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Caro Emerald

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Caro Emerald
Caro Emerald singing
Emerald singing in Broek op Langedijk, Netherlands
Background information
Birth nameCaroline Esmeralda van der Leeuw
Born (1981-04-26) 26 April 1981 (age 43)
Amsterdam, Netherlands
GenresJazz, easy listening
Occupation(s)Musician
InstrumentVocals
Years active2007-present
LabelsGrandmono Records
Websitewww.caroemerald.com

Caroline Esmeralda van der Leeuw (b. 26 April 1981 in Amsterdam), best known by her stage name, Caro Emerald, is a Dutch jazz singer. She debuted on 6 July 2009 with her single "Back It Up". Her debut album Deleted Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor set a new all-time chart record on 20 August 2010, spending its 30th week at number one on the Dutch album chart, beating the previous record set by Michael Jackson's Thriller by one week.[1] The album has become the biggest selling album of 2010 in the Netherlands, selling over 300,000 copies so far. In total more than a million copies have been sold so far. On 3 October 2010, Van der Leeuw was awarded the Dutch Music Prize "Edison Award" for Best Female Artist.[2]

Biography

Caroline Esmeralda van der Leeuw was born on 26 April 1981 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.[3] She was trained as a jazz vocalist at the Amsterdam Conservatory, graduating in 2005.

Music career

In early 2007 Dutch producer Jan van Wieringen invited van der Leeuw to sing the vocal on a demo track he was co-producing with songwriter/producer David Schreurs. The song, "Back It Up", had been written by Schreurs together with Canadian songwriter Vince Degiorgio, and was based on a hip-hop beat created by Jan and Robin Veldman. Caro's jazzy vocal style was considered a "perfect match" for the new song.[4]

The song demo was pitched to various publishers and labels but although the reaction was positive they struggled to imagine it suiting any particular artist and didn't believe it had a strong enough chart potential.[4] In the meantime, however, the song was posted on YouTube reaching public notice around the world. Radio stations picked it up, and the song gained popularity.

When Degiorgio, Schreurs, and van Wieringen discovered van der Leeuw's sound had such potential, they set about working on a full album presenting Caro Emerald as the star in the summer of 2008 and used "Back It Up"'s mix of 40s-50s jazz, easy listening, orchestral Latin, combined with infectious beats as a model.[4] Adopting a sample based approach but with live instrumentation, the writing sessions drew from a wide range of influences including jazz organist Jackie Davis, exotica composer Martin Denny, mambo king Perez Prado, 20s/30s jazz and van der Leeuw's own vocal inspirations of The Andrews Sisters, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan.[4] The usual method would be for Schreurs to produce the backing tracks at home and then get together with top line writer and lyricist Degiorgio to write the song. Van der Leeuw would occasionally pitch in her own melody and lyrical ideas, and Van Wieringen co-created the tracks for "The Other Woman" and "Dr Wanna Do".[4]

After the record labels they approached failed to sign van der Leeuw, Schreurs, van Wieringen and van der Leeuw created their own label Grandmono Records and released "Back It Up" as the first single on 6 July 2009. It was an instant hit and listed in the Dutch Top 40 for 12 weeks, peaking at #12. Kraak & Smaak provided a remix of the song. "Back It Up" was the most played song on Dutch radio station 3FM in 2009.[5] Follow up A Night Like This became a #1 hit in The Netherlands.

In 2011 Emerald recorded a version of Brook Benton's 1963 hit "You're All I Want for Christmas", sampling the original song to produce a duet with Benton, who died in 1988. The song was released in December 2011.[6]

On New Year's Eve 2011/2012 Emerald appeared on BBC Two television on the Jools Holland Hootenanny show backed by the Jools Holland Rhythm & Blues Orchestra.

Early 2012, Caro Emerald won two prestigious German awards: a Goldene Kamera for Best Musik International and an Echo Award for Best Newcomer International, beating out other Echo nominees who included Lana Del Rey, Gotye, and LMFAO.

Debut album

Emerald singing in the Netherlands on 9 July 2010

Van der Leeuw's debut album Deleted Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor was released on 29 January 2010 and immediately occupied the number 1 position of the Dutch Album Top 100 charts. On 20 August 2010, the album had been number 1 for 27 weeks, an all time record, beating Michael Jackson's Thriller, which spent 26 weeks at number one in 1983.[1] The album reached double platinum status in the Netherlands on 5 July 2010.[7] In August 2010 it reached triple platinum.,[1] in November 2010 four times platinum (200.000)[8] and in December 2011, six platinum (over 300.000 albums sold). Deleted Scenes From The Cutting Room Floor spent 104 weeks in the official album charts, until it was removed due to a Dutch chart rule which provided that albums can't spend more than 2 years in the charts.

The second single from the album was "A Night like This". The song was listed in the Dutch Top 40 for 26 weeks and peaked at number 2. In the national single charts, the song peaked at number 1. It was the most played song in The Netherlands in 2010.

The cinematic and upbeat sound of the album has resulted in frequent use of the songs in TV series and advertising campaigns around the world. "A Night Like This" featured in the trailer campaign of NBC series The Playboy Club, a brand campaign by Martini, the trailer of 2 Days in New York (starring Chris Rock and Julie Delpy), and The Secret Circle, amongst others. "Back it Up" featured in a TV ad for Wind Mobile. "That Man" featured in Dancing with the Stars, The Vampire Diaries, a UK advertising campaign for Sky TV, and has been incorporated in the original score of the Disney Nature film Chimpanzee.

On 15 January 2011, she won the Popprijs 2010 for best Dutch pop act of 2010.[9] Also in 2011, the album was released throughout Europe with great commercial success. Deleted Scenes From The Cutting Room Floor became a hit in the UK (1x platinum with sales exceeding 360.000, 8 weeks top 10 peaking at #4), Germany (1x platinum with sales exceeding 280.000, peaking at #5 and Platinum single for "A Night Like This" with sales exceeding 340.000), Poland (6x platinum), Italy (Gold Single for "Back it Up"), and Austria (#1 with "A Night Like This") In the UK, all 6 singles and even the entire album were A-listed by radio station BBC2. Over 1.200.000 albums have been sold in Europe. [10] Due to its exceptional success, the album was included in an episode of the Dutch version of Classic Albums in April 2012.[11]

In August 2012, Emerald's label Grandmono announced that it will release her debut album independently in the USA. This will mean a big investment of 200,000 euros. To make the independent release possible they teamed up with several American companies: [10]

  • Magic Beam Entertainment: PR, marketing and distribution
  • Rightway Music Group: Radio and media plugging
  • Girlilla Marketing: Online marketing
  • Shore Fire Media: Online PR

Awards

[12][13][14][15][16][17]

Discography

Albums

Album title Album details Peak chart positions[18] Certifications
(sales threshold)
NLD AUT
[19] 		BEL (FLA) FRA GER GRE
[20] 		ITA
[21] 		POL SWI UK
Deleted Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor
  • Release date: January 29, 2010
  • Label: Grandmono Records
  • Genre: Pop, jazz
 1 3 23 79 5 27 14 5 10 4
Live at the Heineken Music Hall
  • Release date: 20 May 2011
  • Label: Grandmono Records
  • Genre: Jazz
 51 - - - - - - 34 - -

Singles

Year Song Peak chart positions[26][27][28][29][30] Certifications Album
NLD Top 40 NLD Top 100 ITA BEL (FLA) GER AUT POL
[31] 		SK [32] ROM
[33] 		SWI UK[34]
2009 "Back It Up" 12 13 11 33 70 — 1 53 — — — Deleted Scenes From the Cutting Room Floor
"A Night like This" 2 1 10 — 4 1 2 — 1 9 65
2010 "That Man" 22 29 — — — — — — — — 84
"Stuck" 6 28 18 — 41 70 20 48 — — —
2011 "Riviera Life" 18 70 25 — — — 36 — — — —
2011 "You're All I Want For Christmas" (feat. Brook Benton) 54 26 — — — — — — — — — (non-LP single)
2012 "Dr. Wanna Do" — — — — — — — — — — — Deleted Scenes From the Cutting Room Floor

References

  1. ^ a b c "Caro Emerald verbreekt record Michael Jackson" (in Dutch). Nu.nl. 2010-08-20. Retrieved 2010-08-20. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "Caro Emerald wins Edison for Best Female Artist (In Dutch)". 2010-10-25.
  3. ^ "iTunes Preview". Riviera Life - EP Caro Emerald reviews (in Dutch and English). Grandmono Records, & Apple Inc. 2011. Retrieved 6 May 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  4. ^ a b c d e "Q&A on Caro Emerald with songwriter David Schreurs". HitQuarters. 23 September 2011. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
  5. ^ "Caro Emerald meest gedraaid op 3FM". de Volkskrant (in Dutch). 6 April 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ "Kerstduet Caro Emerald en Brook Benton - Show - Algemeen - Nieuws - bndestem". Bndestem.nl. 2011-12-17. Retrieved 2011-12-23.
  7. ^ "Double Platinum". 2010-07-05.
  8. ^ "4x Platinum NED". November 2011.
  9. ^ "Caro Emerald wint Popprijs 2010". nos.nl. 2011-01-15. Retrieved 2012-08-22.
  10. ^ a b "Caro Emerald maakt zelfstandige oversteek naar VS". entertainmentbusiness.nl. 2012-08-22. Retrieved 2012-08-22.
  11. ^ "Classic Albums: Caro Emerald". publiekeomroep.nl. 2012-04-14. Retrieved 2012-08-22.
  12. ^ "Prijzen" (in Dutch). {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ "Caro Emerald Best Dutch and Belgian Act". de Pers (in Dutch). October 8, 2010.
  14. ^ "Winnaars Buma Harpen Gala 2011 bekend!". Buma Cultuur (in Dutch). October 8, 2010.
  15. ^ "De Jeugd, Go Back to the Zoo en Caro winnen 3fm Awards". nlpop.blog.nl (in Dutch). April 14, 2011.
  16. ^ "Ben Saunders grote winnaar TMF Awards". Telegraaf (in Dutch). June 12, 2011.
  17. ^ "Preisträger der 47. GOLDENEN KAMERA - Caro Emerald". goldene-kamera.de (in German). January 25, 2012.
  18. ^ "Peak positions Deleted Scenes From The Cutting Room Floor". 2010-10-25.
  19. ^ "Deleted Scenes From The Cutting Room Floor at 40 in Austrian Album Chart". Hung Medien. 2011-03-18.
  20. ^ "Deleted Scenes From The Cutting Room Floor at 27 in Greek Album Chart". Hung Medien. 2011-03-18.
  21. ^ "Deleted Scenes From The Cutting Room Floor at 14 in Italian Album Chart". 2010-10-26.
  22. ^ a b "Album Caro Emerald 1.000.000 keer verkocht". caroemerald.com. 2011-12-06. Retrieved 2011-12-06.
  23. ^ zpav.pl/rankingi/wyroznienia/platynowe/index.php
  24. ^ "Bundesverband Musikindustrie: Gold-/Platin-Datenbank". Musikindustrie.de. Retrieved 2011-12-23.
  25. ^ "Caro Emerald – NEWS – #8 ON THE UK ALBUM CHART". Caroemerald.com. 2011-06-21. Retrieved 2011-12-23.
  26. ^ "Peak positions Back It Up". 2010-10-25.
  27. ^ "Peak positions A Night Like This". 2010-10-25.
  28. ^ "Peak positions That Man". 2010-10-25.
  29. ^ "Peak positions of all songs in Dutch Single Top 100". 2010-10-25.
  30. ^ "Peak positions of Stuck". 2011-01-02.
  31. ^ "Peak position A Night Like This in Poland". 2010-11-17.
  32. ^ "Peak position Back It Up and Stuck in Slovakia". 2010-11-17.
  33. ^ "Peak position A Night Like This in Romanian Radio Airplay Chart". 2010-12-31.
  34. ^ "CHART LOG UK: NEW ENTRIES UPDATE". 7 September 2011. Retrieved 23 December 2011.
  35. ^ a b c d "CERTIFICAZIONI DOWNLOAD FIMI - Week 21- Ending: 29/05/2011" (PDF) (in Italian). Retrieved 7 June 2011.
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