Madison Avenue | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Melbourne,Victoria, Australia |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1999–2003 |
| Labels | Virgin Records(1999–2003) |
| Past members | Cheyne Coates Andy Van Dorsselaer |
Madison Avenue were an Australianelectronic music duo consisting of writer-producerAndy Van Dorsselaer and singer-lyricistCheyne Coates. Madison Avenue is best known for the song "Don't Call Me Baby" (October 1999), which peaked at number two on theARIA Singles Chart in 1999 and topped the charts in New Zealand and the United Kingdom in 2000. At theARIA Music Awards of 2000 they wonSingle of the Year,Highest Selling Single andBreakthrough Artist – Single for "Don't Call Me Baby" as well asBest Video forMark Hartley's direction of "Who the Hell Are You".
Before joining Madison Avenue,Cheyne Coates was working as a choreographer and singer inMelbourne. Coates met producer and writer Andy Van Dorsselaer (aka Andy Van) in a dance club. Van was the founder of theVicious Vinyl record label and had remix credits forTina Arena andCDB. Van Dorsselaer had won anAustralian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) award for his production work on "Coma" byPendulum.[1]
The duo started working together mainly as writers and producers in 1998. Madison Avenue recorded their first single, "Fly", featuring Kellie Wolfgram as lead vocalist. Coates sang lead on the group's breakthrough single, "Don't Call Me Baby" (October 1999): Van Dorsselaer preferred her version, even though it was initially used as the guide track for Wolfgram.[1] "Don't Call Me Baby" peaked at number two on theARIA Singles Chart in 1999.[2] By December 2000 it was certified as triple platinum for the shipment of 210,000 units in Australia.[3] The single was released internationally in 2000. In New Zealand, "Don't Call Me Baby" topped theNew Zealand Singles Chart in April 2000. In the United Kingdom, the single topped theUK Singles Chart in May 2000, selling 400,000 copies in Britain.[4][5] "Don't Call Me Baby" became the first single by an Australian group to top the charts in Britain since "Down Under" byMen at Work in February 1983, a feat it maintained for ten years until "We No Speak Americano" byYolanda Be Cool andDCUP topped the UK Singles Chart in July 2010. The song was also a top ten hit in Greece and Ireland.[6][7] Coates became the public face of the band, although they had intended to be a collective dance group likeC&C Music Factory orSoul II Soul.
The group's only studio album,The Polyester Embassy, was released in 2000 and reached number 4 on the Australian album charts. It provided three other singles: "Who the Hell Are You?", a number-one hit in Australia,[2] "Everything You Need", and "Reminiscing", a cover version of the 1978 hit written byGraeham Goble for theLittle River Band. At theARIA Music Awards of 2000 they wonSingle of the Year, Highest Selling Single and Breakthrough Artist – Single for "Don't Call Me Baby" as well asBest Video forMark Hartley's direction of "Who the Hell Are You".[8] They were also nominated forBest Group,Best Dance Release,Producer of the Year (for work by Van Dorsselaer and Coates) and Best Video (for direction by Hartley) for "Don't Call Me Baby".[8] Madison Avenue won the Best Dance Artist award at the International Dance Awards in 2001 inMiami.[1]
Madison Avenue broke up in 2003. In April 2004, Coates issued her debut solo single, "I've Got Your Number".[9] She followed with a solo album,Something Wicked This Way Comes (October 2004). Soon after, she left the music performance industry and, according to Van Dorseelaer, "has a successful career writing songs for other people."[10] Andy Van went on to create the bandVandalism.
| Title | Album details | Chart peak positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUS [2] | JPN [11] | UK [12] | |||
| The Polyester Embassy |
| 4 | 63 | 74 | |
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Certifications | Album | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUS [2] | FRA [14] | NZ [15] | NLD [16] | NOR [17] | SWE [18] | SWI [19] | UK [12] | US [20] | US Pop[21] | US Dance [22] | ||||
| 1999 | "Don't Call Me Baby" | 2 | 41 | 1 | 22 | 11 | 47 | 38 | 1 | 88 | 48 | 1 | The Polyester Embassy | |
| 2000 | "Who the Hell Are You" | 1 | — | 32 | — | — | — | — | 10 | — | — | 1 |
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| "Everything You Need" | 6 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 33 | — | — | 24 |
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| 2001 | "Reminiscing" | 9 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
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TheARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres ofAustralian music. They commenced in 1987.
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | "Don't Call Me Baby" | Breakthrough Artist – Single | Won | [26] |
| Single of the Year | Won | |||
| Highest Selling Single | Won | |||
| Best Group | Nominated | |||
| Best Dance Release | Nominated | |||
| Andy Van, Cheyne Coates for "Don't Call Me Baby" | Producer of the Year | Nominated | ||
| Mark Hartley for "Don't Call Me Baby" | Best Video | Won | ||
| Mark Hartley for "Who the Hell Are You" | Nominated | |||
| 2001 | The Polyester Embassy | Best Pop Release | Nominated | [27] |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Artists | |
