Andru Donalds
Encyclopedia
Andru Donalds is a Jamaican musician and vocalist with a previous solo career, who is now working in collaboration with the Enigma
project as lead vocalist. Donalds had a hit single
in America in 1995 with Mishale, which reached #38 on the Billboard Hot 100
.
, Jamaica
. His musical style ranges from pop, rock and roll, to reggae and ballads. His influences include The Beatles
, Prince
, Bob Marley
, Queen
, Michael Jackson
& Black Uhuru
.
, Holland and New York
, in order to develop his musical abilities as singer and songwriter. He met the producer and songwriter Eric Foster White, who had hits with stars such as Frank Sinatra
, Britney Spears
, Whitney Houston
, Jessica Simpson
, Julio Iglesias
, Backstreet Boys
, Regina Belle
, Hi-Five
and Boyzone
. Together they produced the debut album Andru Donalds. The two singles from this - Mishale and Save Me Now - became successful worldwide.
His second album Damned, If I Don’t was published two years later in 1997. The song Somebody’s Baby was taken from this for the soundtrack
of the Oscar-winning film Good Will Hunting
.
In April 1998 Donalds received a call from producer and songwriter Michael Cretu
, who wanted to engage him for the Enigma project. The outcome was that they collaborated not only on Enigma songs but also on two solo albums. His third album Snowin’ Under My Skin included two singles: All Out of Love
, a cover version of the Air Supply
song which achieved international platinum status, and Simple Obsession.
Let’s Talk About It, his fourth album, featured the single One Night Lover.
Five years after his last solo album, Donalds released a "best of" album in 2006. It included five new songs, of which Dreamer and Let The Stars Fall Down were released as singles.
, Cretu’s music project which has sold over 50 million records worldwide, received more than 100 platinum and gold awards and took over 50 #1 chart positions. He has performed in Enigma songs such as: Seven Lives
, Modern Crusaders, The Screen Behind The Mirror, Boum-Boum, In The Shadow, In The Light, Hello And Welcome (soundtrack for the Felix Sturm
’s box). He also co-wrote and performed Je t’aime Till My Dying Day and Distorted Love.
film Barefoot / Barfuß, starring and directed by Til Schweiger
.
In 2005 he co-operated with the Ukrainian singer Evgenia Vlasova
. Their songs Limbo & Wind Of Hope gained airplay on Slavic
radio stations.
Donalds also wrote a song for Sandra, the former wife of Cretu: The Way I Am
, the lead single from her The Art of Love
album released in 2007.
Songs that have been covered by Donalds include:
Also there's another co-writer's version:
Enigma (musical project)
Enigma is an electronic musical project founded in Germany by Michael Cretu, David Fairstein and Frank Peterson in 1990. The Romanian-born Cretu conceived the Enigma project while working in Germany, but has based his recording studio A.R.T. Studios in Ibiza, Spain, since the early 1990s until May...
project as lead vocalist. Donalds had a hit single
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
in America in 1995 with Mishale, which reached #38 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
.
Biography
Andru Donalds was born in KingstonKingston, Jamaica
Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley International Airport to the rest of the island...
, Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
. His musical style ranges from pop, rock and roll, to reggae and ballads. His influences include The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, Prince
Prince
Prince is a general term for a ruler, monarch or member of a monarch's or former monarch's family, and is a hereditary title in the nobility of some European states. The feminine equivalent is a princess...
, Bob Marley
Bob Marley
Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers...
, Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
, Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
& Black Uhuru
Black Uhuru
Black Uhuru are a Jamaican reggae group formed in 1972, initially as Uhuru . The group has undergone several line-up changes over the years, with Duckie Simpson always maintaining group control and ownership...
.
Solo career
Upon leaving school at the age of 18 Donalds travelled to EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Holland and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, in order to develop his musical abilities as singer and songwriter. He met the producer and songwriter Eric Foster White, who had hits with stars such as Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
, Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston is an American singer, actress, producer and a former model. Houston is the most awarded female act of all time, according to Guinness World Records, and her list of awards include 1 Emmy Award, 6 Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among...
, Jessica Simpson
Jessica Simpson
Jessica Ann Simpson is an American recording artist, actress, television personality, and fashion designer whose rise to fame began in 1999. Since that time, Simpson has achieved many recording milestones, starred in several television shows, movies, and commercials, launched a line of hair and...
, Julio Iglesias
Julio Iglesias
Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva , better known simply as Julio Iglesias, is a Spanish singer who has sold over 300 million records worldwide in 14 languages and released 77 albums. According to Sony Music Entertainment, he is one of the top 15 best selling music artists in history,...
, Backstreet Boys
Backstreet Boys
The Backstreet Boys are an American vocal group, formed in Orlando, Florida in 1993. The band originally consisted of A. J. McLean, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, Nick Carter and Kevin Richardson. They rose to fame with their debut international album, Backstreet Boys...
, Regina Belle
Regina Belle
Regina Belle is a singer-songwriter who first surfaced in the late 1980s. She is notable for her Grammy award winning duet with Peabo Bryson, "A Whole New World".-Biography:Regina Belle was born in Englewood, New Jersey...
, Hi-Five
Hi-Five
Hi-Five is an American R&B quintet based out of Waco, Texas, who had a #1 hit on Billboard's Hot 100 in the early 1990s with "I Like the Way ". Hi-Five was formed in 1990, and consisted of the late Tony Thompson, Roderick "Pooh" Clark, Marcus Sanders, Russell Neal, and Toriano Easley...
and Boyzone
Boyzone
Boyzone are an Irish boy band comprising Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham, Ronan Keating,Shane Lynch, and formerly Stephen Gately. Boyzone have 19 singles in the top 40 UK charts and 21 singles in the Ire charts. The group currently have 6 UK number one singles and 9 number one singles in Ireland with 12...
. Together they produced the debut album Andru Donalds. The two singles from this - Mishale and Save Me Now - became successful worldwide.
His second album Damned, If I Don’t was published two years later in 1997. The song Somebody’s Baby was taken from this for the soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
of the Oscar-winning film Good Will Hunting
Good Will Hunting
Good Will Hunting is a 1997 drama film directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, and Stellan Skarsgård...
.
In April 1998 Donalds received a call from producer and songwriter Michael Cretu
Michael Cretu
Michael Cretu is a Romanian musician. He is known also as Curly, MC or Curly M.C. because of his fair curled hair . His peak musical activity was with the Enigma project, which was mainly based in Germany....
, who wanted to engage him for the Enigma project. The outcome was that they collaborated not only on Enigma songs but also on two solo albums. His third album Snowin’ Under My Skin included two singles: All Out of Love
All Out of Love
"All Out of Love" is a pop–ballad by Air Supply, released in 1980. It reached number 2 in the US and number 11 in the UK. The song is considered to be one of the greatest love songs, placing 92nd in VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Love Songs....
, a cover version of the Air Supply
Air Supply
Air Supply is an Australian soft rock duo, consisting of Graham Russell as guitarist and singer-songwriter and Russell Hitchcock as lead vocalist. They had a succession of hits worldwide, including eight Top Ten hits in the United States, in the early 1980s...
song which achieved international platinum status, and Simple Obsession.
Let’s Talk About It, his fourth album, featured the single One Night Lover.
Five years after his last solo album, Donalds released a "best of" album in 2006. It included five new songs, of which Dreamer and Let The Stars Fall Down were released as singles.
Enigma
Since 1999 Donalds has been one of the lead singers in EnigmaEnigma (musical project)
Enigma is an electronic musical project founded in Germany by Michael Cretu, David Fairstein and Frank Peterson in 1990. The Romanian-born Cretu conceived the Enigma project while working in Germany, but has based his recording studio A.R.T. Studios in Ibiza, Spain, since the early 1990s until May...
, Cretu’s music project which has sold over 50 million records worldwide, received more than 100 platinum and gold awards and took over 50 #1 chart positions. He has performed in Enigma songs such as: Seven Lives
La Puerta del Cielo / Seven Lives
"La Puerta del Cielo / Seven Lives" is the first single from Enigma's seventh album Seven Lives Many Faces. The track "Seven Lives" had been featured on German TV as the signature theme to the public broadcaster EinsFestival's coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The single was...
, Modern Crusaders, The Screen Behind The Mirror, Boum-Boum, In The Shadow, In The Light, Hello And Welcome (soundtrack for the Felix Sturm
Felix Sturm
Felix Sturm is a German boxer and current WBA middleweight Super champion of Bosniak descent. Sturm was born and raised in Leverkusen, Germany, but both of his parents were immigrants from Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.- Professional career :On 27 January 2001, Sturm made his debut as a...
’s box). He also co-wrote and performed Je t’aime Till My Dying Day and Distorted Love.
Other collaborations
In 2005 Donalds co-produced and performed the song And I Feel for the soundtrack of the GermanGerman language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
film Barefoot / Barfuß, starring and directed by Til Schweiger
Til Schweiger
Tilman Valentin "Til" Schweiger is a German actor, director, and producer.He is one of Germany’s most successful filmmakers. Since 1968, when the FFA started counting, no other German actor has drawn more people to the cinemas. He runs his own production company, Barefoot Films, in Berlin.-Early...
.
In 2005 he co-operated with the Ukrainian singer Evgenia Vlasova
Evgenia Vlasova
Evgenia Vlasova is a Ukrainian singer-songwriter.-Biography:Her parents were artistically inclined . In 1994 Evgenia entered the R. Glier State Higher Music College, graduating in 1998...
. Their songs Limbo & Wind Of Hope gained airplay on Slavic
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
radio stations.
Donalds also wrote a song for Sandra, the former wife of Cretu: The Way I Am
The Way I Am (Sandra song)
"The Way I Am" is a pop song by German singer Sandra. It was released as the lead single from the album The Art of Love in January 2007. The song reached #50 on the official German Charts. The CD single contains two non-album tracks, "Logical Love" and "Sleep", an alternative version of the album...
, the lead single from her The Art of Love
The Art Of Love (album)
The Art of Love is the eighth studio album by German singer Sandra, released in 2007.The highly anticipated studio album, The Art of Love was released in February 2007, entering the 16th position on the German charts. For the first time, Michael Cretu did not work as a producer for the album, as he...
album released in 2007.
Solo albums
| Year | Title |
| 1994 | Andru Donalds |
| 1995 | Andru Donalds (limited edition) |
| 1997 | Damned If I Don't |
| 1997 | Damned If I Don't (limited edition) |
| 1999 | Snowin' Under My Skin |
| 2001 | Let's Talk About It |
| 2006 | Best Of |
| 2011 | Trouble In Paradise (15 April 2011) |
Singles
| Year | Title |
| 1994 | Michelle |
| 1994 | Save Me Now (radio only) |
| 1995 | Tryin' To Tell Ya |
| 1995 | Mishale (remix) |
| 1998 | Beautiful Friday |
| 1998 | (Still) Lovin' You |
| 1999 | All Out Of Love All Out of Love "All Out of Love" is a pop–ballad by Air Supply, released in 1980. It reached number 2 in the US and number 11 in the UK. The song is considered to be one of the greatest love songs, placing 92nd in VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Love Songs.... |
| 1999 | Simple Obsession |
| 2000 | Precious Little Diamond |
| 2000 | (I'm Not Your) One Night Lover |
| 2001 | Hurts To Be In Love |
| 2001 | Someday |
| 2005 | Limbo (radio only) |
| 2006 | Wind Of Hope (radio only) |
| 2006 | Dreamer |
| 2006 | Let The Stars Fall Down |
| 2007 | AD07 (EP) |
| 2010 | Marble Eyes |
| 2011 | Falling Down |
"Enigma" lead vocals
Other than "Love Sensuality Devotion" not even a single track in listing is performed by Donalds.| Year | Title |
| 2000 | The Screen Behind The Mirror (album) The Screen Behind the Mirror -Singles:*1999 – "Gravity of Love" *2000 – "Push the Limits" -Personnel:*Ruth-Ann Boyle - lead vocals*Michael Cretu - record producer, lead vocals*Sandra Cretu - voices*Andru Donalds - lead vocals*Jens Gad - guitar... |
| 2001 | Love Sensuality Devotion (Greatest Hits) Love Sensuality Devotion: The Greatest Hits Love Sensuality Devotion: The Greatest Hits is a 2001, multi-million selling, greatest hits album by the musical project Enigma. The album, along with Love Sensuality Devotion: The Remix Collection brings a close to Michael Cretu's first chapter of Enigma... |
| 2003 | Voyageur (album) Voyageur (album) -Personnel:*Ruth-Ann Boyle – lead vocals *Michael Cretu – record producer, lead vocals *Sandra Cretu – back vocals *Andru Donalds – lead vocals *Jens Gad – guitars... |
| 2004 | Boum-Boum (single) Boum-Boum "Boum-Boum" is a 2004 song created by the musical project, Enigma. The single was the last one released from the album, Voyageur.The vocals on this song are provided by Andru Donalds and Ruth-Ann Boyle.-Single track listing:... |
| 2005 | 15 Years After (box set) 15 Years After 15 Years After is a box set by the musical project Enigma. It was released by Virgin Germany on 9 December 2005. The box set contains 8 discs, 5 of them original studio albums created from 1990 to 2003, 2 DVDs and a bonus CD of Enigma's songs covered by Rollo Armstrong.As the title suggests, the... |
| 2005 | Hello And Welcome (single) Hello and Welcome "Hello and Welcome" is a song created by the musical project Enigma, released on 10 March 2006 .The vocals in the song is sung by Andru Donalds, who also lent his voice in the fourth and fifth Enigma albums... |
| 2006 | A Posteriori (album) A Posteriori Apart from the album, some additional remixes were released exclusively through the iTunes Store. They are:*"Eppur si muove" – 6:39*"Dreaming of Andromeda" Apart from the album, some additional remixes were released exclusively through the iTunes Store. They are:*"Eppur si muove" (Tocadisco... |
| 2008 | Seven Lives (single) La Puerta del Cielo / Seven Lives "La Puerta del Cielo / Seven Lives" is the first single from Enigma's seventh album Seven Lives Many Faces. The track "Seven Lives" had been featured on German TV as the signature theme to the public broadcaster EinsFestival's coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The single was... |
Soundtracks
Donalds' work has featured on the soundtracks of two films.| Year | Title |
| 1997 | Good Will Hunting Good Will Hunting Good Will Hunting is a 1997 drama film directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, and Stellan Skarsgård... |
| 2005 | Barfuss Barfuss Barfuss is a film by German actor and director Til Schweiger released in 2005. It is a romantic comedy and tells the story of Nick , a hedonistic bachelor, who falls for Leila, an escaped mental patient, portrayed by Johanna Wokalek. Til Schweiger was also involved in the writing of the... (Barefoot) |
Сollaboration with Eugenia Vlasova
Albums| Year | Title |
| 2006 | Wind of Hope |
Covers
Donalds' songs have been covered by other artists include:- Mishale - covered by Tranx-Mission, 4Play and Marianna Gerasimidou
- Ruth Ann Boyle covered Just for One Day (I'd Die for You) on her album What About Us.
Songs that have been covered by Donalds include:
- Jackson BrowneJackson BrowneJackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....
's Somebody's Baby - Led ZeppelinLed ZeppelinLed Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
's D'yer Mak'er - Sinéad O'ConnorSinéad O'ConnorSinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor is an Irish singer-songwriter. She rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra and achieved worldwide success in 1990 with a cover of the song "Nothing Compares 2 U"....
's Thank You - Air SupplyAir SupplyAir Supply is an Australian soft rock duo, consisting of Graham Russell as guitarist and singer-songwriter and Russell Hitchcock as lead vocalist. They had a succession of hits worldwide, including eight Top Ten hits in the United States, in the early 1980s...
's All Out Of Love - AerosmithAerosmithAerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...
's Dream On - CretuCretuCreţu is a common family name in Romania. Persons named Creţu include:*Michael Cretu, Romanian-German musician*Sandra Cretu, Michael Cretu's wife*Gabriela Creţu, Romanian politician*Corina Creţu, Romanian politician*Vlad Creţu, Romanian musician...
& Thiers' Snowing Under My Skin - Fox The Fox' Precious Little Diamond
- Gino Vanelli's Hurts To Be In Love
Also there's another co-writer's version:
- Kari KimmelKari KimmelKari Meredyth Kimmel is an American singer/songwriter whose style is generally classified as pop with rock, country and R&B influences. Many of her songs have been used in movies and TV shows.-Biography:...
Dreamer released on the album A Life In The Day
See also
- EnigmaEnigma (musical project)Enigma is an electronic musical project founded in Germany by Michael Cretu, David Fairstein and Frank Peterson in 1990. The Romanian-born Cretu conceived the Enigma project while working in Germany, but has based his recording studio A.R.T. Studios in Ibiza, Spain, since the early 1990s until May...
- The Way I AmThe Way I Am (Sandra song)"The Way I Am" is a pop song by German singer Sandra. It was released as the lead single from the album The Art of Love in January 2007. The song reached #50 on the official German Charts. The CD single contains two non-album tracks, "Logical Love" and "Sleep", an alternative version of the album...
- "Distorted Love"Seven Lives Many Faces-Bonus disc:-iTunes version:In addition to the bonus track "Where are we from", the iTunes online store include comments for each track and album title, spoken by Michael Cretu.*"Comments on Album Title" – 0:45*"Comments on "Seven Lives" – 0:40...
- "Je t’aime Till My Dying Day"Seven Lives Many Faces-Bonus disc:-iTunes version:In addition to the bonus track "Where are we from", the iTunes online store include comments for each track and album title, spoken by Michael Cretu.*"Comments on Album Title" – 0:45*"Comments on "Seven Lives" – 0:40...
External links
- http://www.facebook.com/andrudonalds
- Andru archive homepage