Kate Ryan

Kate Ryan

Kate Ryan (born Katrien Verbeeck on July 22, 1980) is a Belgian World Music Award winner. She began her singing career in 2001 and represented Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with "Je t'adore" coming in 12th place in the semi-final.

Biography

Early life

Ryan was born in the small village of Tessenderlo, Belgium. She grew up in a musical family, and had talent for music at a very early age. At eight years of age she had learned to play the piano and guitar. She had singing and piano lessons from her aunt who teaches at a conservatory, but had other interests too. She studied at an art school, specialising in jewellery design. She also lived some time in Meerhout, a small village near Tessenderlo.

Ryan played frequently in bars and cafés as a teenager, and one night a manager approached her, wanting her to record a song in a studio. She became a member of a pop group called Melt at the age of 16. The group was active for two years, but they did not release any material commercially. When she met with producer Andy Janssens, she left Melt and the pair began to write music together. Their debut single "Scream For More" was released in 2001, and it became a chart success.

Solo career

She gained international prominence with a cover of Mylène Farmer's "Désenchantée", which was a hit on various European pop music charts. She signed with EMI Belgium and released her first album Different in 2002 exclusively in Europe. The album went Gold, selling more than 250 000 copies throughout Europe.

It became popular enough in the United States that music consumers who favour dance-pop with a European flavour bought Different even though it was only available as an import title. Kate's debut single in the U.S. was "Scream For More", released 17 July 2001, on Robbins Entertainment. It did well on dance–music radio and in nightclubs. The follow–up single, "Desenchantee/U R My Love" also released on Robbins, did as well on dance radio and in nightclubs, but the single sold more than the previous single.

In 2004, Ryan released a second album in Europe and in North America in 2005 on Water Music Records, the album named Stronger, with two more popular songs—"Another Day" and "The Rain" which were rumored to have been inspired by the twilight series. While the album did well on the dance charts, it failed to chart on the pop charts because of poor promotion.

In 2006 she participated in Eurosong '06, the national final to select the entrant for Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. She was selected as the entrant after placing first in the Eurosong final on 9 March 2006. Ryan represented Belgium at the Eurovision semifinal held on 18 May 2006 in Athens singing "Je t'adore". She did not qualify for the final, however, finishing two places outside the advancing Top 10 (12th) with 69 points. She was later voted best dressed performer by Eurovisions independent website esctoday.com for her 14.000 € outfit created for the occasion by Boris Schipper and Tomas Pedrosa Arques who later sold the dress and donated the money to charity.

It was announced on the 14 August 2006 that Ryan would release "Je t'adore" in the UK for which exclusive mixes by Credheadz were commissioned, but the release was shelved, close to the release date. It did however enjoy heavy rotation on the UK's music channels, and is still played regularly on Flaunt.

The following single was "Alive", taken from the album of the same name, which also features French versions of several tracks including "Je t'adore", "Alive", and the third single "All For You".

Performing at the Eurogames 2007

In 2007, she had some success with the double sided single "Voyage Voyage"/"We All Belong". The track "Voyage, Voyage" is a cover of the 1987 European smash hit by Desireless, and "We All Belong" was selected as the official anthem for the EuroGames 2007 in Antwerp.

In 2008, she released two singles: L.I.L.Y. (Like I Love You) and then Ella, Elle L'a, a cover of France Gall's song. Both tracks (and Voyage Voyage) were included on her album Free, which was released on 30 May 2008. The album has a duet with Spanish singer Soraya Arnelas.

On 11 July 2008, a best-of-album with the title Essential was released. It includes songs which were released by Ryan's former label EMI.

On 8 August 2008 Kate took part in the Polish Sopot Hit Festival. During the show she received the Gold album for selling over 10 000 copies of Free in Poland. This is her first certification for this album in Europe.

On 9 November 2008 in Monaco Kate Ryan won the World Music Award for The Best Selling Benelux Artist.

On 27 April 2009 Kate Ryan was #1 on the UK MTV Dance charts with Ella, Elle L'a featuring Jade Forsyth and Dan Deeley Love.

Her next single release is a cover from France Gall titled "Babacar". It was released on 12 June 2009 in Belgium, and on the 15th internationally. An official YouTube video is also available for viewing. The single will be featured on the Belgian singer's concept album French Connection and it will be first released on 13 October 2009 on Canada, 20 October in Spain, October 23 in Belgium, October 30 in Poland and November 13 in Germany.

Ryan was awarded with a Multi-Platinum award from Spain for selling more than 300.000 digital songs. It was announced by her that "French Connection" is the end of an era, and from now on she will only release material written by her.

Ryan confirmed via Facebook that her next album will be released on May 2011 and a new single will come on January 2011. It will have English and French songs and will not have any cover version.

Discography

Studio albums

Year	Information	Chart positions												Certifications (sales thresholds)
		BE	DE	CH	PL	AT	SE	NL	PT	FI	DK	ES	CA
2002	Different Debut studio album Released: June 21, 2002 Formats: CD, digital download Genre: Pop, Dance-pop, Eurodance Label: EMI Belgium	8	23	14	1	26	17	88	18	36	22	—	—	Poland: Platinum Belgium: Gold Switzerland: Gold
2004	Stronger Second studio album Released: May 24, 2004 Formats: CD, digital download Genre: Pop, Dance-pop, Eurodance Label: EMI Belgium	22	13	14	10	43	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	Poland: Gold
2006	Alive Third studio album Released: September 15, 2006 Formats: CD, digital download Genre: Pop, Dance-pop Label: EMI Belgium	13	73	73	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2008	Free Fourth studio album Released: May 30, 2008 Formats: CD, digital download Genre: Dance & Electronica Label: ARS	4	47	96	20	—	35	66	—	—	—	26	22	Poland: Gold

Compilation albums

Year	Information	Chart positions						Certifications (sales thresholds)
		BE	CZ	CA	ES	PL	NL
2008	Essential First compilation album Released: June 6, 2008 Label: EMI/Capitol	88	23	—	—	—	—
2009	French Connection Second compilation album Released: October 13, 2009 Label: ARS	21	—	87	89	83	—

Singles

Year	Title	Chart positions																			Album
		BE (VL)	BE (WA)	BEL	BEL Dance	GER	SPN	FRA	SUI	AUT	SWE	DNK	NLD Top40	NLD Top100	POL	FIN	NOR	HU	US Dance	EU Hot 100
2001	"Scream for More"	9	-	-	2	27	-	-	-	15	-	12	-	57	-	-	-	-	-	70	Different
	"UR (My Love)"	17	-	-	10	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	"Oh Baby I"(with Esther, Linda, Maaike & Pascale)	47	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Single-Only
2002	"Désenchantée"	1	14	1	1	2	1	12	11	3	4	12	2	4	1	-	3	1	16	9	Different
	"Mon Cœur résiste encore"	7	4	-	-	27	3	-	35	-	-	-	-	58	12	-	-	-	-	70
	"Libertine"	7	34	-	-	7	19	48	26	7	16	15	-	-	8	20	15	5	-	26
2004	"Only If I"	16	-	-	20	27	2	-	34	25	37	-	-	-	10	-	-	-	13	74	Stronger
	"The Promise You Made/La Promesse	8	35	-	-	19	-	-	50	21	-	-	-	-	4	-	-	16	13	67
	"Goodbye"	30	-	-	-	52	-	-	93	47	-	-	-	-	44	-	-	-	-	-
2006	"Je t'adore"	1	11	-	6	26	10	-	65	38	21	-	-	56	4	-	-	-	-	52	Alive
	"Alive"	4	-	-	15	42	-	-	-	54	-	-	-	-	9	8	-	-	40	95
	"All for You"	37	-	-	-	-	65	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	26	-	-	-	-	-
2007	"Voyage Voyage/We All Belong"	2	28	7	-	13	4	-	-	26	26	-	10	11	12	10	-	-	-	48	Free
2008	"L.I.L.Y. (Like I Love You)"	12	-	23	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	21	-	-	-	-	184
	"Ella, elle l'a"	7	34	12	-	10	1	-	50	23	2	29	2	5	7	-	9	3	-	15
	"I Surrender"	27	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	12	44	32	-	-	-	-	56
2009	"Your Eyes"	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	80	-	-	-	-	-	-
	"Babacar"	17	-	-	-	28	21	-	-	53	27	-	-	-	92	-	-	-	-	75	French Connection
	"Évidemment"	27	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	29	-	-	-	-	-

Other singles chart positions

• 2001: "Scream For More" - Nº10 Center Music Hits Chart, Nº2 Euro WebCharts
• 2002: "Désenchantée" — Nº10 UK Dance, Nº18 U.S. Billboard Hot Dance, Nº93 UK
• 2004: "Only If I" - Nº13 U.S. Billboard Hot Dance
• 2004: "The Promise You Made/La promesse" - Nº13 U.S. Billboard Hot Dance, Nº5 Euro WebCharts
• 2004: "Goodbye" - Nº1 Polish Top 5 Digital Songs Chart (2009)
• 2006: "Je t'adore" — Nº16 Greece, Nº52 European Hot 100 Singles, Nº1 (4 weeks) Euro WebCharts
• 2006: "Alive" - Nº40 Billboard Hot Dance , Nº37 Greece
• 2007: "Voyage Voyage" - Nº20 Greece, Nº51 European Hot 100 Singles, Nº14 Romania, Nº15 D-z Top 40, Nº1 Euro WebCharts
• 2008: "L.I.L.Y." - Nº2 D-z Top 40
• 2008: "Ella, elle l'a" - Nº5 Slovenia, Nº27 European Hot 100 Singles, Nº28 Czech Republic, Nº2 Netherlands dance chart, Nº7 Estonia, Nº20 Belarus, Nº20 Global Dance Tracks, Nº26 Official French Club Charts, Nº3 Hungary, Nº2 Norway Dance chart, Nº10 Finland Dance Chart , Nº5 Top 105 of 2008 (Energy 105.1 FM)
• 2008: "I Surrender" - Nº56 Europe Official Top 100
• 2010: "Sage Comme Une Image" - Nº19 Lithuania

External links

• Official Web site
• Kate Ryan TV
• Kate Ryan Artist profile on Dancevibes.be
• BBC News