Melanie Thornton

Melanie Janene Thornton (May 13, 1967 - November 24, 2001) was an African American German pop singer who fronted the Eurodance group La Bouche, who formed hits such as "Be My Lover" and "Sweet Dreams" in the mid-1990s. She forged a moderately successful solo career in Germany before her untimely death in November 2001. Her hits include "Love How You Love Me", "Wonderful Dream", "Memories" and "Heartbeat".

Personal life

Melanie Janene was born in Charleston, South Carolina and began studying voice from the age of six, as well as learning to play the piano and the clarinet. Growing up her mother would listen to Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack, and many Motown music artists. Melanie would mimic the female vocalists she saw on television or heard on radio.

Later on she financed her college studies with appearances in talent shows and smaller band concerts. She frequented a club called The Peacock Lounge, getting up and doing jam sessions when the live band invited people up to sing. She had long dreamed of a career in music and in February 1992 Melanie went to Germany. Her sister lived there with her U.S. Army husband. His uncle, Bob Chisolm, a singer and piano player, encouraged Melanie to give the German nightclub circuit a try. She had been singing in a Macon, Ga., band, Danger Zone, pulling down $50 on a good night. However Bob Chisolm told her that on a bad night in Germany she would make $150.

She tried it and soon found work in studios recording demos. It was her recording of the song "Sweet Dreams" that caught the attention of producer Frank Farian, the mastermind of the infamous '80s duo Milli Vanilli. Farian took Melanie under his wing, teaming her with rapper Lane McCray in the duo La Bouche, which is French for "The Mouth".

She left La Bouche in February 2000 to be replaced by Natascha Wright while Lane remained a part of the project. She signed a record deal with Sony/Epic Records. Her first solo single was released in November 2000, titled Love How You Love Me, a ballad (the CD-maxi includes a few dance remixes).

Melanie presented her new single on November 29, 2000 on the RTL Spendenmarathon, and on December 1 at the Dome in Berlin. The follow-up single was entitled "Heartbeat".

On May 7, 2001, Melanie released her first solo album entitled Ready To Fly under the label X-Cell (distributed by Sony/Epic Records). She continued to do club appearances in the United States under the billing "Melanie Thornton, formerly of La Bouche".

Death and aftermath

On the night of November 24, 2001, Melanie died in a plane crash of the Crossair Flight 3597 near Bassersdorf by Zurich in Switzerland. She gave her final performance in Leipzig and then drove to Berlin where she took the ill-fated plane to Zurich for radio and TV appearances (among others, the broadcast "Die Bar" on TV3, which was cancelled) to promote her new single "Wonderful Dream (Holidays Are Coming)" and her album Ready To Fly (New Edition). "Wonderful Dream" was a Christmas ballad recorded for a German Coca-Cola TV commercial. Although Thornton's death occurred practically on the eve of that year's Christmas season, Coca Cola decided to stick with the commercial as planned. It has also been used in Christmas Coca-Cola TV commercials in the UK, Belgium and The Netherlands.

On November 25, 2002 the single "In Your Life" was released to commemorate the first anniversary of her death. Included is an "in memory" dedication from Lane McCray and SonyBmg/X-Cell Records

Cemetery

Mount Pleasant Memorial Gardens, 1308 Mathis Ferry Road, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina 29464, USA

Trivia

• Melanie Thornton had dual citizenship in the United States and Germany at the time of her death. Towards the end of her life she lived mostly in Germany.

• Melanie is said to have been a very religious woman and that before her performances she would, as many spiritual musical artists do, say a small prayer with her background singers backstage.

• Just hours before going on the ill-fated flight, during her final interview which may have eerily foreshadowed her tragic death, she is quoted to have said:"I know we don't have any guarantee that we're gonna live tomorrow. That's why I live everyday as if it was my last."

Musical styles

• R&B
• Pop
• Dance (Eurodance)
• Gospel

Discography

Singles

• Love How You Love Me (November 6, 2000 with music video)
• Heartbeat (April 9, 2001 with music video)
• Makin' Oooh Oooh (Talking About Love) (September 3, 2001 with music video)
• Wonderful Dream (Holidays Are Coming) (November 26, 2001, re-released November 24, 2003 with music video)
• Wonderful Dream (Holidays Are Coming)(Pock It 8 cm CD)(November 15, 2004)
• In Your Life (November 25, 2002 with music video.)

Albums

• Ready To Fly (May 7, 2001)
• Ready To Fly (New Edition) (November 26, 2001)

Compilations

• Best of La Bouche feat. Melanie Thornton (May 21, 2002)
• Memories - Her Most Beautiful Ballads (December 1, 2003)

Melanie's bands & projects

• Danger Zone
• Schnapka
• Groovin' Affairs
• Le Click - Tonight Is The Night
• La Bouche - Sweet Dreams, Be My Lover, All Mixed Up, A Moment of Love, SOS, The Best of La Bouche
• Men Behind - Feel the Life, How Can I?
• Orange Blue - If You Wanna Be My Only
• 100% - Power of The Light
• No Mercy
• Comic - I Surrender To Your Love
• Joy-Lab
• Hystery
• DJ Bobo - Love of My Life
• Loop
• Melanie Thornton

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