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Corona

Corona is an Italian dance and pop group produced by Checco "Lee Marrow" Bontempi, that found success in 1993 with the worldwide hit, "The Rhythm of the Night" and "Baby Baby". The band's musical sound is descended from New York Puerto Rican Freestyle music. Corona is fronted by Brazilian performer and singer Olga Souza."The Rhythm of The Night"The project's debut single was "The Rhythm Of The Night", released in Italy in November 1993 on the DWA record label, and became an instant hit. It contained samples from Say When!'s "Save Me" and Bizarre Inc's song "Playing with Knives". It stayed at number 1 on the Italian music chart for eight consecutive weeks. However, the song was not released elsewhere until the following year. A remixed version of the song became a number 2 hit in the United Kingdom in September 1994.Like several early 1990s Eurodance/Hi-NRG songs that eventually became American hits, such as "Get Ready For This", "Twilight Zone" and "Tribal Dance" by 2 Unlimited and "Strike It Up", "I Don't Know Anybody Else" and "Everybody Everybody" by Black Box, "The Rhythm of The Night" did not become popular in the United States until well after its success had peaked in Europe. However, by spring 1995, the song was all over American radio and clubs, eventually reaching #11 on the Billboard Hot 100.Corona followed up its hit with the 1995 singles "Baby Baby" and "Try Me Out", which saw similar success. The single "I Don't Wanna Be a Star" was a moderate hit. A fifth single, "Do You Want Me", became a regional hit in discotheques in the Eastern U.S. The album, The Rhythm Of The Night sold modestly, peaking at #2 on the US Top Heatseekers chart and #154 on the Billboard 200.1998 to 2004Corona's second album, Walking On Music was released in 1998 on the independent record label of Francesco Bontempi. The album did not produce any major hits in Europe or North America. However, the album did yield two minor Stateside dancehall hits with "Walking On Music" and "The Power Of Love". In 2001, Olga Souza released the third Corona album, this time on the Abril Music label in Brazil. Francesco Bontempi co-wrote some of the songs on the album, but he did not participate in the album's production. The album was called And Me U and Corona's name was changed to Corona X. In 2004 a tribute to her native Brazil, Corona sang ‘A cor dos teus olhos’ (The colour of yous eyes) which was distributed by ‘5000’ Corona defines the song like an imprint of her childhood memory. The song became an immediate hit. The same year ‘Garota Brasileira’, a song with spicy samba sounds became a hit with the Japanese public.2005 to 2007Towards the end of 2005, Corona re-emerged onto the European music scene with "Back in Time", peaking at #36 in the Italian sales chart.In late 2006, Olga De Souza returned with a new single under the Corona moniker entitled "I'll Be Your Lady", which she sang and had co-written herself.In 2007, Swedish dance group Sunblock did a cover version of "Baby, Baby".2010 to presentCorona returned in 2010, with the album Y Generation (it reached #1 on the Italian iTunes dance album chart). The first single release was "Angel". The videoclip of "Angel" was recorded in Italy, with "Saturday" becoming the second single release from the album, followed by "My Song" in 2011. Her last single was released in February 2012, and reached #44 on the Italian Singles Chart. It was added to the re-release of Y Generation, which was released in November 2012 as Y Generation: Remixed.In 2013, "The Rhythm of the Night" was featured on Grand Theft Auto V in the Non-Stop-Pop FM radio station.ParticipantsMany people participated in the Corona project, including: Francesco Bontempi (songwriting, arrangement, producing, mixing), Francesco Alberti (engineering), Graziano Fanelli (engineering), Olga Souza singer (vocals), songwriters - Antonia Bottari, Ivana Spagna, G. Spagna, Annerley Gordon, Fred Di Bonaventura, Gaffurini, V. Marcolin, M. Marcolin, M. Anthony, Michael Gaffey, Pete Glenister, F. Martinelli, A. Puntillo, Marco Baroni, A. Bellucci, L. Ratti, S. Tonelli, N. Heathen, I.G. Off, A. Martin, E. Bertolini, Claudio Silvestri, M. Cimoli, A. Puthli and D. Zimmermann.