MC Erik & Barbara
The collaboration between the composer and rapper Erik Aresta and the female vocalist Barbara Hascakova began when they met in Erik's previous group, Maduar (whose most famous hits are Do It, I Feel Good and Anjel). Their good music and Barbara's beautiful voice immediately attracted attention of the audience. This brought a promising perspective for Maduar. However Erik and Barbara decided to leave Maduar and on March 4, 1995 they officially established a new formation: MC Erik & Barbara. Maduar, although without Erik & Barbara, kept its original name consisting of the first letters ofthe group's members (Matyinko, Dulovic, Aresta).
MC Erik & Barbara signed a contract with Polygram for 3 albums by the end of 1997 and released their first single I'm Free with the bonus-track Anjel II as a B-side. The second single U Can't Stop got to the highest positions in hitlists of several radio stations. In December 1995 MC Erik & Barbara took part in Bratislava Beat Mass in the Cathedral of St. Martin, Bratislava.
Finally, on September 4 the album U Can't Stop was released. It made the list of bestsellers and also brought the next hits: a remake of Summer Nights from the musical movie Grease, and the only song in Slovak entitled Keď príde láska. The video of Summer Nights '95 was shot in Tunis. The song was very popular, especially in Estonia and Namibia. Save The Jungle, released February 1996, is the most unusual video they made. Erik and Barbara appear as very bored astronauts on their journey through deep space and time.
Exactly half a year after the U Can't Stop album's first release,its reedition with a new cover and four extra tracks was released. On March 11 the album (with subtitle '96 Version ) was released everywhere in Europe. Full marketing support was guaranteed by Germany, Belgium, Finland and Switzerland, with other countries joining later.
This year MC Erik & Barbara took part in the Eurovision Song Contest but were not chosen to represent Slovakia. Marcel Palonder was chosen instead. On March 21, 1996 they went to Moscow, where they gave two performances. A big tour in Czech Republic and Slovakia followed. In May they received the Silver Otto prize.
During the summer, Erik and Barbara went back to recording studio to prepare their new album. A pilot single and video entitled It's Your Day saw the light of the world as first. On September 29 all the work on the new album was finished and one month later the album named Second was officially released. It was followed by a single, which was the coverversion of Abba's famous song Dancing Queen. There is another coversong on the album: Good Vibrations, originally sung by the Beach Boys. On this album, Barbara presents three songs she composed together with her brother Andrej. Erik's participation on them was reduced to short rap parts only. One can also hear Erik's solo song I Don't Wanna Lose You he composed for his girlfriend.
On June 16, 1997 they released a video tape entitled Videos And More,featuring the videos of the singles U Can't Stop, Summer Nights '95, Keď príde láska, Save The Jungle, Anjel II, It's Your Day, Dancing Queen, Never Gonna and Sen.
The release of the album was followed with a concert tour: 10 performances in Czech Republic in November and December and 10 performances in Slovakia in February 1997. For the first time they were accompanied by a live band. The group had a great success in Japan so they got an offer to extend the original contract from three to four albums (just for Japan).
The duo is currently on hiatus although a greatest hits compilation titled Gold - Zlaté hity was released in 1999 and an album of re-recorded old songs, titled 2010 was released, as hinted, in 2010.
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