There is plenty of nostalgia for the 90s — cassette tapes, Doordarshan Fridays or Seinfeld (depending on the audience), Bournvita Quiz Contest, and, arguably the most popular of them all, pop music. National Geographic Channel also had a three-part documentary special titled The ’90s: The Last Great Decade? Trivia aside, pop music, especially dance-pop music, was one of the greatest by-products of the decade: think S Club 7, Aqua, Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, and Vengaboys.
A Dutch dance-pop/Eurodance group, the Vengaboys consists of Kim Sasabone, Denise Post-Van Rijswijk, Robin Pors and Donny Latupeirissa. Breaking into the music scene in the late 90s, some of their hits such as ‘Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!!’, ‘We’re Going to Ibiza’, and their worldwide hit ‘We Like to Party’ are songs that were (and are still) well-recognised in any self-respecting birthday party in the country. Ahead of their India tour, lead vocalist Kim Sasabone spoke about their upcoming performance and more.
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Well, we feel very honoured! Of course, when we’re just out and about, we don’t think about how popular we are. But it’s really good to hear that people have nostalgia for our music.
Do you remember, anything at all, about your previous performance in the city?
Ah, almost 15 years ago. To be honest, I don’t remember it at all. I do remember the tour — India made a great impression on me. I remember the kindness of the people and the lovely food I had here. We can’t wait to set foot in India again.
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The Vengaboys disbanded in 2002 and then regrouped in 2007. What happened there?
After touring for seven years straight, it gets really tiring. We missed living a normal life so we took a break for a couple of years. Then we realised that we missed performing on stage, and to top it all, our fans rallied to get us back together. And we’ve been together since. We’re like family — we’ve been together for 18 years. We’re all practically brothers and sisters!
Can fans expect a new album soon?
We work on new material when we’re not touring. Our album is a work in progress — maybe there’ll be one next year. We did release a Christmas party album in December.
What are the Vengaboys about? How would you describe your music?
We just produce uplifting, happy party music. When we started out we were quite young — early twenties — and when you’re that young, you don’t really have a goal; you do what you like. As soon as you find out that people like what you did, you go with it. And that’s what we did!
Any favourite artists?
I can’t speak for all of us, but personally, I love listening to a lot of R&B and dance music, of course. I was just packing my suitcase a while back and I was listening to Sam Smith. And, of course, there’s Beyonce.
What can we expect from your performances?
Everybody comes for our hit songs ‘Boom, Boom, Boom’, ‘Ibiza’, and ‘We Like to Party’… but we have something special for India. We’ll be performing a ballad; something that our fans are not used to hearing from us. We’re rehearsing that for India!
Vengaboys will perform in Chennai on May 9 at Phoenix MarketCity.For ticket details look up bookmyshow.com.