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Fun Factory biographyMusical team : Bulent Aris, R. Kesselbauer, Tony Cottura,
R. Hardison "The good time dance machine par excellence" was how one critic described Fun Factory - probably the most accurate, characterisation ever made of this group. With their high-explosive mixture of pop, dance, rap, techno and reggae elements, they have achieved international acclaim and their singles can be found in the charts the world over. Tracks such as Groove Me (# 1 in Israel Dance Chart, # 5 in Israel Air play), Take Your Chance (# 3 in Israel Dance Chart), Close To You, Pain (# 30 in Israel, # 5 in Israel Air-play, remixed by ATB) and most of all I Wanna Be With You (once again remixed by ATB) and also Celebration made their way into the top ranks of all important at Media Control and Dance Charts. And not only in Germany, Fun Factory tracks have climbed high in the charts in Canada, England, Sweden, the Far East, Finland, Poland, France, Italy and in the USA as well, and have made the group one of the most remarkable European acts internationally. But it is less known that Fun Factory actually started as a studio project in 1990 by Rainer Kesselbaur. He released a synthesizer-sounding Fun Factory's Theme for the first time in 1990 under a small record company near Bremen, as a vinyl only, in small quantity. The B-Side of the vinyl has a slow synth track titled Apelonia. But it did not have much success. In 1992 Rainer decided to release the Funtech Mix of the original Fun Factory's Theme song, this time along with 4 different mixes. Then, the style turned to eurodance, and the project got faces. There's Marie-Anett Mey, the front lady of French descent (born 3rd June 1971), Smooth T (Toni Cottura, born 7th June 1971) the Italian dancer, rapper and background singer and Steve (Stephan Browarezyk, born 15th of January 1972), the dance partner from Germany. American rapper and freestyle king Rod D (born 24th May 1969) rounded out the Factory crew. Fun Factory are more than just one of the many nameless DJ projects who ascend to chart heaven for a short time only to fall again and disappear into obscurity. The members see themselves more as a band in the classic sense of the word, influenced by the spirit and roots of R&B, but taking full advantage of the most modern studio technology, Fun Factory won't allow themselves and their music to be filed away under any particular category . "The main thing is that it grooves, it kicks, it beeps and that the people feel good..." is Smooth T's answer when asked about the group's secret recipe for international success. The evergrowing number of Fun Factory fans were thrilled by the group's live performances and during 12 months they toured three times in the USA, in South East Asia and in the whole of Europe. Doing shows and having a direct contact with their public was very important for the band members too. Their stage act was pure entertainment, conceived and developed to perfection by Steve and Smooth T who both had a background in the martial arts. "Combining elements of the martial arts and dance creates something totally new. We don't want any lame disco choreography, we want real action entertainment" explained Steve. When not performing live, Fun Factory could be found, often for nights on end, in their studio in Hamburg working on their tracks with the support of the many friends who help out now and again with vocal parts, guest raps and instrumentals. Fun Factory's music speaks to anyone and everyone and forces all who listen 'into the groove' which for Fun Factory is what it's all about. It's as simple as it sounds "We want fun" says Marie-Anett, "that's our philosophy and there's really nothing else more important". 1992 : the song which started it all was Fun Factory's Theme. Followed the big hits already mentioned above... 1994 : their first album was out. Non Stop, including their first and best hits, all mixed one after another. At this time, the female vocalist was not Marie-Annett yet, but Balja, who afterwards left the group. Her voice can be heard on few of the songs of the album, such as Prove Your Love. Marie-Annett's voice could be heard from the single Close To You. The track Love Of My Life was covered by the project La Verona (Verona Feldbusch). According to some rumors, Balja could have been the one and only vocalist, Marie Annett being unable to sing anything. It's a fact that Marie-Annett thanks Balja on every album of the group... After a few years, Balca stopped singing for Marie Annett. A new studio vocalist entered the team, Sara M. Baker. She had to imitate Balca's voice a little, so that people wouldn't notice the difference. The songs she contributed to were never officially released, they were only used for stage performances. She also recorded songs for some other projects produced by Fun Factory's producers. 1995 : the title of the second album Fun-Tastic was really programmatic and the 'good time dance machine' presented an ultimate, highly concentrated smash album for the Christmas season. Massive grooves, very catchy refrains, bitter-sweet soul ballads and sharp raps combined to an ingenious essence of all styles that had made dance the most important pop genre of our time and guaranteed numerous encounters with Fun Factory. In 1997, Toni Cottura left the band, later followed by Rod D, Marie Anett and Steve. They were replaced by 3 new members : Al Walser (the new lead singer, rapper and composer), Tiger One aka T-roc (rapper) and the new female vocalist called Anett Möller. 1998 : in the end of summer the new Fun Factory released a single called Party with Fun Factory. It was a huge success and remained #1 during 5 weeks consecutive weeks. In March 1999 they released their new album : Next Generation. Produced by Team 33, recorded in Hamburg in Germany, it was pretty successful, since it sold over 100 000 copies. The Japanese version of the album included 2 extra tracks. In July came another album, entitled Next Generation 99. It contained only 11 tracks : including the Cool Mix of Party With, the Single Mix of Sha-La-La-La-La, Party Message (actually the song Sing Along renamed), Fun Factory 99 (The Theme under a different title), the hit Close To You by the first FF team, Next To You Baby (same as Next To You with a slightly different title), and finally a different version of Ready To Flight. Lian Ross contributed to the album in studio, it could even be possible that she did all the vocals, Anett being just lipsyncing on stage. 2001 : Sara, the new studio vocalist who had succeeded to Balja, appeared on 4 Elements feat. Sara M. Baker - Phobia City. In 2002 Fun Factory released a new album in Japan only. It contained 14 brand new tracks plus 2 remixes and was entitled ABC Of Love. Music was composed by Justmann, Kesselbaur, and Crotti. Lyrics were written by Justmann, Croom, Walser, Kesselbaur and Crotti. 2003 : Fun Factory recently decided to split up and cease their musical activites. Rod D had gone back to the USA and stopped doing music. T-roc aka Tiger 1 started a solo carreer in Romania. 2004 : Sara did vocals on Cheeka Another Saturday Night 2005 : I Wanna B With You was covered by a group called Da F.U.N.K. 2007 could be the year when Fun Factory will rebirth. The new producer and manager, Rekardo Heilig, organized a casting for 2 singers (male and female), a rapper, and a background-singer for the group. The castings went on until the end of February. They promised a Fun Factory summerhit for 2007 but finally nothing came out. Toni recently confirmed that Balja was the original and only FF singer. She sang every single song on all their albums, which means Marie-Anett Mey did not sing at all. Her name is actually spelled as Balca (with a "c" not a "j") and it is a Turkish name. 2008 : the new Fun Factory team has been revealed. There is Douglas, the new rapper, born in Hamburg, also a talented breakdancer. Jasmine and Joel are the new vocalists. Jasmine has been learning dance since the age of 4, she did background vocals for the project Love Machine, and also contributed to the Girl band The Sweetheartz. Joel spent 12 years at the Waldorfschule, appeared on stage with Lee Ryan and more recently in a Maggi soup commercial. And finally there is Lea, the new dancer and choreographer. Before entering the new Fun Factory, she did some modelling. A music label called Fun Factory was created. The new album was first told to be called In The Heat Of The Night, then renamed Storm In My Brain, and the new single should be Fiesta De Samba. Al Walser's new album should be released in September. Annett Möller, from the second FF team, went back to Germany where she did 3 years acting studies in Hamburg. After contributing to RTL-Aktuell, working as a reporter for RTL Nord, she now currently working for the German channel N-TV as a moderator, appearing in the broadcast N-TV Wissen. In July, the new Fun Factory team changed : the dancers Lea and Joel were replaced by the dancer and background vocalist Jenna and the dancer and rapper DGS. DGS became a member of Phen-O-MENIA, a new Rekardo Heilig project, along with Lea. On August 11th, it was revealed that, to fit the fans' demand, Fun Factory's new single would not be Fiesta De Samba as originally planned, but Be Good To Me, a track closer to the usual Fun Factory style. The band name "Fun Factory" has been re-registered by German producer Rekardo Heilig for the 3rd generation Fun Factory. Even though, this name has been re-registered, Toni Cottura announced on his official website that he planned to release material under the same name. The problem is, since it has been re-registered by Heilig, Cottura does not have the rights re-use and release any material under "Fun Factory" in Germany and Europe. Anyway, 8 tracks have already been recorded, with Balca on vocals... 2009 : Fun Factory Third Generation recorded a new single entitled Shut Up. It was actually written by Torsten Abrolat... and Toni Cottura ! 2010 : Fun Factory third generation will shoot a new video clip for their single Uh La La. 2011 : X-Trans ft.Selini covered I Wanna B With U. 2012 : Fun Factory 3rd generation announced that the title of their new single would be Nymphomaniac. At the end of the year, all members were replaced by new ones : 2 boys (Crash and Dominique) and 2 girls (Ela and Lisa). A new single was planned for March 2013
Eurodance WWW The biography was last updated Wed, December 19th 2012 Did you like this article ? Tell your friends
Latest Fun Factory news19/07/2013 : Discover the videoclip of Fun Factory's current single On Top Of The World (Thanks to Krasi) 03/06/2013 : Since Fun Factory project name don't belong to them, original members Tony Cottura, Balja, Skid and Steve teamed as The Originalz FF. They will have their first concert next month in June, on a boat leaving from Poland. More infos here (Thanks to Eva Sipkova) 22/04/2013 : Once again a change in Fun Factory third generation performers team : Crash was replaced by American rapper Wyll (former member of Captain Hollywood Project crew and of DSDS Choir). Title of forthcoming album was revealed : On Top Of The World and a new single and videoclip should be out soon. 19/12/2012 : All Fun Factory 3rd generation members were replaced by new ones: Crash, Ela, Lisa and Dominique. A new single is planned for March 2013. More infos about new members (thanks to Andri) 14/05/2012 : Fun Factory 3rd generation announced that the title of their new single would be Nymphomaniac . (Thanks to Eva Sipkova) 02/10/2011 : Fun Factory's hit I Wanna B With U was covered by X-Trans feat. Selini last July. (Thanks to Eurodance Blog) 29/01/2011 : Fun Factory 3rd generation changed their lineup once again ! The project now feature 3 members : Douglas, Jenna and a new member called Akif. (Thanks to Eva Sipkova) Links to Fun FactoryOfficial websites
Fansites #1 Fun Factory Source fanpage on Facebook
DISCLAIMER : unless you see the artist's name among the credits of this biography, it was only created by gathering infos from the web and from fan sources. Sorry if, even if I did all verifications I could, some parts of the biography are false or lack accuracy. If you are the artist himself or contributed to the project, please wait till I come back from holidays.
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