From number one to oblivion: what happened to these artists who dominated radio 25 years ago

In the musical, 1997 was to frame. Radiohead established their cult band status with

, Björk introduced the decisive

and, from France, unknown

revolutionized the dance floors with Homework. Portishead made it clear with their second album that

was not the result of chance, while Elton John made

go from a small classic in his repertoire to a legendary ballad by dedicating it to Diana of Wales after her death. Of course, it should not be forgotten that during those months the world met Spice Girls, five women who would leave a discourse of feminism and class in the industry that is still analyzed today.

To a greater or lesser extent, all of the aforementioned names continued with their respective careers.

But 1997 was also marked by a phenomenon of its own: that of

.

In other words, those artists that the public only remembers for a massive success - at least, in Spain - and never placed any of their other songs in a remarkable position on the sales charts (although, for their fan base, yes have other notable themes and some even better than the ones they made universal).

How did they end?

Are they still active or did they desert because of the impossibility of emulating such a feat?

These are their stories.

The Hanson gang, that is, the heartthrob Isaac, Taylor and Zac Hanson, in the year 2000.Tim Roney (Getty Images)

MMMBop

, the gum that the Hansons turned into an anthem

History of its success.

As much as this song inspired by The Beach Boys and the vocal harmonies of the

was initially heard in a demo from 1996, it was not until the following year that the long hair of these three brothers took over the folders of multitudes of teenagers. In perspective, his was an unparalleled milestone:

reached number one in twelve countries and made its debut,

, sell 10 million copies (four of them in the United States alone). What other kids could boast of something like that or a triple Grammy nomination? The answer is: none.

What became of them and where are they now.

At the gates of Christmas 1997 they stretched the gum with an album of Christmas carols.

They came out minimally successful, although three years later they barely sold a million

, their second LP proper.

Faced with this commercial setback, Universal cornered them and they had no alternative but to create their own independent label, 3CG Records.

Since then they have released seven more albums (that

of 2018 with the Prague Symphony Orchestra should be highlighted) and founded a small craft beer company.

In 2021, apart from launching

, they competed in the US edition of

.

Anything before being forgotten.

High

, or the only time the Lighthouse Family got really high

History of its success.

Vocalist Tunde Baiyewu and keyboardist / songwriter Paul Tucker went wild in 1995 with

, shipping 1.8 million copies of their debut album in the UK. At the time, it seemed a mission impossible for these harmless scions of Sade to export the success of

, their most popular song to date, outside the British Isles. But with

, that maudlin piece so helpful at wedding banquets that was part of

, they reached number one in Australia and made it into the top 10 of twelve European countries. Of course, in the hardest and most important music market in the world (that is, the United States) they never penetrated deeply.

What happened to them and where are they now.

In 2001, although nobody remembers it, they published

.

Faced with the cold reception of their new compositions, two years later they decided to go their separate ways: while Baiyewu released a couple of solo albums, Tucker co-founded with Jason Pierce, the Spiritualized guitarist, the band The Orange Lights.

In 2011 they got together again for a short tour and in 2019 they put

up for sale .

Unsurprisingly, 18 years after the last one, his fourth job went unnoticed.

Eagle-Eye Cherry photographed in Amsterdam in 1998, still hungover from his smash hit.Paul Bergen (Redferns)

Save Tonight

, when Eagle-Eye Cherry ruled the world for one night

History of its success.

The son of jazz trumpeter Don Cherry, as well as artist Neneh Cherry's stepbrother, he did well to park his acting aspirations in New York.

Once his father passed away (in Malaga, by the way), in 1995 he returned to the city where he was born, Stockholm, and set out to build a career within that alternative pop-rock so in vogue at the time.

It was not bad at all:

, his first song, reached second place in Sweden and fifth in the United States.

It was even nominated for a Grammy.

What happened to him and where is he now.

After selling four million copies of

, his coming out, not even close to caressing that figure with his successors of 2000 (produced in part by Rick Rubin) and 2003. Of course, far from being frustrated, he took advantage of that more discreet media profile to disappear from the map until 2012. "It arrived a point where it was too much, I didn't say no to anything and I spent practically three years without resting for a day. Three albums later it stopped being fun and started to be weird. There were idiots at record labels who wanted me to do this or that and everyone around me insisted and I just wanted to go home to sleep. Yes, I took a break. When I got home to my then girlfriend my closet was empty because it never stopped there. My friends didn't even call me because they knew I wasn't there.The break was longer than I imagined because when anonymity took me in, I began to be grateful that people did not approach me. I understood that this part of the music was not my thing. I wish I could only give concerts and nothing more ”, he confessed in

on the occasion of its last Spanish tour in 2018. Looking ahead to 2022 it plans to launch a new LP, which can now be heard

Bitter Sweet Symphony

, the hit that sounded so bitter for The Verve

History of its success.

Richard Ashcroft and his squires were on the verge of becoming the new heroes of Britpop. While his first two albums of 1993 and 1995 weren't much of a deal, his luck turned in 1997 with

. Their flagship

was voted best single of the year by Rolling Stone and NME magazines. Although that marked the beginning of his musical demise. Before its release, the Wigan quintet had asked the Rolling Stones for permission to sample a short staccato string sequence from the symphonic version of

, recorded in 1965 by The Andrew Oldham Orchestra (the instrumental project of Andrew Loog Oldham, who was the original manager and producer of the band). Initially, Mick Jagger and company agreed to let The Verve use a five-note fragment in exchange for 50% of the royalties. But once the song took over the radio, Allen Klein, the late Stones manager who took over from Oldham, annulled the deal, claiming a longer snippet had been used and charged Ashcroft for plagiarism.

What happened to them and where are they now

. The Verve frontman was forced to hand over the rights to both Jagger and Keith Richards. And, behind the scenes, the situation was not much better: such was the bad vibes that there was (and is) between Ashcroft and guitarist Nick McCabe, that the group announced their separation in April 1999. In 2008 there was a hint of reconciliation with the publication of

, but the joy was short-lived because the following year they broke up again. Ashcroft, who has built a strong fan base through six solo albums, announced something unexpected at the Ivor Novello Awards in May 2019: “Since last month, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have ceded all their publishing rights to

, which has been a truly kind and magnanimous action on his part ”.

Some time after not receiving a sad penny for his star song, he can finally live on the income.

Danish group Aqua at the 1997 Billboard Awards.Michael Ochs Archives (Getty Images)

Barbie Girl

: We all dance except Mattel

History of its success.

That Sweden is the superpower of pop is known everywhere, but in the summer of 1997 these Danes won the battle with a sticky

contraption that revolutionized the sales charts.

, more than a song, was a phenomenon in itself. A quarter of a century later, there are still those who question its childish lyrics or the parodic vocal performance of Lene Nystrøm and René Dif. But what few noticed is that this

In reality, it was a satirical dart against consumer society and the gender stereotypes that Mattel forged over decades with its flagship product. The joke reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100, the American singles chart, a milestone for a genre as old in those lands as

, and encouraged 14 million people to get a copy of

, his album debut.

What happened to them and where are they now.

At the end of the year 2000 Mattel sued its American label, MCA Records, because it considered that the single sexualized and defamed the reputation of the inanimate doll. Surprisingly, Judge Alex Kozinski ruled in favor of the Danes. “With Barbie, Mattel created not just a toy, but a cultural icon. Fame often brings unwanted attention. The parties are advised to calm down, ”he wrote in the ruling that was made public in 2002. By then, Aqua had been separated for a year. Lene, who for sixteen years was married and had two children with her bandmate, keyboardist Søren Rasted, tried unsuccessfully to make her way solo. René, for his part, founded a company of

and sauces called Diffood and runs a popular

in Copenhagen.

In 2011 there was a third album called

and they are still active as a trio (guitarist Claus Norreen hung up the habit in 2016), but at this point they are, rather, meat of the 90s nostalgia festivals.

Tubthumping

: you can steal this album if you want

History of its success.

From living in a squat in Leeds with just enough to sign for EMI and reach number two in the United Kingdom and number six in the United States. Those who followed Chumbawamba since its formation in the early 1980s called the British sold out as soon as the catchy

took over the radio stations. Above all, because they were played as anarchists. However, the success of that song that opened his eighth album,

, did not diminish one iota of its subversive principles. Rather the other way around. Proof of this was demonstrated when one of its members, Alice Nutter, attended the American program

by Bill Maher and said he didn't care if people stole his records, prompting Virgin Megastore to hide the CD stock behind the counter.

What happened to them and where are they now

.

Before becoming an even bigger joke in the eyes of their early fans, they chose to self-boycott.

In 1998 they rejected a tempting check for $ 1.5 million that Nike put them on the table to use

in a World Cup ad in France.

Anyway, they couldn't stop the single from playing between games throughout the competition (it was the

of the time for

).

In 2012, after releasing another six albums that went unnoticed on the charts, they broke up.

Brooks posing in a publicity portrait, guitar in hand, in 1997. Gie Knaeps (Getty Images)

Bitch,

or Meredith Brooks as queen of the world for four minutes and twelve seconds

History of its success.

In 1986, before joining the all-female band The Graces, the American tried her luck with a self-titled album to which no attention was paid. It would not be until 11 years later that Capitol Records, wanting to emulate the good commercial performance of female rockers prone to instant hooks like Alanis Morissette or Sheryl Crow, firmly bet on her.

, the first single to be taken from the long

, elevated her to the altars of feminist pop. It ranked second on the US sales chart and sixth on the UK.

What happened to her and where is she now.

Everything made us think that the world was going to eat up, but just the opposite happened. In 1998, as the opening act for The Rolling Stones, the band's fans greeted her in Buenos Aires with a shower of lighters, coins and bottles of water. He could barely play two songs because of a few madmen. After that traumatic experience, between 1999 and 2007 he published three albums ignored by the public and critics. Afterwards, she has produced other artists (such as actress Jennifer Love Hewitt), lent parts of her success as a sampler to hits in the uevo century (she appears as a songwriter in the hit I'm a mess by Bebe Rexha) and continues to give concerts, to the most nostalgic, in small venues.

Torn

, too successful and too soon for Natalie Imbruglia

History of its success.

Like Kylie Minogue, this Australian with an angelic face took advantage of her passage through the

series

to make the leap into music. She performed in partnership with

, a piece originally composed in 1993 by American rock band Ednaswap and first recorded that same year by Danish Lis Sørensen under the title

. The play came out well: her version was crowned number one in Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Spain and Canada. As if that were not enough, it is still the most broadcast song since 1990 in Australia and the song of the nineties that sounds more regularly on British radio.

What happened to her and where is she now.

Imbruglia sold seven million copies of his debut LP,

, a figure well above the million that he shipped four years later with

. A commercial hit like that would have hurt anyone, but in a way it was a relief for her because she didn't feel ready to handle the meteoric fame that that single brought her.

was successful in 2005 in Great Britain, but was not replicated in the rest of the world. About her enormous initial success, the singer confessed on the pages of

“Of course it affected me.

After the first album I moved to Windsor, to an old house, and was hibernating.

I became a bit agoraphobic.

There was a lot of pressure ”.

His sixth and for now last studio album,

, was recorded during the pandemic and includes songs co-written with KT Tunstall, Albert Hammond Jr. of The Strokes or Romeo Stodart of The Magic Numbers.

You have good taste in choosing your collaborators.

Come into My Life

: you know this Gala song by heart even if you don't remember it

History of its success.

Born in Milan, at 16 Italy was too small for her and she moved to New York with the aim of conquering the world.

And it did for a while.

In 1996 she got us all dancing to her classic

and, just a year later,

catapulted her as the great queen of eurodance.

The song was number one in Spain and Italy, and also ranked in the top 10 in Greece, France, and Belgium.

Had he participated in the Eurovision Song Contest, he would have won by a landslide.

What happened to her and where is she now

.

After selling six million of the album of the same title, Gala spent a time of low profile until 2009, when she released a much more pop work entitled

. What happened? The answer was given by herself in 2020 in an interview for a Brazilian music medium: “It was a very difficult time. I got to know evil people who lied to me, were greedy, and used me. I was a very pure soul. I did not grow up in a family that was familiar with the music business and at that time there was no way to find out about the Internet. So I was alone in my room, with people who told me what was good for them and I believed them. I did not have a family to follow my career, nor a representative nor a lawyer that I could really trust. Everyone was looking after their own interests. I was very young and inexperienced ”. In that same interview, he assured that he has a good handful of songs stored in the bedroom,so no one should be surprised that sooner rather than later they let us hear them.

British r & b group Eternal in 1997.Tim Roney (Getty Images)

I wanna be the only one

, and indeed it was the only one

History of its success.

Faced with the unstoppable triumph of the band En Vogue in the United States, music agent Denis Ingoldsby thought that the United Kingdom needed its own female R&B band. This is how Eternal was born in 1992, whose original line-up consisted of sisters Easther and Vernie Bennett, Kéllé Bryan and Louise Nurding. First as a quartet, and later as a trio (Nurding abandoned his companions just before recording the second album), they signed the occasional memorable song during their first years of existence. However, the real hit came in 1997 with their third feature,

, and especially

, a single with gospel singer BeBe Winans that led to their only number one on the UK charts and top 10 in fifteen other countries.

What happened to them and where are they now.

Inexplicably, no more singles were drawn from that album.

In fact, just eight months later, the next thing there was was a compilation of all his hits.

Anyone minimally clever could tell that something was wrong.

The suspicions were soon confirmed: in 1998 the Bennett sisters sent Bryan a fax to kick her out of the group.

As a duo, they released a last album in November 1999 that barely sold.

Touched and sunk, soon after Eternal passed away and some of its singers enjoyed moderate solo success, such as Louise.

The last time they were seen together was at a concert they gave in 2014 without Nurding.

Samba de Janeiro: the UN turned into an algorithm for radio formula

History of its success

. The German producers Ramon Zenker and Gottfried Engels were the architects of this pre-made mixed band that brought together more nationalities than the UN General Assembly. Singing they sang little (in the background they were dancers), but that does not mean that during the summer of 1997 they made us move our hips with this

piece that appropriated the chorus of

, a song signed by the Brazilian Airto Moreira in 1972. Despite its carnival spirit,

was looked down upon in Brazil. On the contrary, in Europe it was top 10 in twelve countries and won the award for best dance single at the seventh edition of the Echo Awards.

What has become of them and where are they now

.

His next attempt,

, failed miserably.

From then on, up to a dozen members passed through Bellini.

The only survivor of the original quintet is Dandara Santos-Silva, who after leaving in 1998 rejoined the franchise two decades later.

Now, as a trio, they only appear as long as on a German television program or entertain cruises.

Singer Nek on a television show in Italy in 1996 United Archives / kpa (United Archives via Getty Images)

Laura is not there

: she was actually everywhere, Nek

History of its success.

Filippo Neviani, better known as Nek, knew how to benefit better than anyone from his time at the San Remo Festival in 1997, where he finished seventh with

. Cunningly, he locked himself in a studio to record his first feature length in the language of Cervantes and, in record time, the Spanish-speaking countries fell at his feet: thanks to the Spanish version of that song, he managed to sell 2 million copies in the world. No, as much as there was speculation about who that mysterious woman was, the song was not dedicated to her compatriot Laura Pausini, who will never be part of a list of single hit artists.

What has become of him and where is he now

.

He may never have repeated such a sounded success in these parts, but in Italy he is one of the few that hangs the sign that there are no tickets where he performs.

Since then he has released three compilations and continues to release albums relentlessly.

The last was

, a work divided into two parts that has yet to be published in Spanish.

There is Nek for a while, although outside its borders just keep Laura in the memory.

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