By: Lance Soo
Italian trio Eiffel 65 released their debut album Europop in 1999. Among the most notable songs in the album include the breakthrough “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” and “Move Your Body”. Considered to be one of the most popular Italian bands of the past decade, the group consists of singers and songwriters Jeffrey Jey, Maurizio Lobina, and producer/DJ Gabry Ponte.
Although most of their songs incorporate a 90s-00s Italodance style (electronic music mixed with Italian disco), they also add influences from rock and hip-hop as well. All of the songs in Europop present Jey singing with artful use of Auto-Tune and a solid electronic rhythm. Among the 13 tracks featured, “Blue” is undoubtedly the most recognizable with its trademark piano hook and nonsensical lyrics. In addition, the rhythmically similar “My Console” and “Hyperlink (Deep Down)” are surprisingly danceable as well. On the other side of the spectrum, “Too Much of Heaven” is slower and has much more meaningful lyrics, where “Living in a Bubble” sounds superficially similar to the other songs but features much more depth to reward persistent listeners. Strangely enough, the namesake “Europop” is a more acid-oriented track that stands out in deep contrast to the other songs.
In the end, this album helped popularize Italodance, which became very popular in Southern Europe until the late 2000s. Despite this, the genre and album have gone relatively unnoticed in the US with the exception of “Blue”, which earned a Grammy nomination in 2001 and later featured in Iron Man 3. Give the album a listen someday; it is bound to start conversation and perhaps a little frolicking!
