Category: K3

Karen Damen, Kristel Verbeke and Josje Huisman

Is It a Bird? A Plane? No! It’s Free Souffriau!

D.F. Rogers wants more Mega Mindy! He didn’t even have to ask, I just know. OK, so maybe I want more Mega Mindy too. She’s played by a woman with the unlikely name of Free Souffriau (SUE-free-oh). Free is quite versatile, and as you’ll hear her English is impeccable. I still haven’t heard how Karen, Kristel, and Kathleen of K3 are with English.

The first video has a live performance of the Mega Mindy theme song with a band and no lip-synching. Near the end she holds out her mic and you can hear the kids singing along. Isn’t that great? The second video on the playlist has Free out of costume, being interviewed with, and by, kids, followed by a video of a song from the show, “Toby Toby.” The last video is the most interesting, with Free as herself, free of Mega Mindy.

The Making of K3’s “Kissing Day”

I’m still not ready with my intended posts, and embedding YouTube videos is so quick and easy that’s what I’ll do. And, guess what? Once again it’s K3’s greatest song, “Kusjesdag” — Kissing Day!

Most of you will run screaming from the room, or maybe just click away from here, but I think this is one of the best bits of pre-fab fluff I’ve ever heard. I love this song. It’s an anthem! An antidote to all of the terrible events, man-made and natural, on this Friday the 13th.

So here we go with a short “making of” about the “Kusjesdag” video. The ladies could be saying rude things for all I know, and if they are, you’d have to know Flemish to know that. Following the mini-documentary is another live (undoubtedly lip-synched) performance. This one was, I assume, done at one of the Studio 100 theme parks. I think I just about have the dance moves memorized. 😉

Belgian Beauties Belting It Out

More music from Belgium, but it’s very different from the Studio 100 pop stuff. This is the Scala & Kolacny Brothers Choir. The video player starts with their version of radiohead’s “Creep”, that you can see here I featured many months ago. There’s just a still picture for that one, but in the second clip you’ll see them performing a well-known U2 tune. And the last one is a video of “The Blower’s Daughter”, as featured in the the movie Closer.

Studio 100 Globalizes

K3 - Kristel Verbeke, Karen Damen, Kathleen Aerts
K3 (l-r) Kristel Verbeke, Karen Damen, Kathleen Aerts in their “Kissing Day” costumes

I’m preparing a lot of audio and video clips for what is turning into a long build-up to a Petula Clark post. One week ago I knew nothing of Studio 100 in Belgium, and now I’m intrigued by the outfit. D.F. Rogers has spotted a video about the history of Studio 100, and it’s at this link. The page is done in Flash, and the player starts automatically. (It misbehaves a tiny bit, so I suggest opening it in a new window.)

I had speculated on K3 being a good prospect for Disney, but now I see that Studio 100 feels they don’t need Disney, although it’s not K3 they’ll be exporting. Dennis also uncovered a detailed proposal by Studio 100 for the expansion of Mega Mindy into the UK. You can read it at this link. (It’s in PDF and it’s big, so it’s probably better to right-click and save it, rather than open in your browser.) Get a load of these talking points I’ve selected.

  • We are witnessing ever-increasing age-compression, a fact that is heavily influencing the programming and marketing of both Disney and Nickelodeon. In today’s World, Mega Mindy will appeal to ages 7 through 17 if thoughtfully produced, and well cast.
  • The insatiable drive for expansion through excellence has resulted in the decision to globalize Studio 100, using our formula for success, which is deceptively simple, but adhered to strictly in every instance.
  • There are distinct forces of attraction which combine to provide an irresistible argument that a well written, well shot United Kingdom Mega Mindy will be a huge success in the English speaking World. Let us note that it is already a hit in Belgium and in the Netherlands, which has only one home grown super heroine to speak of.
  • If Hillary Clinton affects the Worldview by becoming ‘leader of the Free World’, in the same way that Margaret Thatcher affected the British view in the 1980’s, Mega Mindy will be in a perfect position to benefit.

How about that last point? They won’t be able to capitalize on the Presidency of Hillary Clinton, but it was an interesting idea. OK, that’s enough for now about Studio 100, K3, and Mega Mindy! Next up… XUXA!

3*2=0

For the few of you who are staying with me as I lead up to my post about Petula Clark on Paul O’Grady’s BBC TV show — because that really is what I’m doing, I promise — here’s more about K3 from Belgium.

As I once heard Elvis Costello describe his enjoyment and appreciation of ABBA, I think the best K3 songs are “sprinkled with magic pixie dust.” Studio 100 exported K3’s sound to Germany, with a group called Wir 3 — different women in place of Karen, Kathleen, and Kristel, but everything else looking and sounding the same as K3. Click here for some background.

The song they’re talking about is “Heyah Mama,” which dates back to when K3 was targeting an adult audience of on-the-make 20-something women. Indeed, their first video is downright risqué. By the time of the Wir 3 spin off, K3 had made the switch to catering to kids, so Wir 3 is comparably clean. The embedded YouTube videos on that Belgovision link above are broken, but I’ll fix that here. Note: The first video, with K3, isn’t for kids!

This answers my question about exporting the group and casting different women. Wir 3 just doesn’t click like K3 does. It doesn’t take long when first watching K3 for Karen Damen to stand out, and I don’t see anybody comparable to her, nor Kathleen or Kristel, for that matter, in Wir 3. So the formula doesn’t work the same elsewhere, and I guess it’s unlikely they’ll be transplanted to America; which is just as well, because we wouldn’t want to see the three K’s without their magic pixie dust. 😉