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Dancers : Curtis J. Vincent (Kurt Burger), Dani Burkart
Vocals : Lori Glori, Emel (on Somebody Dance With Me), Natascha Wright and Lisa (on Freedom), Christiane Eiben, Theresa Kaestle, Nancy Baumann...

DJ Bobo (real name is Peter René Baumann) is a producer, composer, writer, singer and dancer in one person. He was born on the 5th January1968 as the son of a Swiss mother (Ruth Baumann) who works as a floristand an Italian father (Luigi Cipriano) in Kölliken (Kanton Aargau, Switzerland). His father left his family when Rene was one year old. DJ Bobo is 1,73 m tall and has green-brown eyes. He has no brothers or sisters. His favorite meal is made with Italian spaghetti and chicken and fruitjuice. DJ Bobo as well as members of his group (Curtis J. Vincent and Daniel Burkat) do not smoke or drink alcohol and are really into sport (soccer, badminton and ski). He lives a few miles from Zürich. When time permits he listens to Michael Jackson, Elton John, James Brown and Steve Wonder

DJ Bobo is avery gentle and polite guy. He likes being with his fans, signing authographs and posing for pictures. He is trying to be a normal, preppy guy even if his popularity makes his life pretty tough. His hard work has been fully recognised. He already received many gold and platinum records including the title of best European male Singer of 1995. His favorite song from his repertoire is Let The Dream Come True. When in tournee he prefers to use buses over aeroplanes because he can sleep better and get some relax.

In 1989 BoBo married his wife Daniela but in 1994 they got divorced. Recently, after many years of common life, he married Nancy Rentzsch who is a part of his dance team. They know each other when Nancy with her group 3-O-Matic performed for DJ Bobo.

Rene started with collecting moss in the forest for a gardening business, which allowed him to buy  his first pair of football shoes. In the middle of the 80's breakdance and spraying painting was becomingmore important for the music fanatic teenager than his hobby playing football.From that time he sprayed his logo 'BoBo', taken from his favourite comicfigure 'BoBo, king of the out-breakers', on walls and railway waggons.At the same time he started DJing in a club, and naturally his friend beganto call him 'DJ BoBo'. Anyway, to please his mother he started an apprenticeship as a bakery. Afterwards he decided to dedicate himself to him main passion : music. 5 days a week BoBo worked as a professional DJ for 3000 Swiss Francs. In 1988 DJ Bobo took part to the yearly Disco Queen/King Corporation in a club called Tropic located in Memmingen (Germany). and was nominated for a GrandPrize. Based on this, he was invited to the 'Top 10 Disco King' in Ibiza,where he received Third place in the category of: dance, look and style.At that time he was still using his real name. Being only 18 years old, he became Swiss DJ Vice Champion.

In 1989, under his artist name DJ BoBo, and with his team (that time : Percy and Curtis) he released his first single entitled I Love You. The single took 9 monthes to be produced, featured vocals by Miriam Russo and Sandra Studer. But it was absolutely not succesful, selling less than 100 copies... Sandra Studer was the Swiss singer at the Eurovision Song Contest 1991. She is now a major Swiss television personality

Even the next 2 singles Ladies In The House (featuring vocals by Luana) and Let's Groove On (his first professional single released in 1991, with the team he works with nowadays) only sold a few hundred copies. His first musical experiments being musical rarities are stored in the cellar of his Swiss House (even if he himself consideres them as very bad).

The decisive breakthrough came with the superhit Somebody Dance With Me (based on the melody of Rockwell's Somebody's Watching Me), which exceeded all expectations. Produced by Gutze Gaustchi, composed by Daniel Peyer, released at the beginning of November 1992 it made the bound on Position 1 in the Swiss Single Charts. In many countries the song reached the Top 10 (#1 in Portugal and Sweden, #2 in Czech republic, #3 in the NL, Austria and Norway, # 4 in Israel and Germany, #5 in Finland) and Bobo's extraordinary success was awarded with several gold discs in Australia, Germany, Israel, Sweden and of course in Switzerland. It featured Emel as female vocalist (later Emel will sue DJ Bobo to get some credits for the use of her voice and she will win the trial)

But DJ Bobo proved with his second hit that he is not a nine-day wonder: Keep On Dancing became #1 in Finland, #2 in Switzerland, #3 in Norway and Hungary, #4 in Israel, #5 in Germany, #7 in Sweden and Austria, reached the Top Ten in many other European countries and was awarded with Gold Discs for 250,000 singles sold in Germany. Switzerland awarded his long expected album Dance With Me and it was to be found in the European Charts for some time.

Take Control - the next release - reached very high chart positions such as #1 in Hungary, #4 in Switzerland and Czech republic, #9 in Austria, #12 in Germany, and #2 in Israel (his biggest hit there to date) and again got Gold in Germany.

In 1994 then Bobo got #1 in Finlan, Hungary, Latvia, Brazil and Croatia, up to #3 of the Swiss charts, #2 of the German Single charts and # 4 in Israel with his slow dance reggae Everybody, remaining there for many weeks and was awarded with the Platinum Disc for 500,000 singles sold in Germany.

In 1994 Bobo began to work with Axel Breitung. In Autumn of 1994 the second album There Is A Party (500.000 copies sold alone in Germany) was released containing the smash hit Let The Dream Come True which also reached Gold, #1 in Switzerland, and # 22 in Israel. Love Is All Around was released in January 1995, gained Top 10 positions in many countries, reached # 30 in Israel, and was awarded with sixth Gold Discs in line in Germany.

In February and March of 1995 DJ Bobo was on tour in South America withgreat response from the fans. When he was in Sao Paolo he performed a gorgeousdance-act in front of a 120,000 people and everybody took active part inhis lively show. At the beginning of May he got the World Music Award inMonaco for being the 'World's best-selling Swiss recording artist of theYear'. The new single There Is A Party was climbing up the charts;together with the fantastic video which was produced in Caribbean by theMiami Vice camera team.

In Summer 1995 an extended Asia tour followed with stage acts in Seoul (South Korea), Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. Their next stay was the promotion tour in Australia. 'There is A Party Tour '95' started in September of 1995 with 25 people acting with a most costly tour equipment. DJ Bobo performed an extraordinary show with a live crew of 9 people with a perfect choreography and transformed each hall into one huge dance party. The success of this tour set new standards in the European dance scene: more than 35 shows in Germany alone, appearances in Eastern and Northern Europe, and, as the high point, a sold-out concert for 13,000 visitors in Zurich Hallenstadion ! Hurrying from stage to stage, giving interviews, press conferences and signing autographs were the main occupation for DJ Bobo and his team last autumn. As a reward for his efforts he received enthusiastic applause and standing ovations after each concert but what made him most happy were the all over happy faces of his fans and groupies. With his shows on stage he filled his audience with enthusiasm. 90 minutes of pure Dance, based on a perfect choreography, giant firework, light and laser effects and even a conjuring trick that really caused a sensation. The highlight of his tour in the sold out Zürcher Hallenstadion in Switzerland on October 6th 1995, where the audience was celebrating their star. The applause for the artist was overwhelming. During this mega event his new video Live On Stage was shot : here you can find 60 minutes of pure Dance Entertainment.

At the press conference after the show he presented his special album Just For You containing Dance Remixes of already known productions as well as the special X-Mas Song It's Time For Christmas and Love Is The Price. While singing this ballad 13000 fascinated fans were lighting their sparklers and the Hallenstadion was transformed into an ocean of little lights.

1995 ended with one of his better hits of all times : Freedom. Powered by the voices of Natascha Wright and Lisa, it awarded another gold record to DJ Bobo in Germany.

In January 1996 DJ Bobo was awarded in Davos in Switzerland with his8th Golden Record in line for Germany for his 7 brilliant singles and thegorgeous album There Is A Party. With his single Love Is ThePrice he proved his unbelievable creativity. It was a ballad whichhe presented to the world in the biggest and most famous game show WettenDass..?' in Bremerhaven in front of millions of viewers watching DJ Boboand his group. Then  the 'Love is the price tour'  began in Switzerland,was continued in Germany and was finished with a performance at the charityconcert 'Hand in Hand for Children' in Frankfurt on April 7th.

The little time between his shows DJ Bobo worked on further productions in the studio as a new album : World in Motion was planned for release on October 7th. Among the vocalists, there were Lori Glori, Natascha Wright, and Christiane Eiben, with guest vocals of Jocelyn Brown.

The first single released before was Pray. It was presented on September 2nd and peaked #2 in Switzerland, and #5 in Israel. Followed the superb single Shadows Of The Night, #7 in Switzerland and # 5 in Israel.

In September 1997 the album World in Motion - Winter Edition was released. DJ Bobo released the new single Where Is Your Love on March 30, 1998 and the new album called Magic was released on April 27. Teresa Kaestel, Tanya Danker, Christiane Eiben, Mandy Sharp andMaxene Burrows took part to the album as female vocalists

In 1998 we saw the first single release taken from the forthcoming album Magic. The song was Where Is Your Love and had a combined Eurodance beat/andan 80's beat to. The result was amazing, and it gave the fans a new hopefor a pure Eurodance album. On April same year the new album was released,but its contents was quite deceiving for Eurodance fans : in fact Bobo totally changed his style with very serious songs where you could feel a lot of emotions.

In March 1999 he surprised his fans with the special shaped CD www.djbobo.ch - The Ultimate Megamix. Right after that DJ BoBo was rewarded with the World Music Award for being the 'World's best selling Swiss Artist of the Year' for the fifth time in a row.

The other big thing in this year was the opening of the 'Magic' tour. At this show DJ BoBo introduced new members of his team. One of them was Joe, replacing the non-member from the 'WIM' album Jocelyn Brown . His voice fitted perfectly into the songs. The show was some sort of a Magic fantasy world. The stage had a weight of 80 metric tons, seven articulated lorries were necessary for the transport and seven hours for the construction. At the end of the same year DJ BoBo once again surprised us all with the release of Celebrate : a real Eurodance song which was not on the album.

The publicity has been trying to keep the rumour alive that DJ BoBo could not read any musical notes. This is false : this producer, composer, lyricist and singer took flute, piano and drums lessons. Even though headmits : 'The computer is a great assistance to me but it does not do anything automatically.' Normally the artist records his ideas, melodies and lyricsimmediately on a dictaphone to process them with the computer at his studio.DJ BoBo who is titulated by the press to be a genious 'Workaholic' and'Perfectionist' sees strictly to his musical and business independance: he is his own manager and leads in this function also his record companyYES-Music in Switzerland. He has also created the DJ Bobo Dance Factory, a gathering of dance schools in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

In April 1999 the double album Hits & Remixes was released.The first cd contained the hits and the second cd contains remixes by fo rexample Robyx and Dakeyne.

October 1999 : the new album Level 6 was released. It also includeda hidden track 'What about?' and a cd-rom track. Again Eurodance lovershad to face the evidence : DJ Bobo has changed his style however withoutlosing any talent. Teresa Kastel, Christiane Eiben and Anna Lena Bjørklundwere the new female vocalists. Immediately after its release it hit numberone in the Swiss Charts and was awarded Platinum (Switzerland) and Gold (Germany). The pre-release Together reached top positions in thecharts.

The Mystasia 'The Land Beyond Your Dreams' show, fascinated more than 110.000 people in than 19 concert arenas in Europe. Simultaneously with the beginning of the new tour, the second single Lies was made available; it was, by the way, DJ BoBo's favorite track on the album. On a multi-storey main stage and a second stage the height of which can be alternated the audience is given the experience of a story in fivesettings with almost unbelievable pyros, two extraordinary earthlings, a rainbow spanning the world 'Mystasia', ten giant monsters and a mystically flying DJ BoBo. It took one year and four months of intensive work to designand build this new dimension in the history of pop music.

In Spring 2000 DJ Bobo earned his 6th World Music Award as 'World'sbest selling Swiss recording artist'.

Summer 2000 : DJ Bobo was in studio working on his next album, set forrelease in spring 2001. Some tracks' names have already been revealed,such as Let The Party Begin, Moscow, Hard To Say I'm Sorry,ColoursOf Life, or Say It Again. The name of his 2001 tour will bePlanetColors and the video of his next single will be shot on November 4thin the EuropaPark.

He also wrote an autobiographic book entitled Gestatten, RenéBaumann which will be available in November 2000. He is the first Eurodancestar to write a book about his life.

The name of the album is: Planet Colors. It will be released on 5 February 2001. The first single of the album is duet with Irene Cara entitled What A Feeling, out on 22nd January 2001. It featured backing vocals of Axel Breitung, Claire Dallison, Christiane Eiben, Linda Fields, Veronica Lee, Juliana Megma, and Previn Moore. He performed in 'Wetten Dass' one of Europe's biggest live show, on January 20th in Bremen.

22 April : The concert at the Hallenstadion in Zurich (which was presented live on the Internet) marked the beginning of the Planet Colors tour. The next single to be released will be Hard To Say I'm Sorry on the 14th of May.

The third and last track to be released as single from the album Planet Colours was Colours Of Life, planned for release on August 6th. This is DJ Bobo's favourite track. The CD included a previously unreleased B-side entitled Lean On Me.

In July, DJ Bobo also released a duo with Betty Love called The Way To Your Heart.

2002 : DJ Bobo won the World Music Award for the 7th time in Monaco. His new single Celebration was released in April, it also included an album Shortcut Megamix a B-side called Wonderful Day. It's a remake of the Kool & The Gang hit. The next album will be released in 2 versions : simple or double CD.

On June 10th DJ Bobo released a VHS & DVD called DJ BoBo - Celebration - The 10th Anniversary Show. It's 160 minutes long and contains several bonus materials.

In September DJ Bobo released a single in Spain : Chihuahua, which was very successful. Therefore on the 14th of September he came to Spain for some promotion activities (such as a show in an underground-station in Madrid), radio-interviews, TV-shows and of course to shoot the video for his single.

Like the DJ BoBo Visions Tour 2003, the new DJ BoBo-CD was called Visions. It was released in February 2003. Chihuahua was chosen for a Coca-Cola TV commercial all over Europe, and the single reched #1 in Mexico (he went to Mexico for a tour in April), #8 in Belgium, #9 in Italy, #10 in France, and #31 in the Eurocharts. 10 years after, with a non-eurodance single, DJ Bobo came back to France...

Thanks to the massive promotion organized by TF1 and Coca Cola, Chihuahua was a summer hit, reaching #1 in sales charts (#19 only in Germany). Unfortunately, this contributed to classify DJ Bobo as one-hit wonder, as nobody seemed to remember or recognize the artist who stood behind hits such as Freedom or Let The Dream Come True. On the official Chihuahua website, it was impossible to find a biography of DJ Bobo. And finally all the concerts planned in France were cancelled.

A nice dance song called No More Pain was included as 16th track on the Swiss version of the Visions album, whereas the German version of the album only had 15 tracks. Since German fans complained about it, the track was finally released on the German version of the Chihuahua CD maxi

2004 : DJ Bobo took a year of rest : no new single or album was released this year. In April, DJ Bobo was already back in the studios to record some new material for year 2005. In June the name of the forthcoming album (planned for release in January 2005) and tour were revealed : Pirates Of Dance. The title-song is rather euro-reggae than eurodance...

2005 : the album Pirates Of Dance was released. All songs were composed and written by René Baumann and Axel Breitung, as usual. Some of them were a contribution with Syndicate Music (a team gathering N-dee, D-fact and Frank Lio). They were produced by the Belgian Phil Wilde & A.J. Duncan.

Yhe follow-up single was the wonderful track Amazing Life. Between April and June, DJ Bobo toured across Germany. On the scene, a boat of 36 meters long and 10 m large. A 3rd single to be taken from the album was at first announced, maybe Pura Pasion, but finally nothing came out...

For the 10th time, DJ Bobo won the World Music Award 2005 for being the best-selling Swiss artist. His next single will be a duet with Sandra entitled Secret Of Love. The new single and the new album Greatest Hits will be released during Spring 2006. The release of the Pirates Of Dance Tour DVD was also postponed to 14th of October.

2006 : DJ Bobo will play his own role during a short appearance in the Swiss movie Handyman. Secret Of Love was released at the beginning of March.

On August 1st, DJ Bobo did a special concert in Engelberg for his fans. The tickets were offert in every Greatest Hits album.

DJ Bobo lost his trial against his former producer Gutze Gautschi about the royalties on the songs they had written together. He will have to give him back a part of the amount that gained on them for Germany. An audio-book entitled Die Vergessenen Jahre (the forgotten years) was released under Fresh Music. It contained many interviews with people whi used to work with DJ Bobo : Percy Busby, Mark Wyss or Gutze Gautschi, as well as the first single I Love You as bonustrack.

Nancy Baumann, DJ Bobo's wife, gave birth to a baby girl called Kayley on 26th September.

In October, 90% of the readers of the Swiss newspaper Blick voted yes to the question "Would you like DJ Bobo to represent Switzerland to Eurovision Contest ?". So DJ Bobo listened to popular demand, was among the candidates and he got selected. The song he presented to the contest was entitled Vampires Are Alive.

2007 : The new album was released on the 11th May and it was entitled Vampires. Unfortunately, it did not contain that much real eurodance songs, however some good danceable tracks... Second deception, DJ Bobo did not pass the semi-finals at ESC. The second single from the album was We Gotta Hold On, a slow song.

The excellent dance track Last Vampire, which was among the five tracks presented to fans a few monthes before the album was finished, was not finally included since it was not completely completed. According to rumors, it should appear on the next maxi CD. But it proved to be wrong when the next single, the beautiful dance song Because Of You, was out.

In October, the release date of the next album was revealed : March 21st 2008. It could already be pre-ordered from the official website.

At the end of November, DJ Bobo gave a series of concerts in EuropaPark.

2008 : A DVD entitled Vampires Alive - Making The Show will be soon released. DJ Bobo's new album release, initially planned for the end of March, was postponed, because he would like to deliver a perfect album and the tour's preparation currently takes him too much time. He will release his first earbook (a photo-book with 2 CDs and DVDs) on April 25th. Ole Ole, one of the 2 songs that DJ Bobo had recorded for soccer championship Euro 2008, will probably be available in April too. It could include Let The Games Begin as bonus track.

2009 : Dj Bobo  organized a real-TV casting on German TV channel Pro7 entitled "Germany's next Showstars", it will allow him to select who will take part to his 2010 tour also composed a song for that show called "Take me to the top".

Dance Artists Info © Niklas Adolfsson 1996-1999
© Denmark's DJ Bobo Official Page
© The Norwegian DJ BoBo fansite
© DJ BoBo Swiss Offical Fansite
DJ Bobo France
Thanks to Shimon O'Hana for the charts positions
Thanks to nolimits, DJ Sokol, Anton "MC Kasper" Skaletsky, Apho and Yef for the latest informations

Added : 24/01/2000 - Biography last updated Mon, August 10th 2009

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