About Masterboy

Subject: About Masterboy Tue Oct 02, 2007 1:03 pm

Masterboy are Tommy Schleh, Enrico Zabler and the singer Trixi Delgado. Let's add the co-producer Skywalker (Lukas Cordalis) who works with Enrico and Tommy in the studios. Skywalker also started a few projects on his own with him as singer. For example a single called Magic Summer Night under the name of JT featuring Luca. This song was produced by Masterboy beat production (JT means Joker Three and is a synonym for Enrico, Tommy and Lucas - the Joker is taken from the symbol of Masterboy). Contrarly to many artists, they really love dance music.

Summer 1989. The sound creator Enrico Zabler met DJ Tommy Schleh in a club of London and afterward decided to start working together. At that time Rico lived in Heidelberg and Tommy in Sinnsheim.

January 1990. Enrico and Tommy formed now officially a group called MASTERBOY (Their mixing table's brand begun by Master, and they were 2 boys) and released their debut single Dance To The Beat. At the beginning this track was written for the opening of the discotheque 'The Kiniky' and was supposed to be sold only in this club. They hired the rapper David Atterberry (who would later be involved in the project Comico Base) and the vocolist Mendy Lee to represent them on stage, but the public asked for the real performers...

July 1990. Dance To The Beat lands in Hit Charts and is remaining there for 16 consecutive weeks.

November (1990). Masterboy returns to recording studio. Their hobbies: tennis, squash, fast cars were put away. Their fans wanted more music. The results was second single Shake Up And Dance released in November 1990. In December video to accompany the single was made.

January 1991. Shake Up And Dance is climbing high in charts.

March 1991. Enrico and Tommy started working on their debut album. Meanwhile they were participating in never-ending gigs, TV shows, radio broadcastings and parties. The Masterboy wave now flooded Europe.

Summer 1991. Masterboy is celebrating their charts success all over the Europe. They are approached by British group Pet Shop Boys that wants single Shake Up And Dance to be released in England on their label (Spaghetti Records).

July 1991. Third single I Need Your Love was released, followed by Noche Del Amor (when Enrico appears under the name of Rico Novarini), which contained a rap version of the track Summer Nights.

September 1991. Their first album The Masterboy Family was released.

Year 1992. Masterboy were performing in and outside of Germany. Enrico was searching for new, innovative sound for the group. Tommy was looking for right beats. Both of them spent most of their time behind the turntables preparing new production to be released.

July 1993. Second album Feeling Alright was released. The first single from this album, Fall In Trance, immediately catapulted to high positions in Dance Charts in countries like : France, England, Austria, Italy and of course in Germany. There was also a single released, entitled Cause We Do It Again. In this song for the first time appeared Trixi Delgado.

August 1993. The single Everybody Needs Somebody, a second one from Feeling Alright album was released. Everybody Needs Somebody climbed into # 41 position in TOP 100. Single was also present in all European Dance Charts with good ranking, hitting Top 10 In France, Brazil, Top Twenty in Sweden, Israel (where it reached # 17), Canada, Austria, Switzerland and Top Thirty in eleven other countries. It was the first Masterboy single to have a video clip shot.

September 1993. Masterboy's single I Got To Give It Up was in production.

February 1994. The video to I Got To Give It Up was made in London. This video was highly rotated in MTV and VIVA TV channels. In March this track reached position #13 in MM charts and stayed several months on the top of official European dance charts.

July 1994. Masterboy released their chartbreaking single Feel The Heat Of The Night. The single started at position # 34 in New Singles from Media-Control Charts and soon climbed to Top 10 (position # and went # 13 in Israel. It was remixed by the Bermann Brothers (Shark mix)

August 1994. Masterboy released their third album Different Dreams. This album once released got into Top 20 (at position #13) and remained on that list for several weeks.

September 1994. Masterboy received in Germany GOLD for more than 300 000 copies of Feel The Heat Of The Night single being sold. This single was storming almost any dance floor in Europe. Released in France it reached position # 2 in their Charts and remained at that position for four consecutive weeks, then six weeks in the Top Ten and ten weeks in the Top Twenty. It returned to Chart in May 1995 for almost eight months. Unprecedented success yet to be repeated by European dance group.

October 1994. Masterboy was in tour all over Germany : 40 gigs in 4 months proved that the group did not lose contact with their fans. The new single: Is This The Love released in the end of the year immediately found its place on Top Twenty and stayed in TOP charts for several weeks.

Meanwhile, in France erupted genuine Masterboy hysteria. After Feel The Heat Of The Night, Is This The Love was released in France followed by the title song from the album Different Dreams. In March 1995 this album received GOLD status in France. With position # 7 in Album Charts and three singles with high positions in French TOP singles charts Masterboy became the most successful foreign group in France with 2 Unlimited.

March 1995. Masterboy went on tour to Brazil. What happened there exceeded their imagination. Their songs for four weeks stayed at #1 position of Brazilian charts. Everyday their songs were aired at least 20 times a day. The group became a headliner for two Brazilian festivals. In downtown of Sao Paulo and Ipanema beach of Rio De Janeiro almost 70 000 of Masterboy fans sang and clapped their hands during the group performance.

June 1995. The new single Generation Of Love was released simultaneously in Germany and France. The video for this single was shooted in Oil-Factory Studios in London. When recording their hit Generation of Love finally they did find some to do shopping in London. Actually, this city has a special meaning for Enrico and Tommy, two guys who established the group. They met in London in 1989 attending a party. Enrico says: 'To be here is like returning to the roots'. That recording session in London was actually quite hectic. They have arrived to London from Frankfurt (Germany) after two hours delay. They went for shopping spree to exclusive Carnaby Street. In 'Flashpoint' they were entertained as old friends by Chinese manager. Tommy went to male department that was selling velvet jackets, cotton shirts and pants. In 'Quarzo' Enrico was astonished by Scottish chequered cloth. Trixi was spending all her money buying gourmet tea in 'Wittards'. Tommy won the competition of who was going to spend most money in shortest time. He spent 800 pounds in 1 hour.

In Germany Generation Of Love climbed to #16 of German Charts and stayed there for several weeks. This single was not only a success in Germany. In France it entered the Top 100 Charts as rising hit. Also in Austria, Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium it its Top 20. In France within a week from the day of release it reached position #18. Later in 1995 Masterboy went on tour to major French cities with the group East 17.

Generation of Love recorded in London, the clip directed by Jonahhan Bate, was an announcement of the Masterboy's fourth album under the same name 00: Generation Of Love that has been released in 1996. Artists were working on it in Walldorf. In recording of this particular track participated The Solid Rock Baptist Church Gospel Choir from Heidelberg. Most of the text and music were written and composed by Enrico and Tommy with a help of Skywalker.

October 1995. New single Anybody was released. In the end of October the fourth Masterboy album: Generation Of Love was released. Many of the tracks of this album were covered by other Eurodance projects : Feel The Fire was re-recorded by The Forest, Land Of Dreaming was adapted in Russian by Di Bronx & Natali.

January 1996. The new year Masterboy started with a hit Land of Dreaming was released. This single had a heavy rotation on VIVA and MTV channels. This track was like the third mostly airplayed song on the radio and reached position #12 on MM-charts. It was a world-wide success. In States, U.S. remixes of this song went to position #12 of Billboard Dance Charts.

Besides that they begun their collaboration with other Eurodance groups, for example Worlds Apart. Kyra from Pharao recorded with them her first solo single (no-one knows if it was really released). Stay C from Twenty 4 Seven is an another example. And in the middle of 1995 they appeared in a TV commercial for a new CD player.

Due to their success, they had to establish more recording studios. They built another one in Walldorf near Heidelberg and a third one in Rome. "Italy is and always has been one of the most important and creative music markets in the world". And Tommy adds : 'Beside that, there is always wonderful weather in Italy'. They also released a combined production with other hot Eurodance groups. Entitled Love Message, it also appeared on a CD Compilation under same name, whose benefit were collected to help research against AIDS. This record brought a gold Record award for this group. The Masterboy team also stands behind the Cardenia project.

In order to conquer new markets, Masterboy came to Miami Beach, Florida. They performed before audience representing South American branch of Polygram to determine if the style of music Masterboy represents would be popular in South America and if their tour there would be a success. The answer was yes, of course, and they started their tournee in Mexico, followed by Chile, Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela.

July 1996. Trixy Delgado left the group to care about her family with her long time friend Thomas (actually she began a solo carreer). Linda Rocco (the voice of Dance 2 Trance's Power of American Natives) joined Masterboy and replaced Trixi. Masterboy and Linda did their first shows in Germany, to present the first single featuring her voice : Mister Feeling an euro-reggae hit. The release was accompanied by a video shot in South Spain. Within a week it jumped to position 44 in German Hit list. Masterboy went also to Russia for a couple of gigs in clubs in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

September 1996. Masterboy as well as Captain Jack, Mr President, DJ Bobo (one of their best friends), Backstreet Boys, Caught In The Act, were headliners for Mega Dance Festival. This festival started their German tour which last until middle of October. During this tour Masterboy visited 18 major cities. Meanwhile they were also working on the new album and also composed a new hit for Ice MC called Give Me The Light, and 2 songs for Indra.

October 1996. The new Masterboy's album Colours was released on October 28th in Germany along with the new single Show Me Colours. The group did a short promotional tour in Asia and returned to Germany for the new album release, for a short promotion tour in Germany that ended in October 31st. The new Masterboy album was definitely a eurodance album by all means, Show Me Colours being definitely the best song from this album.

January 1997. Masterboy was nominated as the most successful German single Act of 1996. They also got a Chartbreaker Prize of 1996 (DJ TOP 40). Meanwhile Just For You, the third single from the album Colours was released. The beautiful video was shooted in Göteborg cathedral (Sweden).

July 1997. The next single La Ola Hand In Hand recorded in Euro Reggae style was a Masterboy's offer for Summer 1997. The bonus track in the CD-5 was a more progressive sounding song : Set Me Free (previously unreleased).

November 1997. Between the 24th and 29th Masterboy stayed in Mexico and played in several TV-shows. In the first week of December they travelled to Prague for 3 days for a live appearance in a big festival. In December they were also working on new singles for the project Worlds Apart.

January 1998. The single Nights Of Broadway, a cover of an old track, was released. This one is recorded in R&B style with Euro influence. Slow, not exactly what you would like to hear from this group.

August 1998. The follow-up Dancing Forever is released. This single, recorded in disco-house style featured exclusively Linda's vocals.It was written by Willi Morrison and Bruce Ley.It was once again an nteresting single but too different from what we heard before. In last days of September 1998 Masterboy released a video for Dancing Forever.

June 1999 : After almost a year of silence the group came back to the dance scene with Porque Te Vas. Once again a cover, but with a great music, Tommy's rap and a new female vocalist : Annabell K (Annabell Krischak). The 'bonus' track on this CD was another new track from the group : Make Me Feel Good, an NRG afterhours instrumental track

2000 : a new release entitled I Like To Like It was followed by a remake of their huge 1994 hit Feel The Heat Of The Night : Feel The Heat 2000. A Best Of album was also released, with a limited edition CD including a megamix. Then Annabell left Masterboy to begin a solo carreer.

2001 : a new single was released, once again a cover : Ride Like The Wind only features Rico's voice. The forthcoming album was entitled The Heat Of The Nigth and it was released on the 26th of March. Unfortunately once again a "best of" album... In August a rumor announced that Trixi was about to come back with Masterboy. That wouls be the first time in Eurodance history that a female vocalist that left a project to begin a solo carrer comes back. It turns out to be that they also have a new single coming out called Living On Video, an another cover, which should be released in September or possibly later into fall.

After Living On Video, the following single should be entitled Ice Ice Baby. The new single is a style between dance and pop music with the voices of all 3 members of Masterboy" explains Tommy. Another single is already planned. It is called I Need A Lover and, Tommy explains "it's a Bomb. 140 BPM power Dance Floor for the whole wide World".

2002 : the long-awaited new single was at last released. Entitled I Need A Lover as expected, it was a very nice euro-trance track. All fans were very pleased to hear Trixi's voice again. Released in the end of September, it climbed to #18 of German DJ top 200 in October. On the 16th they appeared in Leipzig at Radio Jump Festival.

2003 : Masterboy's new single will probably be Feel The Heat Of The Night 2003.

2005 : a double CD entitled Greatest Hits Of The 90s And Beyond was released in Asia.

2006 : a best of album of the Masterboy was released in Russia without authorization of the Masterboy members. It contained some unreleased tracks. At the end of the year, the rumors that the Masterboy were back in studio and could release a brand new single at the very beginning of January 2007 started to spread.