I Know You Wanna Say: Corona Interview

If you lived under a rock during the 90s let me tell you about the Hi-NRG Euro-disco legend of Corona: originally sung by Sandy Chambers who was locked in a cupboard for 5 years whilst the gorgeous and charismatic Brazillian model Olga De Souza, with the legs as tall as sky-crapers and the shit-gritting grin that stretched as far as the equator, fronted the act, lip-synced for her life and had everyone's eye out with her enviable dreadlocks whilst spinning round on stage in a cackling frenzy (she's famous for laughing at pretty much everything, and has actually been banned from funerals in her native Brazil and adopted home of Italy). She has been dining out on the batch of hits taken from the landmark debut album ever since (these are the slightly unknown minor worldwide hit Rhythm of The Night, the more pugnacious Baby Baby, the open-to-offers anthem Try Me Out, and the disco-drunk funk of I Don't Want To Be A Star). High ranking album tracks include the heavy demands of I Gotta Keep Dancing, When I Give My Love, I Want Your Love and Don't Go Breaking My Heart. 

 On the much-delayed 1998 follow-up album Walking On Music, the arrangement continued, as did their fast-forward attitude to sensitive love issues on the singles: the strident groove of Walking On Music, the sumptuous glide of The Power of Love and the energetic mayhem of Magic Touch (they were not massive hits, but continued the same rampant and euphoric euro-dance formula as before). The other track worth mentioning happens to be the best of the bunch, I Belong To You (80s), which sounds like PWL circa 1990 - it almost has the same scintillating elements as Donna Summer's This Time I Know It's For Real, only this time we knew for real she really wasn't singing.

In 2000, Olga released an album called And Me U under the alias of Corona X, but the material was slightly rock influenced and every bit as appealing to fans of their vintage style as that sounds (Diva Incarnate scored it a reasonable 6 out of 10): hidden delights included the Donna Summer-esque I Only Came To Dance, with its timeless marriage of disco yearning and plaintive exhiliration, and the single Good Love, which was accompanied by a slightly more accessible dance remix. Olga also sang all the songs herself and even sounds a bit like that faceless bird Sandy Chambers who had fled for her life by this point.

Olga continued to sporadically release one-off singles (going down a slightly Dannii Minogue-esque route if you will), with the best to comment on being the Spanish-tongued hypnotico dance jam La Playa De Sol, but it was not until last year that Corona came back with a selection of trance-identified dance-pop songs as part of an actual album campaign. It was called Y Generation and ignited the charts in Italy, reaching NUMBER ONE on the Italian itunes dance album charts (you can just imagine the stiff competition - thank goodness Lisa Scott-Lee wasn't releasing anything that week). I was a fan of this album, it kept an obsessed Corona crusader like myself fairly happy, and the seething trance temperatures of the single Angel even produced a True Blood inspired video (Olga's first promotional clip in 12 years), and was number 1 on the Diva Incarnate 'Best Singles of 2010' countdown. The 2nd single Saturday was delivered to itunes with a dollop of decadent remixes, and the final release was called My Song. Once again, the most infectious creation was left as an album track, this time a lust-fueled trance orgasm snappishly called Gimme Love (not saying please is just plain rude if you ask me).  A new song to launch a re-release of the album is on the way...

Hi Olga, thanks for agreeing to interviewed.

Following the mostly pop-rock sounds of And Me U, Y Generation was something of a return to dance music – although it also successfully pursues new sounds, was it a conscious decision to go back to your roots as it were?

Yes, because i love dance music, the dance with good melodies and so I deciced to went back to my roots

The single Angel's video seemed to be inspired by shows such as True Blood with its elements of folklore - what was the overall meaning behind it? 

[Olga did not answer this question]

You also sing a Capella different lyrics to the recorded version...

[Olga did not answer this question]

A lot of people didn't quite understand the product placement for the hair product. 

But in this case jean louis Italy just help to do my hairstyle in the video, so we just put a fast show of their products.

It took more then 3 hours to do my hairstyle in the video, so its was just a thank

The Corona project has endured many changes with regards to the machinery behind it (different producers, record labels, etc): did you ever consider giving up the name and releasing music under your own name? Olga de Souza is an amazing name...

No, I LOVE Corona. . I like changing labels and producers, but CORONA is always my name.

You have been using your own vocals for well over a decade, starting with 2000's And Me U, and I must say I absolutely love hearing it on the new album - it's so expressive and I love the cackles of laughter on Angel. It seems to have improved - is this due to practicing?

Yes, i always study and improve

Will there ever be a chance of working with original Corona songwriters and producers and songwriters ever again?

No, they are old now and i am still young . .ahhh ahhh

Are there any plans to perform, release and promote in the UK again? The UK record label

AATW seems like a good company to release Angel with.

We contated my labels in UK , there was some interest but after . . nothing happen, but we will keep pushing

What has been the success of the Y Generation album in Italy, and what other countries has it been released in?

After ITALY where we had a # 1 on I TUNES DANCE ALBUM IN ITALY , we did Germany, Austria and Swiss, Singapore, Malasya, Greece and we exported some copies in France, Benelux and many other countries.

And Angel the single, with some new remixes, will be released soon in France.

My knowledge of Italian pop is limited to the singers Alexia (Uh La La La), Gala (Tough Love, Freed From Desire and Lose Yourself In Me) and Sabrina Salerno (A Flower's Broken) - they seem to have a huge appetite for female

dance-driven music - what has been the key to Corona finding its most enduring success there?

I think the songs, ITALIAN DANCE means always good melodies, and the italian producers are perfect for the good melodies

It's very hard for international fans to keep up to date with the latest Corona news - will there be

plans to keep fans more up to date on your website?

All please look my new official you tube . . http://www.youtube.com/CORONAOFFICIAL. .

All the updates will be there. There will be a good news soon, with a collaboration with an important dj.

There were so many dance acts and female dance divas in the 90s - do you ever keep in touch with any?

Yes, Alexia, ice mc, Spagna are good friends

My favourite song from Y Generation is the euphoric Hi-NRG trance temperatures of Gimme Love (the productions is ecstatic and very fresh) - are there any plans to release it as a single? And will there be more videos for the project?

I am not sure Gimme Love can be a single. Thanks for your compliments.

What is your favourite song from the new album and why?

Angel and Saturday. I think we create a good groove ! and the new single ( not in the album) is hot.

Does it ever feel strange when people mention songs from the first two albums as being their favourites when you never actually sung on them? For example, I love the song I Belong To You (80s) as it is so glitzy and glossy, and also sounds like a Donna Summer song from her PWL-produced Another Time album (1989), but sadly would never expect you to perform it...

[Olga did not answer this question]

Speaking of Donna Summer, my favourite And Me U song was I Only Came To Dance, which is VERY Donna Summer. Who exactly are your musical influences, past and present?

My influence is all the 70’ disco and also the new wave of the ‘80s and of course the brasilian music.

Have you ever met Sandy Chambers, and how did the agreement to be the face of Corona come

 about, and what were your overall feelings about the arrangement over time?

We were all a big team and big friends

You have successfully fronted the Corona project for almost 20 years - without naming  names, what is the most scandalous, jaw-dropping story about another celebrity you can tell me?

Top secret.

Who is your most famous friend?

Top Secret about the most famous. . my real friends are my fans

Angel was my blog's 'Best Single of 2010' and Y Generation was an artistic triumph. What plans are next? Will you record a new album soon?

The new single . .and a new edition of Y Generation . . stay tunes. . Thank you everybody.

Thanks for your answers Olga x

Corona - My Song (Lai Lai)

Corona continue to slip new releases onto iTunes without me noticing until weeks later, with the release of singer Olga de Souza's 3rd single from the emphatic trance-pop album Y Generation released last year (my ecstatic review can be found here). Cleverly titled, My Song (Lai Lai) vents her 90s lipsynching frustrations as Olga finally began singing her own tunes herself. The song itself is a standout, with slinky and gently confident verses, which are highlighted by recurring backing vocals emphasizing each line that also link to the songs chorus. As a single, the package includes many trance-tastic remixes that might scare one into thinking she's been signed up by UK dance label AATW.


Above: the new single edit interrupts the sensual rhythm of the album version, but adds a dreamy disco sheen.

The italo-disco sound that Corona has always thrived in is still very much palpable, and the harder rave sounds on these new mixes are a worthy addition, but not quite on par with the stampede of slasa piano keys found on the Norman Price remix of the previous single Saturday.



I have no idea how this album has went down in Italy, which has always been Corona's most loyal market, as has South America where many a youtube clip can be found showcasing Souza's outrageous stage presence, Whitney Houston wig-ripping acapellas of I Will Always Love You (this has to be seen to be believed), and cackling radio interviews that are worth experiencing even if you don't speak Italian or Portguguese!

Corona - Saturday Night (New Single)

Although I didn't appear to think much of this in my review last month, Saturday looks set to be the second single to be lifted from Corona's fantastic euro-dance album Y Generation. And here it is, given an addictive new remix:

And here is the Dan Panico radio edit:

Corona - Y Generation (2010)

So I might have distanced myself from this blog like it had some sort of STD, but if there's one thing perpetually infectious enough to temp me back in the game (apart from The Game himself wanting to put me on the game) then that would be the 90s dance music legend of the disco-riddled brand Corona. Fronted and afronted by teeth-on-legs freak of nature Olga de Souza, that poor gigantic beautiful woman gritted her teeth, with her smile that stretches as wide as the equator, harder than Diana Ross trying to say the alphabet backwards on her way back from a sober McDonalds drive-thru visit at 3am, but finally got her turn to gurn on the disappointing-but-not-completely-disappointing 3rd album And Me U from 2000. I have no idea where on earth this new album is being released (possibly her native Brazil and, fingers crossed, eastern Europe - that's no joke, the guys are hot over there, all that lifting, gay porn and farming, etc). What I do know, however, is that this is a 'uuuge return to form if return to form suddenly means not your best but still quite arousing to the ears. With a rash of piano keys, glitzy synths, itchy basslines and eccentric vocal scariness, it can only the return of Olga's Corona crusade.

Shambolic trance-quake opener Welcome (you'll hear this word a lot) is a eurotrash-tastic formula Olga finds enough inspiration from to sing 'welcome' over and over again like she's having enough visitors for one of those famous Brazillian orgies.



Ogla's ravishing vocals have came on leaps and bounds since her dry spell of And Me U, and her limitations are hardly even noticeable, especially when she scares the shit out of you with her throaty intimidation techniques (think Lonnie Gordon meets spooked horse) . She gets trance-sexual on the rampant first single Angel, a convincing pledge about being 'hot tonight', which is a big fuck you to anyone not blessed with her fierce 7ft black amazonian Goddess physique (there's not many of us left you know). The album version is a swooshy synth usurper, and 'I'm not a ninja - a whoah oh!' is her endearing pronounciation so get used to it. The Libex Extended edit is also supplied, and gives just the right dosage of emphatic dancefloor fuel, but loses the simmering trance of the original. It's a drafty sounding thing, but is razor-sharp and succintly melodic stuff. Olga cackles away and it's hard to deny she's giving it her all this time - this could be massive in Serbia.



The smouldering I Can't Wait is a sly electro-fizzer, and could be a Vertigo remix (remember those?) of a Chicane song featuring Sandy Chambers. A slow-burner, it soon ignites into one of the standouts.



In the glossy tradition of Gina G and Alexia, Corona's own scintilating salsa romp Gimme Love has a lot to live up to and doesn't disappoint. In fact, it's a sensational charge, sounding both languid and utterly pilled up in sprawled-out-unconcious-in-Ibiza heaven. Wave-crashing trance splashes create a sunkissed mist of ripe and rippling shoulder-jiggling euphoria. Olga's physical gifts are more than matched in substance here, parading herself with pride and sexual arrogance (again, there's not many of us around these days). A full facial of spurting synths and seal-barking barking-mad vocals demanding sex at gun point by the sounds of it. And those drums!



With rippling piano keys thawing icy temperatures, Fly Away could almost be Dana International having another go at cracking the Spanish eurodisco market following her trannytastic Matadoras floppage after her Sony deal fell through, but I digress.


Above: the aesthetic of Dana International's epic Hakol Ze Letova album lives on after all!

I'm not going to lai to you, My Song (Lai Lai Lai) is yet another playfully cunning piano-drenched disco cocktail (the former binge-syncher is obviously a shameless binge-drinker as well). Utterly soaked in hysteria, those hic-upping shimmy sounds are as infectious as they are cringe-worthy. She gets her racism on for Black Cinderella, a fierce social-commentary number inspired by those Oprah Winfrey does pantomine rumours. 'Sell me what you want' isn't really my motto though - I prefer stealing.


Above: not the strongest cut to injure yourself with, perhaps the generic subject matter makes it an accessible one nonetheless.

Nocturnal omission Saturday is the first song I initially struggled with, but it gives a good enough pounding, and that's something I've never been able to resist for long. I sometimes rate guys on the street by saying 'oh he would be good for a Tuesday' as if to rank Monday as the worst and Friday/Saturday as the peak of what I'd really expect. Corona's Saturday feels more like a Wednesday.

Not one to beat around the bush (she is Brazillian after all), Beat & Shake is a September-lite anthemic ballad, with a contorting bassline whose grip keeps getting tighter with every gasping chorus from our girl Olga. I love the gutsy attitude she assumes, swamped in disco pathos and drowning in enough cliches for even deaf people to get the drift. With a grinding guitar ploughing through the middle-8, this could be the album's surprisingly durable underrated gem (And Me U's was the Donna Summer-lite tampon-out-in-the-rain style I Only Came To Dance, Walking On Music's was the Donna Summer-lite jittery PWL-tastic I Belong To You (80s) and Rhythm of The Night's was the pounding pathos of I Gotta Keep Dancing - just so you know). Grappling to find the right key to sing in, this is probably what makes me love it so much - it's so scappy and exhausting you'll need to lie down afterwords!



Not that she's one for violence, the tender Beating of My Heart is a cosey ballad with a bit of a draft coming from Olga's breathless cooing giving me the chills. It's low-key, frosty, sincere and quietly beautiful.

Below: I've said it before, but would this woman cheer the fuck up already?

Pursuing the latest trance trends setting the Romanian charts on fire from 2003, the retun of Corona is nothing short of a triumph, with bat-crazy Olga sticking her teeth into it with intense aplomb. It won't be a hit anywhere, but Y Generation is on par with any trance-pop that can be found on much of central and eastern European radio. With the name Corona, you won't think it's 1995 anymore, you'll think it's 2002. The effortlessly relentless momentum of Gimme Love in particular gets my juices flowing, and this is an album that deserves to be heard. Spellbinding eurotrash!

Rating:

9/10