Haddaway, Mr. President, Boney M. and Dr. Alban will perform on one stage in Armenia on September 20 at Retro Stars Fest Disco Legends, Unity Production co-founder, director and producer Alexander Mheryan told Armenpress.
None of the 4 has performed in Armenia before, Mheryan said, and Boney M. has never appeared before Armenian audiences in this lineup.
The festival takes place at Aura by Adana Complex, next to Adana Complex and about 10 kilometers from Yerevan. Organizers are building a new venue for the event, with photo zones, games, giveaways, and food and beverage areas.
Mheryan said the plan goes past the concert itself. Themed decorations and interactive areas are meant to put the audience back in the 1990s for the day.
“We want people not simply to come, attend a concert for a few hours and leave, but to feel from the moment they enter the venue that they have been transported to another era,” Mheryan said.
Armenian artists and DJs who were popular in Armenia during the 1990s will also perform, putting the international and the Armenian nostalgia on the same bill.
Haddaway, born Nestor Alexander Haddaway in Trinidad and based in Germany, released “What Is Love” in January 1993. It reached number one in at least 13 countries, number 2 in Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom, and number 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and it earned him 2 Echo Awards in Germany in 1994 for Best National Single and Best National Dance Single.
Mr. President formed in Bremen in 1991 under producers Jens Neumann and Kai Matthiesen. “Coco Jamboo,” released in March 1996, topped the charts in Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Sweden and Switzerland, reached number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1997, and won the group the 1997 Echo award for Best Dance Single. It was also their first single to chart in the UK, where it peaked at number 8.
Boney M. predate the other 3 acts by nearly 20 years. Founded in 1974 in West Germany by producer Frank Farian, the group built its catalog in the late 1970s around “Daddy Cool,” “Ma Baker,” “Rasputin,” “Rivers of Babylon” and “Sunny,” selling over 100 million records. Their 1978 tour of the Soviet Union made them familiar across a region where Western acts rarely appeared, which is part of why the name still carries weight with audiences in Armenia and the wider former USSR.
Dr. Alban, born Alban Uzoma Nwapa in Oguta, Nigeria, arrived in Sweden at 23 to study dentistry. He funded his studies by DJing at the Stockholm club Alphabet Street, and he finished the degree and opened his own practice before turning to music full time, taking the stage name as a nod to his dental training. “It’s My Life,” produced by Denniz PoP, went to number one in Sweden, Austria, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium in 1992, and number 2 in the UK and Ireland. He has sold an estimated 16 million records.
Booking all 4 onto one stage was the hardest part of the job, Mheryan said, because their schedules are full as interest in 1990s music has grown.
Retro Stars will continue as a brand, he said, with surprises already being prepared for future editions. The participants have not been announced.
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