Amber (performer)

Amber, aka Marie-Claire Cremers, is a Holland-born and Germany-raised singer/songwriter. Her music is not easily categorized, but the production approach to her first hits led her to be pigeonholed as a Eurodance/house/club/techno artist. This was an uncomfotable classification for her, and it eventually led her to sever her relationship with dance label TommyBoy to found her own label in 2004. Her music has dealt frankly with, among other topics, female sexual desire, divorce, and parenting. Her family is involved in making her music -- her father was an opera singer, and her mother, Anne-Mieke de Vroomen, is a piano player. Her mother and sister collaborate with her, having written and performed on some of her songs, including one about Amber's son.

Related Topics:
Holland - Germany - Eurodance - House - Club - Techno

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Amber is best known for her debut 1996 single "This Is Your Night". It quickly became an international hit and managed to cross over from the rhythmic and club charts to the Hot 100 (peak #24) in America; it also just barely charted at Adult Top 40 radio, where it achieved a #40 ranking. (It also sounds alot like the song Another Night by Real McCoy). Amber followed its success up with an album of the same name, which was a European hit but did not fare successfully in America, where dance musicians' singles are usually far more commercially successful than their entire albums. The album's second single, 1997's "Colour Of Love", was much smaller in America (#74 pop peak), despite American club success and European success. It was followed in early 1998 by the Hani Remix of "One More Night", a song which was originally a slow ballad on the This Is Your Night album but had been given a dance beat by Hani. It became a pop hit in America, peaking at #58 on the Hot 100. Amber's string of Billboard hits was a first for a techno act in America and she is, to date, the first and only European dance act not to become an American one-hit wonder since the dance craze of the early 90's.

Related Topics:
1996 - Rhythmic - Club - Hot 100 - Adult Top 40 - Real McCoy - 1997 - 1998 - Hani - This Is Your Night - Billboard - Techno - One-hit wonder

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In 1998, Amber also teamed up with fellow international dance divas Jocelyn Enriquez and Ultra Nate to record a remake of Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind" for the 54 movie soundtrack, and which was released under the group name Stars On 54. It became an American hit that summer.

Related Topics:
1998 - Jocelyn Enriquez - Ultra Nate - Gordon Lightfoot - 54

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In 1999, Amber released her sophomore, self-titled album. Its first single, "Sexual (Li Da Di)" became a pop hit, peaking at #42 on the Hot 100 and also a number one American club hit. Its followups, "Love One Another" and "Above The Clouds" did not become mainstream hits in America, although both also became number one club hits in 2000, a year in which Ambers three singles dominated the dance clubs. All three singles were also very big pop successes internationally. Cher liked the sentiment in "Love One Another" so much that she covered it on her latest album, and Cher's rendition was nominated for a Best Female Vocal Performance award at the 2004 Grammys; Amber herself, among some others, earned the nomination, as that category's award goes to the songwriter.

Related Topics:
1999 - Hot 100 - 2000 - Amber - Cher - Best Female Vocal Performance - 2004 - Grammys

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In 2000, Amber released an album, Remixed, which contained remixes of all her previous singles, including "If You Could Read My Mind".

Related Topics:
2000 - Remixed - Remixes

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Amber's third album, Naked, was released in early 2002 and displayed a more stripped-down and honest Amber. It was her first album not produced by the Berman Brothers. Musically, Amber continued the path she had started with its predecessor: she continued to write more of her own lyrics and attempted even more of a depature from her original Eurodance sound. Its lead single, "Yes", was a perfect example of the newer, deeper direction Amber was trying to take her work in. "Yes" borrowed its chorus from the final few lines of James Joyce's controversial novel Ulysses. The song began getting radio play in 2001, but was the most relatively muted reception given to an Amber lead single yet, as it did not become a real mainstream crossover hit in America. Nevertheless, it still became a #1 smash hit in the American dance clubs, her sixth consecutive #1 on that chart. Despite some pop and rhythmic radio play, it failed to make any radio charts in America. (Amber has subsequently commented that the difficulties obtaining airplay displayed a double standard, in that many songs by men expressing their sexual desire obtain airplay, but the radio stations were uncomfortable with a song by a woman expressing her sexual desire.)

Related Topics:
Naked - 2002 - Eurodance - James Joyce - Ulysses - 2001

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"Yes" was followed in 2002 by "The Need To Be Naked" and "Anyway (Men Are From Mars)". Both were American club hits, "The Need To Be Naked" Amber's seventh consecutive club number one, but neither received much American radio airplay. The album and its singles were all European hits.

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At present, Amber rivals the Chemical Brothers and Paul Oakenfold as being possibly the most well-known dance act in America, where dance music is most popular when done as remixes of mainstream pop or R&B hits, such as is common with Madonna, Whitney Houston, and Toni Braxton. This hardly means she is a household name there, however, as most dance acts, even despite possibly several mainstream hits, remain very underground and unknown relative to the bigger and flashier pop and rock stars. Very few dance acts, especially European ones, are invited to American MTV and VH1 either, which is a likely reason why they usually remain under-the-radar and relatively anonymous there; instead the networks choose to invite such acts to their European stations, since they are almost always more popular in Europe than in America.

Related Topics:
Chemical Brothers - Paul Oakenfold - Remixes - R&B - Madonna - Whitney Houston - Toni Braxton - MTV - VH1 - Europe

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However, along with the Chemical Brothers and Oakenfold, Amber may be gradually changing this American preconception. To date, Amber's most high-profile American public appearance took place in 2002, as the host for an episode of MTV2's now-cancelled show MTV2 Dance. She also has a very strong fan base among the American gay community, and she has performed as a lead act at many American gay pride events. Further, she has recently moved to the U.S.; the singer-songwriter now calls upstate New York home. She lives there with her fourteen-year-old son and her two cats.

Related Topics:
2002 - MTV2 - MTV2 Dance - Gay

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In late 2004, Amber released a fourth studio album, "My Kind of World", her first release on her own label, JMCA Enterprises, and the first of her albums stylistically to break free of her dance classification (although many of its songs have been, or are going to be, released in remixes for the dance floor). Its first single, "You Move Me", was released to radio and clubs in late August. It swiftly climbed the dance and club charts following its release, though it has received no mainstream radio support. "You Move Me" achieved a #4 peak on the Billboard club charts in September.

Related Topics:
2004 - Dance - Club

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More information can be found on her webiste, http://www.amber-mcc.com. Among other things, her website includes a discussion board on which Amber frequently corresponds directly with her fans.

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