909originals presents EURODANCE 2021 –  kicking off 11 June!

With football’s European Championships about to get underway across the continent, 909originals is launching EURODANCE 2021, a competition to determine Europe’s most-loved dance-pop classic.

Love it or hate it (and let’s face it, all of us has at least ONE guilty pleasure), Eurodance – characterised by high-tempo beats, melodic hooks and energised lyrics – helped to soundtrack most of the 90s, as artists such as Haddaway, Ace of Base, Culture Beat, Technotronic, The Real McCoy, 2 Unlimited, Dr Alban, Sash! and others stormed to the top of Europe’s charts.

How It Works

With this in mind, over a one-month period, commencing 11 June, EURODANCE 2021 will see 32 classic Eurodance tracks go head to head in a series of one-on-one ‘matches’, voted for by members of the public, on 909originals.com, over a 24-hour period.

The winning track in each case will progress to the next round, where it will again come up against another victorious contender, and so on, until one track remains.

Artists featured in EURODANCE 2021 will include, in alphabetical order, 2 Unlimited, Ace Of Base, Alice Deejay, Aqua, ATB, BBE, Black Box, Capella, Captain Hollywood Project, Corona, Culture Beat, Dario G, Darude, Dr Alban, Eiffel 65, Gala, Haddaway, Jam & Spoon, La Bouche, Leila K, Maxx, M.C. Sar & The Real McCoy, N-Trance, O-Zone, Rednex, Robert Miles, Sash!, Snap, Technotronic, Urban Cookie Collective, Vengaboys and Whigfield; in other words, a pan-European array of chart-smashing artists. The first round draw can be found below.

If you’re posting about the competition on social media, remember to use the #eurodance2021 hashtag, to keep on top of the latest news.

Sample Match

Here’s an example of what each match will look like – please vote for your favourite! Please note: Both of these tracks are not featured in this year’s competition, although other tracks by the same artists will be.

Sample Match

What Is Eurodance?

As Daniele Davoli of Black Box, whose Ride On Time could be considered to be an early classic of the genre, tells 909originals, the Eurodance formula is a simple to attempt, but difficult to master.

“You need to have a strong riff, you need to have a strong chorus, you need to have a slogan, and you need to have a pumping bassline,” he says. “Those are the rules, and if you have these elements, you have a hit. Even Calvin Harris records, these days, still have the same elements in there.”

For Colin Kraan, co-author of No Limit. De ultieme Eurodance-hits uit de 90’s, a book (in Dutch) that uncovers the story behind some of the genre’s biggest hits, a successful Eurodance classic consists, in general, of “Female vocalists that sing the chorus, rappers that rap the verse, producers who stay behind the scenes but who come up with the concept, and simple, optimistic lyrics that you can sing along to – the English is that simple that even people that don’t know English can understand it; it’s child proof. There’s never any cursing in the lyrics – there’s a catchy sound that brings up a lot of positive energy, high tempo, staccato melodies with a lot of synthesisers, strong hooks, minor chords.

“Like Spin Magazine said, ‘it makes melancholy damn tempting’. And, last but not least: it’s made in Europe.”

EURODANCE 2021 kicks off on 909originals.com on 11 June, and will run until 11 July – coinciding with the conclusion of football’s European Championships… and with no VAR in sight. 😉

As a certain Dutch recording artist once put it… Y’ALL READY FOR THIS?

If you have any questions about EURODANCE 2021, or 909originals, feel free to contact us at 909originals@gmail.com.

About Post Author

Editor

See author's posts