Melanie Thornton (May 13, 1967 - November 24, 2001) was an American-German 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 death in November 2001. Her hits include "Sweet Dreams," "Love How You Love Me," "Wonderful Dream" and "Be My Lover."
Personal life
Melanie 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. Later 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. Her parents had a friend of a friend who was a singer in Charleston. Even though she didn't get to go out and see her, she saw pictures and heard them talk about her work and heard her talk about going out on the road.When she was growing up her mother would listen to Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack, and many Motown music artists. She would mimic the female vocalists she saw on TV or heard on radio.
Melanie went to Germany in February 1992 to move in with a sister, already a German citizen. In 1993 she met Ulli Brenner and Amir Saraf. After the first few notes Melanie sang, they all new that she would be the right female singer for their long dreamed of project, La Bouche. Melanie says, "Looking back, it seems like it happened very quickly. In the process, it really didn't blow me away. I did the studio session with Amir Saraf and Uli Brenner in November 1993. Meanwhile, I was gigging, making my money, earning my living. Two months later, they called and said a record label was interested in releasing Sweet Dreams as a single". The producer was Frank Farian and the Label was BMG.
Meanwhile Melanie recorded one song under the project name Joy-lab, titled "Freedom (Free Your Mind)". In September 2001 the single was reedited by Shift media/ZYX Music.
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 Epic/Sony. 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). The single is described as "'an open confession to the great love, a love which grows silently and lasts eternally'".
Melanie presented her new single on November 29th on the RTL Spendenmarathon, and on the 1st December at the Dome in Berlin. One could also chat with her on the www.funonline.de website on the 30th of November. The follow-up single is entitled Heartbeat.
On May 7, 2001, Melanie released her first solo album entitled Ready To Fly on May 7th under the label X-Cell (Epic/Sony Music). According to an interview she recently gave and in which she explained that her favorite musical artists remained Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, we could guess that the album won't be eurodance related, unfortunately... Meanwhile she kept on doing club appearances in US clubs under the name of "Melanie Thornton, formerly of La Bouche" (she had double citizenship in Germany and USA).
Melanie's third single to be released was "Makin´OOOH OOOH (Talking About Love). The song has been remixed for the single release, to have much more power than it already had. Meanwhile her first album reached #18 in the charts.
Death & Aftermath
On Novermber 24, 2001, the night Melanie died in a plane crash near Zurich, 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. It has also been used in Christmas Coca-Cola TV commercials in the UK.
Cemetery
Mount Pleasant Memorial Gardens, 1308 Mathis Ferry Road, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina 29464, USA
Discography
Singles
- Love How You Love Me (6 November 2000)
- Heartbeat (9 April 2001)
- Makin' Oooh Oooh (Talking About Love) (3 September 2001)
- Wonderful Dream (Holidays Are Coming) (26 November 2001) since 24 November 2003 with Video
- Wonderful Dream (Holidays Are Coming) (Pock It 8 cm CD) (15 November 2004)
- In Your Life (25 November 2002)
Albums
- Ready To Fly (7 May 2001)
- Ready To Fly (New Edition) (26 November 2001)
- Best of La Bouche feat. Melanie Thornton (21 May 2002)
- Memories - Her Most Beautiful Ballads (1 December 2003)
Melanie's Bands & Projects
