Madison Avenue

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Madison Avenue was an Australian dance music and pop duo. Madison Avenue is best known for the song "Don't Call Me Baby" which peaked at number two on the Australian singles charts in 1999 and to the top of the UK singles and Billboard dance charts in 2000.

History

Before joining Madison Avenue, Cheyne Coates was working as a choreographer and singer in Melbourne. Cheyne met producer and writer Andy Van Dorsselaer (aka: Andy Van) in a dance club. Van was the founder of the Vicious Vinyl record label and had remix credits for Tina Arena and CDB. Van Dorsselaer had also won an ARIA award for his production work on "Coma" by Pendulum.

The duo started working together mainly as writers and producers in 1998. Madison Avenue recorded their first single "Fly" featuring Kellie Wolfgram as the vocalist. However, Coates sang on the group's breakthrough single "Don't Call Me Baby" as Van Dorssela preferred her version even though the song was initially used as the guide track for Wolfgram. Van Dorsselaer took the song to the MIDEM Conference leading to the band being signed by Virgin Records in the UK and Sony BMG Music Entertainment for the rest of the world.

"Don't Call Me Baby" proved to be a breakthrough record for Madison Avenue, peaking at number two on the Australian charts in 1999. It sold 200,000 singles in Australia, the best singles sales achieved by any Australian act in that country for 1999. The single was released internationally in 2000. In the UK, the single topped the singles charts selling 400,000 copies in that country and the song was a hit throughout Europe. "Don't Call Me Baby" also topped the Billboard dance charts in the US. By this stage, Cheyne was widely established as the public face of the band, although Madison Avenue was originally intended to be a collective dance group like C&C Music Factory or Soul II Soul.

The album The Polyester Embassy was released in 2000 and reached the #4 of the Australian album charts. It spawned three other singles as well as "Don't Call Me Baby", namely:

• "Who The Hell Are You?" a number one hit in Australia and on the Billboard Dance Charts and it also reached #10 in the UK;
• "Everything You Need" went to #6 and was certified gold in Australia and it reached the top 40 in the UK; and
• "Reminiscing" a cover version of the 1978 hit written by Graeham Goble for the Little River Band was the 9th most popular single by an Australian artist in Australia in 2001 (reaching #9 in the Australian singles charts that year).

Madison Avenue created some controversy at the 14th Annual Aria Awards when Cheyne acted strangely during her live performance. Halfway through the set, Cheyne beckoned to a backstage crew member to bring her out a glass of water, and then sashayed around on stage with it during parts of the performance, occasionally drinking from the glass. Her off-key singing and bizarre behaviour led many critics to believe that Cheyne was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Since the notorious performance, Madison Avenue's visibility in Australia declined significantly effectively signalling the end of the band's career.

Madison Avenue won the Best Dance Artist award at the International Dance Awards in 2001 in Miami. Destiny's Child, Madonna, *NSYNC and Britney Spears were also nominated for the award.

Madison Avenue broke up in 2003 following Cheyne marrying in 2002 and having a child shortly after whom she named Libertrang. As of 2004 she has been pursuing a solo career.

Andy Van Dorssaeler continues his successful career as a producer in the Australian dance scene.^{[citation needed]} He is now part of the electro house duo Vandalism

Band members

Madison Avenue consisted of:

• Cheyne Coates (born 6 September 1970, Melbourne)
• Andy Van (born 3 November 1966)

Discography

Albums

Singles

See also

• List of number-one dance hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
• List of songs that reached number one on the Irish Dance Chart
• List of artists who reached number one on the Australian singles chart

References

External links

• Allmusic Madison Avenue article
• VH1 Madison Avenue bio
• Howlspace Madison Avenue article