K3-GIRLBAND LEGEND!

Legendary K3 Music

Borst Vooruit-One of the campest songs ever produced. Take the theme tune to Superman and weave it over Your Disco Needs You and you've got the campest song since In The Navy. Gayer than a Betty Midler singing in the San Francisco bathhouses. It has one of the most exaggerated productions ever known in the history of pop music. OTT!

Ik ben een klein geel visje (Help!-I'm A Fish)-Ok, you know this song. It was also done by Creamy (girl group from Norway) and Little Tree's (girl group from Denmark).

Superhero-K3 totally reinvent themselves with a rocking out pop song.

Leonardo-This song takes you Ireland. Brilliant use of the fiddle. Or, whatever that instrument is!

Verliefd-K3 at their best! This song starts off rather slowly but turns into a great pop song!

K3 hail from Belgium but are also absolutely huge in The Netherlands. Since launching back in 1998 they've released over ten albums all of which have scored top ten places due the fact that the producers have squeezed as much pop on the cd's as is possible.

Aimed at kids but also to pop lovers in general, K3 have their own German "younger-sister" band who have just covered K3's first hit released all the way back in the heady days of 1999. Such was the brilliance of K3 and their pop, Wir3 can still have a hit with a song thats over 7 years old. So K3 are Karen, Kristel, and Kathleen and they've had a string of T.v shows, clothing ranges, computer games, spin-off bands, tours, musicals and fames all centering around the girls. They started off as a camp kiddies pop band backed by the T.V station Studio100 but have grown up and moved on.


Although they have a kids as their key demographic, K3 have become poptastic polemic that stretches far beyond pre-teens. Indeed, Robbie Williams and, gulp, Pet Shop Boys have all gone record to announce their support for the band. One of their songs, "Tele-romeo", even sounds like a mash-up of Kylie's Turn It Into Love and PSB's It's A Sin. They've tried Eurovision (watch the rather nervous attempt here) and as the video for the original Heyah Mama reveals they are willing to get down on their knees to service a half-naked man on a beach. Noice!



So as I was saying! Unlike Wir3 who are clearly aimed at young'un's K3 have evolved into a Bel-NL superband with a drag show dedications and Dutch teenagers remixing their material to hardcore baselines. In fact there are a multitude of dedications to the girlbands you'd be here forever listing them all.



Musically, K3 must be placed at the extreme side of bubblegum pop. However they are willing to rock out in the catchiest way possible (check out their performance on Top Of The Pops for proof). This is why they are girlband legends. They might have reached just two countries yet the material they continue to put out is timeless and completely over the top. They take a bit of B*witched, some of Ace Of Base, schlager, S Club 7, lots of ABBA and add a touch of their own to produce a wild statement of sheer pop. This is the type of music that doesn't care that its never going to win awards or receive acceptance by music aficionado's. On the contrary, its so external to the world of Amy Winehouse, Kylie and Girls Aloud it resides on a planet of pop that cartographers refused to map. One of the most interesting things about K3 is that they are one of the few 90's girl groups still around!

Look a bit similar to Kylie's Your Disco Needs You performance? I thought so too!

Take their track "Borst Vooruit". It sounds like the Superman theme song fused in with Your Disco Needs You. As a result, its one of the campest polemics of pop I've ever come by. You feel as if your marching off into a rainbow war of peace, smiles and flowers. K3 present a world of brilliant togetherness which is helped by the "exaggerated" production, soaring strings and the sort of camp melodies you've not heard since The Village People stormed into the showers of the YMCA and the navy. Listen to Borst Vooruit and you'll see what I mean. When not marching into the Castro, you'll find doing a jig with their odes to the carnival like the cheerful "Ya Ya Yippee" and "Leonardo".

In the Navy!

Considering the dollops of pop found in the albums I'm quite surprised that the internet is pretty dry on the band! There is however a brilliant fansite on the group that details all their releases up until 2006. Besides the official website thats about it. So now, hopefully I can restore the balance and pay K3 their dues. Only because the girls have been doing it for for ten years and with nearly two studio albums released a year its about time I grabbed the girls and say "thank you". Ladies, gentlemen, pop-lovers, kids....raise a toast to K3! One of the oldest and still functioning girlbands in Europe!

You can buy all their albums at the brilliant Dutch website BOL.NL
Check out their Official Website

Next up on DSTP: more Latoya, Robyn and of course more girlbands!