As I have said before, I don’t plan to feature many dance songs by faceless here today-gone tomorrow acts, because as much as I like them (and there were a lot of examples of this on the chart in the early-2000s), there really isn’t that much to say about them. But I thought that I would feature this one, because I’m sure that people will remember this more than most from this era, and there’s enough of a twist in the story.
Iio are a duo who consisted of an American producer pushing the buttons, accompanied by the vocalist Nadia Ali, who was born in Tripoli. They were originally called Vaiio, but they soon changed this because this is almost the same name as a make of a computer. So they removed a couple of letters, meaning that they must be in a small group of chart acts whose name contains no consonants.
I imagine that there could be others, but let’s not think about that for now. In November 2001, “Rapture” was released. This is another one where I remember watching the video on MTV and being rather fascinated. I didn’t realise at the time that I wouldn’t be able to discover many more songs this way, as ITV Digital was in trouble, and when I finally lost to access to MTV in April 2002, I never got it back.
Not that they actually show music videos these days, but that’s another story. This reached no. 2, and was only stopped from being a chart-topper by that ludicrous song by Afroman. This made the chart in various other countries, including America and Australia. This also led to a performance on Top Of The Pops, when naturally a lot of big dance hits were being featured. There have also been several remixes.
They were no one-hit wonders either. In June 2003 “At The End” reached no. 20, although this hasn’t been given classic status, like the bigger hit. They also made two albums. Not long after, Nadia went on to launch a solo career, and ended up having one hit herself. In January 2012 “Rapture” reached no. 40. And yes, this is a re-recording of the Iio song that she originally had a hit just over a decade earlier.
This was rather odd, and this spent nearly as much time on the chart as the original did. Seemingly this was an attempt to win over a new generation of fans, which worked. I am reminded of when Cass Fox, the vocalist on Rui Da Silva’s “Touch Me”, another great early-2000s dance hit, made a new version on her own that was credited only to her, meaning that essentially she covered her own song. Music is odd sometimes.
ADAM'S NOSTALGIC MEMORIES 