere to be heard so we might as well asume that he won't be seen on any of the future Cappella releases. Some websites mentioned that the rap-parts in some remixes were done by T. Pagani, one of the Cappella producers, but none of this is true. The raps on this single are done by none other than MC Fixxit. He wrote the raps and his name (G. Elmzoom) is mentioned in the credits of the Scandinavian remix single of "U Tore My World Apart". There's more to tell about this single. It won't come as a surprise to you, but there are several different versions of the single... again. One of the versions has got a Bix Radio Mix and a Mas Mix, but the German release (by ZYX) only features the House Radio Edit and the Pagani Edit! I wonder what other versions there are...

A few weeks after the release of this track, a remix single of "U Tore My World Apart" was released. The '98 remix of this song (which contained 3 new mixes incl. a new radio edit) also contained a '98 R.A.F. Zone Remix of the classic "U Got 2 Let The Music".

"Be My Baby" and "U Tore My World Apart" were both taken from the third Cappella album. This album was released in March in Japan only and was simply entitled "Cappella". There had been some speculations about the title of the new album. Some said it was going to be called "U Tore Me" or "U Tore My World Apart". And the latest word about it was that the title would be "U R My Baby", which will probably be the European title of the album when it will be released.

More info about "U Got 2 Let The Music '98"... This track was not only released as a B-Side to "U Tore My World Apart '98", but it also saw an independent release in Australia. On this Maxi-CD you'll find 2 new radio mixes (Wave Radio and the RAF Zone Edit), 2 extended versions, the original '93 mix and a new track called "Leave It".

"Cappella" contained 12 new tracks incl. the pre-released singles. But it doesn't contain "U Got 2 Let The Music '98"!! It's full of hi-nrg dance tracks with the original Cappella flavour, just check out tracks like "Walking Away", "U Turn Me On" or "Hey Paluppa". But there are some surprises like songs with a lower BPM!!! And some tracks do contain raps.... The album also contains 2 bonustracks. One of them is a remix of "The Big Beat" and the other one is a Megamix containing songs like "Turn It Up And Down" and "Move On Baby".

May 1998. A new track will be added to the European release of the new Cappella CD! The song is called "U R The Power Of Love" and this song will be the follow up single to "U Got 2 Let The Music '98". At first it was rumoured that the new single would be the albumtrack "U Turn Me On", but recordcompanies across the world have received mixes of "U R The Power Of Love" to be released on a Maxi CD! It's up to them if this song will be released in different countries.

"U R The Power Of Love" was released at the end of August 1998. Zyx Music said it was a preview from the forthcoming album "U R My Baby". Ala Bianca Records in the Netherlands will be releasing new Cappella material too! The Dutch department of Media Records Italy, Media Songs Srl. is finally ready to release new songs in the near future!!!

"Fallin' Star"... rumours were spread around the internet that this was going to be the title of the new Cappella single... And along with this rumour came the rumour that Allison Jordan had left the group and 4 new people, incl. Lori Glori and Captain Hollywood would join Cappella. None of it is true. Several people of established dance websites received an official e-mail of the Media Records mailinglist in which this news was stated. It looks like that 'official' mailinglist wasn't that official at all. Too bad... but we'll keep a look out for the next Cappella single. Oh yeah... keep in mind that Anti Cappella have released a new single featuring a vocalist!!! This single is the follow up to the clubhit "Get Faster" which was released earlier in 1999.

In October 2000 there was a message on the Official Media Records website at http://www.mediarec.it announcing "The Return Of The Media Star"...

From Media Recording Studios is ready a new bumper sound, emblematic for the history of dance music: the new Cappella single. The title is unknown but the style is very happy energy massive. Stay in tune for other Cappella news

But somehow this message was deleted several days after it was publicized... so who made the mistake at Media Records? Weren't they supposed to mention 'the return of Cappella'? We wouldn't be suprised if Gianfranco Bortolotti decides to revamp Cappella, because other commercial Media Records artists like Gigi D'Agostino, Prezioso ft Marvin, Mario Piu and Mauro Picotto are succesfull around the world at the moment. But we will just have to wait and see like we always have to do.

October/November 2000 sees the spreading success of a song released by "Freeze". They have released an upbeat, chearfull trancesong called "2 Know" and yes... you might have already guessed it... It uses the sample "... U Got 2 Know How You Make Me Feel..."!!! So you can consider this song the 2000 remix of "U Got 2 Know"... although not remixed by Cappella it does some serious damage in the clubcircuit. This song was one of the themesongs of Love Parade 2000 and has already hit top 20 in Belgium. Other countries like the Netherlands are expected to follow soon.