AnnaGrace (formerly known as Ian Van Dahl) is an electronic dance music group from Belgium. They have seen success on dance and pop charts around the world. Among their hit songs are "Castles in the Sky," "Will I?," and "Inspiration." Their third album, and first to be released as AnnaGrace, is scheduled to be released in 2009.
Information
Ian Van Dahl began in 2000 as Christophe Chantzis, Erik Vanspauwen and Martine Theeuwen, who was referred to as Marsha. Marsha was later replaced by new vocalist Annemie Coenen. Later, Peter Luts and David Vervoort (more famously known as Dave McCullen) joined the group. In 2008, the group changed its name to AnnaGrace retaining only Annemie Coenen and Peter Luts as members.
Debut album - Ace
In 2001 the debut single "Castles in the Sky" was released by Ian Van Dahl. The vocals were originally recorded by Marsha, however, the producers felt that Marsha wouldn't make a good front woman for the act and therefore cast Cindy Mertens for the role. This decision proved to be quite controversial at the time as Cindy mimed to Marsha's vocals both in the video and during live performances. She was later replaced, however, by Annemie Coenen due to her poor performance at live shows. Annemie continued to mime to Marsha's vocals before a re-recorded version appeared on the debut album, Ace. The official video for the song, however, continues to contain Cindy Mertens as the vocalist. There are two different video remixes for the track. The first is the regular radio edit which shows a selection of dancers in an underground sewer. The second video uses the Peter Luts radio edit and features clips of an instrument being played amongst clips of the orginial video. The song achieved great success through-out Europe, charting at no.3 in the UK singles chart.
The second single "Will I?" was the first to officially feature Annemie Coenen as the vocalist and front woman. The song, again, was an international success, peaking at no.5 on the official UK chart.
Following the release of the first 2 singles, Ian Van Dahl released their debut album "Ace" to global success. The album charted at no.7 in the UK album chart, achieveing gold status after only 4 weeks.
The third single to be taken from the album "Ace" was "Reason" which charted at no.8 in the UK singles chart. "Secret Love" was chosen as the third single in a number of European countries instead.
The 4th single release "Try" reached no.15 in the UK charts.
Second album - Lost & Found
"Try" was then followed by the debut single from the new album "Lost And Found" called "I Can't Let You Go". Unfortunately, this single only charted at no.20 in the UK. It was then followed by the 2nd single "Believe" which only managed to reach the UK top 30 upon its release resulting in the eventual cancelation of the UK release of the second album and a hiatus on the UK chart ensued for a number of years. The poor charting of these singles may have been due to the poor promotion by UK label NuLife which was experiencing financial difficulties at the time. NuLife Recordings would later cease to exist a number of months later. Lost & Found also featured "Where Are You Now?" and "Inspiration", the two other single releases, which became Billboard Hot Dance Airplay, Hot Dance Club Play and Hot Dance Singles Sales hits in America. "Inspirarion" was also released in the UK a number of years after its recording by a small dance record label known as "Tubulence Records" but unfortunately only charted at no.83.
The last singles released under the Ian Van Dahl alias were "Movin' On", which was released in December 2005, and "Just a Girl", which was released in July 2006. Both songs charted in Belgium and Amercia to moderate success. Neither were released in the UK. Also, these did not appear on the second album and were anticipated to appear on the third Ian Van Dahl album. However, Peter Luts decided to produce new tracks with Annemie under a new alias and AnnaGrace was born.
Third album - as Annagrace
In June 2008, the debut AnnaGrace single, "You Make Me Feel", was released in Belgium, shortly followed by a release in the USA. The track has been remixed for the UK and was given a digital only released through the Hard2Beat label in April 2009 but failed to make any impact on the charts.
The second Annagrace single, "Let The Feeling Go", was released in May 2009. An exclusive preview video for the new track was made available on April 16. The song has achieved success in the Netherlands and Belgium and a possible UK release is expected. The debut AnnaGrace album is also believed to be released after the 3rd AnnaGrace single.
Discography
Albums
Singles
| Year |
Title |
Chart Positions |
Notes |
| BE |
BDC* |
UK |
IE |
DK |
DE |
NL |
FI |
EU |
US |
| 2001 |
"Castles in the Sky"
Ace |
35 |
4 |
3 |
13 |
18 |
43 |
43 |
- |
22 |
91 |
Two different versions exist |
| 2001 |
"Will I?"
Ace |
14 |
4 |
5 |
12 |
10 |
48 |
51 |
17 |
14 |
- |
|
| 2002 |
"Reason"
Ace |
31 |
5 |
8 |
18 |
17 |
51 |
75 |
- |
26 |
- |
|
| 2002 |
"Try"
Ace |
36 |
10 |
15 |
- |
18 |
- |
- |
20 |
32 |
- |
|
| 2003 |
"Secret Love"
Ace |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
In Germany together with Try |
| 2003 |
"I Can't Let You Go"
Lost & Found |
22 |
12 |
20 |
35 |
- |
72 |
- |
- |
61 |
- |
|
| 2004 |
"Where Are You Now?"
Lost & Found |
23 |
5 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
24 |
- |
- |
|
| 2004 |
"Believe"
Lost & Found |
- |
- |
27 |
40 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
75 |
- |
Only in the United Kingdom and Ireland |
| 2005 |
"Inspiration"
Lost & Found |
23 |
1 |
83 |
- |
11 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
| 2005 |
"Movin' On"
- |
24 |
2 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
48 |
7 |
- |
- |
|
| 2006 |
"Just a Girl"
- |
35 |
2 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
9 |
- |
- |
|
| 2008 / 2009 |
"You Make Me Feel"
Annagrace debut album |
35 |
1 |
3 |
TBA |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Annagrace debut single. To be released in the UK during 2009 |
| 2009 |
"Let The Feelings Go"
Annagrace debut album |
5 |
1 |
TBA |
TBA |
TBA |
TBA |
26 |
TBA |
TBA |
TBA |
|
|
No. 1 hits |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Top 10 hits |
0 |
8 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
|
See also
External links
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&videoType=YouTube&summary=Ian Van Dahl - Secret Love&link=http://www.youtube.com/v/IFc3aRXAcac&fs=1&hl=en&source=uds&autoplay=1&thumb=http://3.gvt0.com/vi/IFc3aRXAcac/default.jpg&celebrity=Ian Van Dahl)
