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From today's USA Today:
'Heart' beats a path to the mainstream
By Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY
One of this summer's fastest-rising pop tunes is titled Listen to Your Heart. But the message the single offers music-biz execs is to listen to the guy who works in your mailroom.
That's how Cory Robbins, president of Robbins Entertainment, came across Belgian duo D.H.T.'s cover of Heart, a power-ballad hit for the Swedish duo Roxette back in 1989. D.H.T., which features 20-year-old singer Edmée Daenen alongside MC/DJ/writer/producer Flor "Da Rick" Theeuwes, has soared to the upper reaches of commercial radio formats with a dance mix and an "unplugged" ballad rendition of the song.
The record — released as a six-track single: five dance mixes plus the ballad — is No. 5 on the Billboard Radio Monitor mainstream top 40 chart this week and No. 17 on Nielsen BDS' national airplay list.
Robbins' label enjoyed a big hit in 2002 with DJ Sammy's remix of the Bryan Adams chestnut Heaven before the aforementioned mailroom employee brought D.H.T. to the boss's attention. Like everyone who works for Robbins, Matt D'Arduini was invited to the Monday night meeting of label executives. In early 2004, he brought D.H.T.'s Heart and played it. Weeks later, Robbins offered Theeuwes and Daenen a deal.
Robbins didn't expect the ballad version to garner much airplay. "Then my head of promotions sent it to pop stations, and one station in Saginaw, Mich., WIOG-FM, had enormous success with the unplugged version. I said, 'I don't care. We're a dance label; get the dance version played.' "
Robbins had a change of heart a few months ago after a more high-profile station, WBLI-FM on Long Island, reported an "incredible reaction" to the ballad. "It became one of their most-played songs." After New York's WHTZ-FM, the country's biggest top 40 station, followed suit, Robbins called D.H.T.'s manager and requested that an album be delivered in five weeks.
The result, a CD called Listen to Your Heart, arrived last Tuesday. A mix of originals and covers, dance tracks and ballads, it's a more diverse collection than anything Theeuwes anticipated putting out before he hooked up with Daenen. "I started out as a DJ and performer in the dance industry," Theeuwes says. "Once I started working with Edmée, we began experimenting with different things."
Daenen says she was influenced "by many different styles. I started singing after I bought a CD of Mariah Carey. And I grew up with Roxette. My parents were huge fans, so I was very excited when Flor decided that we should do Heart."
Daenen and Theeuwes plan to spend the next few months building on momentum in the USA, where, Theeuwes notes, their readings of Heart have crossed genre boundaries: "Dance radio is playing the unplugged version, and mainstream pop is playing the dance version at night and on weekends."
As for D'Arduini, he's still handling the mail for the label. "But," Robbins points out, "he'll get a big bonus."
'Heart' beats a path to the mainstream
By Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY
One of this summer's fastest-rising pop tunes is titled Listen to Your Heart. But the message the single offers music-biz execs is to listen to the guy who works in your mailroom.
That's how Cory Robbins, president of Robbins Entertainment, came across Belgian duo D.H.T.'s cover of Heart, a power-ballad hit for the Swedish duo Roxette back in 1989. D.H.T., which features 20-year-old singer Edmée Daenen alongside MC/DJ/writer/producer Flor "Da Rick" Theeuwes, has soared to the upper reaches of commercial radio formats with a dance mix and an "unplugged" ballad rendition of the song.
The record — released as a six-track single: five dance mixes plus the ballad — is No. 5 on the Billboard Radio Monitor mainstream top 40 chart this week and No. 17 on Nielsen BDS' national airplay list.
Robbins' label enjoyed a big hit in 2002 with DJ Sammy's remix of the Bryan Adams chestnut Heaven before the aforementioned mailroom employee brought D.H.T. to the boss's attention. Like everyone who works for Robbins, Matt D'Arduini was invited to the Monday night meeting of label executives. In early 2004, he brought D.H.T.'s Heart and played it. Weeks later, Robbins offered Theeuwes and Daenen a deal.
Robbins didn't expect the ballad version to garner much airplay. "Then my head of promotions sent it to pop stations, and one station in Saginaw, Mich., WIOG-FM, had enormous success with the unplugged version. I said, 'I don't care. We're a dance label; get the dance version played.' "
Robbins had a change of heart a few months ago after a more high-profile station, WBLI-FM on Long Island, reported an "incredible reaction" to the ballad. "It became one of their most-played songs." After New York's WHTZ-FM, the country's biggest top 40 station, followed suit, Robbins called D.H.T.'s manager and requested that an album be delivered in five weeks.
The result, a CD called Listen to Your Heart, arrived last Tuesday. A mix of originals and covers, dance tracks and ballads, it's a more diverse collection than anything Theeuwes anticipated putting out before he hooked up with Daenen. "I started out as a DJ and performer in the dance industry," Theeuwes says. "Once I started working with Edmée, we began experimenting with different things."
Daenen says she was influenced "by many different styles. I started singing after I bought a CD of Mariah Carey. And I grew up with Roxette. My parents were huge fans, so I was very excited when Flor decided that we should do Heart."
Daenen and Theeuwes plan to spend the next few months building on momentum in the USA, where, Theeuwes notes, their readings of Heart have crossed genre boundaries: "Dance radio is playing the unplugged version, and mainstream pop is playing the dance version at night and on weekends."
As for D'Arduini, he's still handling the mail for the label. "But," Robbins points out, "he'll get a big bonus."
