Mr. President (band)

Formation of band and early success

The band was originally formed in Bremen by DJs Jens Neumann and Kai Matthiesen in 1991 under the title Satellite One. Although the band initially performed at clubs without vocalists, the duo soon realized that they would need singers in order to find success on mainstream music charts. Eighteen-year-old Bremen native Daniela Haak and American rapper George Jones were hired to front the band as a duo, but became a trio after 15-year-old Judith "T-Seven" Hildebrandt was hired a few weeks later. Following Hildebrandt's insistence to be known as T-Seven on stage, Haak and Jones were convinced to create stage names for themselves, and they did, becoming "Lady Danii" and "Sir Prophet", respectively.

After a few years of performing in clubs without any mainstream success, Neumann and Matthiesen, now managers as well as producers, decided to change the name of the band to Mr. President, the 'Mr' standing for Music and Rhythm. Under the new band name, the group created an underground dance club hit with the song "MM" (Marilyn Monroe) in 1993. Although it failed to chart, "MM"'s popularity was a sign of things to come for the band.

Up N' Away, lineup change and success in 1995

Following the success of their earlier single, Mr. President broke onto the charts with the song Up N' Away. Just as the song became a success in early 1994, George Jones left the band over several internal disagreements within the band. Although the project was briefly abandoned, Neumann hired Delroy "Lazy Dee" Rennalls in mid-1994 to replace Jones. After several long months in the studio, Mr. President's first full-length album, Up N' Away - The Album was released featuring a new version of Up N' Away with Lazy's voice instead of Jones'. Three additional songs on the album were selected as singles (I Follow the Sun, 4 On the Floor and Gonna Get Along), and each one of them entered European charts.

Coco Jamboo

1996 saw Mr. President ease away from its dance roots in favour of a lighter, more exotic sound. The new sound was first featured on the reggae-inspired 1996 hit Coco Jamboo. Not only did the song become the band's highest hit to date in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (where their previous singles charted highest), Coco Jamboo became the first Mr. President single to chart in the UK peaking at #8 (but only 2 small hits following) and in the United States, peaking at #21 on the Billboard Hot 100. The full-length album on which Coco Jamboo was released, We See the Same Sun, boasted two more additional singles which were largely successful in Europe.

Nightclub and Space Gate

Hoping to capitalize on the success of We See The Same Sun, Mr. President again employed their lighter sound on the 1997 CD Nightclub. JoJo Action, the first single released from Nightclub added to the band's continued success in Europe, peaking as high as #3 in Austria. Although the next three hits from the CD charted impressively in Europe, none of the singles were able to chart in the United States. During the promotional campaign for Nightclub in 1997, Lady Danii took a brief leave from the group to pursue a solo career with the band Reset, but returned a few months later.

In the midst of promotion, Haak, Hildebrandt, and Rennalls were accused of not using their own voices in any of Mr. President's songs. Hamburg's leading and well-known magazine Stern reported the whole scandal that was first revealed on German Radio station Bremen 4. According to their report, the actual voices belonged to Caren Miller, Anne Schroeder, and William King III. However, Matthiesen and Neumann appeared in a televised interview on German channel VIVA and explained that the voices were indeed Daniela and Judith's, but that their pitches were technically edited during recording.

A year later, Mr. President released Space Gate, which marked a return to their earlier sound. Give a Little Love and Simbaleo proved to be moderate successes, but the band was again unable to return to the heights of 1996.

A Kind of... Best! and hiatus

After half a year away from the studio in 1999, Mr. President returned in the new millennium with A Kind of... Best!, their first singles compilation CD. Accompanying the CD was Up N' Away 2k, the band's new single, which failed to chart even in Germany. Following the failure of their latest single and their fading public image, Judith Hildebrandt left the group in February 2000 to begin her solo career. Following the departure of Hildebrandt, the band decided to focus efforts on releasing another compilation album, and they did, with Golden Super Hits hitting shelves near the end of 2000.

Lineup changes and Forever & One Day

Mr. President reemerged in early 2001 after hiring classical singer Nadia Ayche. Although the band performed live with Ayche, and even began recording new songs with her, she was dismissed in 2002 after directional disagreements with the band. Ayche's replacement, Myra Beckmann, was hired soon after, and the new lineup began immediately recording songs for their next CD.

After almost a year in the studio, Forever & One Day was released in the summer of 2003 with Love, Sex and Sunshine as the lead single. After almost four years away from the European music scene, the band's latest single managed to chart impressively well, peaking at #23 in Germany. The following single, Forever & One Day, was released a few weeks later and did similarly well, peaking at #51 in their homeland. Just a few months after touring had begun, however, Beckmann was forced to leave the band due to undisclosed health issues, leaving Haak and Rennalls to perform as a duo for the remainder of the tour. Once again, the band was forced to find someone to fill the vacated lead vocalist position, and a few weeks later, they did, hiring established pop singer Franziska "Franzi" Frank.

Later work and separation

Immediately following the Forever & One Day tour, the band announced its intentions to create a new CD. Despite the announcement, nothing ever materialized. The band would go on performing at special events (most notably at Hit Giganten in 2004) until 2006. In 2005, the first (and only) single featuring Frank's vocals, Sweat (A La La La La Long), a cover of the Inner Circle hit, was released as an iTunes-only single. Another iTunes-only single was released by the band in 2006. This single, titled Megamix 2006, blended each of the band's greatest hits into a single track. Following the release of Megamix 2006, the band quietly went into hiatus (although they performed a handful of times in 2007 and 2008), with word of official separation coming in 2008, when Lazy, Frank and Haak announced that they would be parting ways. Since then, no plans for reuniting the band have been made, however, Lazy still performs at various 90's revival shows with various female vocalists performing all of the Mr. President songs. T-Seven has her own solo discography, and is currently performing in a tour of 90's nostalgia performances called "90's unplugged." All of the other former members of Mr. President have seemed to retire from the music business entirely.

Band line-up