This year marks 30 years since Hadddaway released “What Is Love?” – a song that became his biggest hit in his career. Alexander Nestor Haddaway, as his real name is, was born in 1965 in Port-of-Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, but has German citizenship.
30 years ago he recorded a timeless hit
For many years, as a young man, he traveled around the world with his oceanographer father, spending several years, among others, in in the United States where he studied. In 1989 he moved to Germany and settled in Cologne, and four years later he released his debut album entitled “Haddaway”. It was on this album that the song “What Is Love?” was found.
The song quickly found its way not only to German discos. It was number one in 13 European countries. In Germany, Sweden and Great Britain, it reached the second place of the charts, in the USA it also did very well (11th place). She was also extremely popular in Australia (12th place), Canada (17th) and Poland. Haddaway has sold over 28 million records.
Even today, many people willingly return to it during parties, and its timeless nature can be evidenced by, for example, the use of the song in the cult show “Saturday Night Live” – in a sketch with Jim Carrey, Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan, as well as in the Marvel film ” Black Panther” or that it became a popular Tik Tok track this year, with David Guetta releasing a new version of the song called “Baby Don’t Hurt Me”. There, together, two vocalists are responsible for the vocal parts: Anne-Marie and Coi Leray.
What does Haddaway look like now?
Meanwhile, Haddaway tried to replicate the success of their debut single, but never succeeded. His “Life”, “I Miss You”, “Rock My Heart” or “Fly Away” enjoyed the sympathy of some disco regulars, but did not permanently enter the mainstream. Despite this, he still sings and records – his latest music video was released two years ago. Now his YouTube channel has less than 300,000 subscribers, and the most recent (out of five) videos posted by the musician are eight months old. You can see how Haddaway presented himself on stage last year during a concert in Italy, reminiscent of hits from years ago. Since 1993 and the studio version, the performance differs both in the voice of the accompanying vocalist and in his manner.
The video has been viewed more than half a million times in eight months. For the score of the music video “What Is Love?” posted on the website in June 2014, however, it is far from it. This footage already has over 252.6 million views.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
