In the summer of 1995, DJ's Danski and Delmundo teamed up with
four of the regular guests at their infamous illegal beachparties,
two girls and two boys. At first, the foursome worked as professional
dancers for the DJ's to spice up their performances, giving
away the most outrageous acts. Some of them included live animals,
singing nuns, burning furniture and jerry cans of Vaseline.
The single 'Up and Down' was first released in March 1997.
It went Top 5 in the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Spain…
in fact, it was a big hit across Europe, reaching number 4 and
a gold-status in the UK. The UK really caught the Venga-flu,
where the band have already had two number one hits with 'Boom
Boom Boom Boom' and 'We're Going To Ibiza'. Along with 'We like
to Party', these four singles have given the band a combined
sales total of almost 2 million singles in the UK alone.
The first Vengaboys-album, 'Greatest Hits', turned out to be
a worldwide bestseller. It went platinum in the United Arabian
Emirates, Sweden, Australia, Portugal, Spain, Mexico and India.
The release in America, Malaysia, Germany, Norway, Denmark,
Finland, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and South Africa meant
gold, while sales in Belgium, the United Kingdom and Canada
resulted in double platinum. In Holland and Chili, finally,
sales of the Party Album made it to a stunning triple platinum.
So far, the Vengaboys have sold over 10 million singles and
5 million copies of their first album, proving to be the most
successful Dutch pop group ever. In March 2000, the Vengaboys
released their second album, called 'The Platinum Album', which
includes the chart-topping hit singles 'Kiss (When The Sun Don't
Shine)', 'Shalala lala', 'Uncle John From Jamaica' and 'Cheekah
Bow Bow'. The expectations are that this album will exceed all
previous sales. It has already lived up to it's title in Denmark,
New Zealand, Venezuela and the United Arabian Emirates. The
album has gone gold so far in The Netherlands, the United Kingdom,
Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain and Portugal.
During the
release of the Platinum Album, the world got to know no less
than two new Vengaboys: member Robin quit the group to pursue
a solocareer. Yorick, his best friend and a former dolphin trainer,
replaced him.