Alban Nwapa grew up listening to Fela Kuti
and James Brown. At age 23, he began studying dentistry. In order to be
able to finance his university studies, Nwapa started making his own
music. During this time Alban worked as a DJ in the well-known Stockholm
club 'Alphabet Street'. Very quickly his name became widely known,
especially since Alban often sang to the records he put on the turntable
as a DJ. DJ René couldn't help but notice him and so he was discovered.
Alban finished his studies and even opened his own dentistry practice,
keeping his disk jockeying as a lucrative sideline.
In 1990, he met Deniiz Pop from the SweMix label. Together with Denniz and
Rap-Queen Leila K, his first record, "Hello Africa" - his
declaration of love for his African home - broke all records. Alban Nwapa
took the stage name Dr. Alban, a nod to his dental studies. His debut
album Hello Africa sold roughly 1 million copies world-wide.[citation
needed]
One year later this success was surpassed by the second album One Love.
1.6 million singles of the song "It's My Life" were sold (the
single was even used as background music for a Tampax advert). It was #1
in the Netherlands, Israel and Germany and #2 in the UK. The following
single "One Love" was #5 in Israel. The album immediately sold
over 1.7 million units. Then followed the albums Look Who's Talking and
Born In Africa. All in all, Dr. Alban has racked up world-wide sales of
over 5 million albums (1994) and over 6 million singles (1994), which
resulted in 7 times Silver, 30 times Gold and 30 times Platinum. His hit
single "No Coke" was used to illustrate an anti-drugs campaign
in Sweden. The single "Sing Hallelujah" reached #5 in Israel.
After a re-release of "No Coke", Dr. Alban has succeeded to hit
the top10 charts worldwide with all of his following singles. Countries
like, Sweden, Norway, Finlad , Denmark, Belgium. France. Russia. Austria ,
Switzerland, Greece , Turkey, Spain, Italy, to name a few.
He created his own record company Dr Records on which he released Born in
Africa, the first CD recorded completely in his Dr Records studios. He had
production credits on projects by artists such as La Cream and Daddy
Showkey.
More recently, his voice was featured on Sash!'s single "Colour The
World". After one year of silence he came back with a new track
entitled "Because Of You", followed by "What Do I Do"
and a new album, not Euro-dance related. Alban was very satisfied with the
new album Prescription. Many hands have been involved in making this new
album sound special. There are also guest appearances from Tony Rebell and
Anthony B.
In 2007 Dr. Alban has released new album Back to basics. It is sold only
on the Internet through official website, with exception for Russia where
CDs and cassettes were issued. The single of this album was Don´t joke
with fire . Today, in 2008, he releases a single with pop-star of the 90's
Haddaway, entitled "I love the 90's". Alban proves that he
didn't forget his fellow artists of the last decade and he mentions in the
lyrics some of the best hits of the Euro years: "Rhythm is a
dancer", "What is Love", "Scatman", "All
that she wants" and, of course, his own "It's my life".
So stay tuned ...cause this year will be the 90´s year ! Its time for
the european acts to take back the control of the american music
dominance. |
