Madison Avenue (band)

Early years

Before joining Madison Avenue, Cheyne Coates was working as a choreographer and singer in Melbourne. Coates 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 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 Dorsselaer preferred her version, even though the song was initially used as the guide track for Wolfgram.

"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 single was released internationally in 2000. In the UK, the single topped the UK Singles Chart, selling 400,000 copies in that country. The song was also a hit throughout the rest of Europe. By this stage, Coates 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.

Their only studio album, The Polyester Embassy, was released in 2000 and reached number 4 on the Australian album charts. It spawned three other singles: "Who the Hell Are You?", a number one hit in Australia, "Everything You Need", and "Reminiscing", a cover version of the 1978 hit written by Graeham Goble for the Little River Band.

Madison Avenue won the Best Dance Artist award at the International Dance Awards in 2001 in Miami.

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, which she placed in the middle of stage, clearly visible in the camera shot, then sashayed around on stage with it during parts of the performance, occasionally drinking from the glass. Her behaviour led many critics to believe that Cheyne was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Since the performance, Madison Avenue's visibility in Australia declined significantly, effectively signalling the end of the band's career.

Madison Avenue broke up in 2003. As of 2004, Coates was pursuing a solo career. Andy Van went on to create the band Vandalism.

Personnel

Mix albums