Category: K3

Karen Damen, Kristel Verbeke and Josje Huisman

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. 😉

Just Another Mega Sunday

There’s a lot I want to post, including Hillary, and J.K. Rowling at Harvard this past week. As I write this I’m converting a video of Petula’s recent BBC TV appearance, which required a massive amount of editing to be put right from shaky source material.

But I want to say that I’ve been getting a lot of flak, mostly via e-mail, about the K3 posts. Sorry, but I’m just not going to back down on this! In fact, I’m going to push back even harder with another Flemish act for kids. Meet MEGA MINDY!

Somebody should tell Yvonne “Batgirl” Craig about this!

K*3=!

K3 from Belgium are Karen Damen, Kathleen Aerts and Kristel Verbeke. They started in the late 90’s, and they work with an outfit called Studio 100. They’re producing what I would call the Strauss Jr. waltzes of pop music.

I’m imagining myself as a Radio Disney executive, watching these videos of K3; one made in a studio, the other a live performance of the same song….

… and after watching these I would say, “Call Studio 100 and pay them whatever they want. We’ve got to have this.”

Disney would have to risk casting different women, because of the language barrier, although their English could be excellent, for all I know. I think the appeal of the three K’s themselves has much to do with their success in Belgium and the Netherlands, but Xuxa, considered a goddess in Brazil, failed terribly in her attempt to break into America with her broken English. The K3 sound is, however, so compelling to my ears that I’m surprised there hasn’t already been an attempt to import it to the US.

P.S. By the way, the song is called “Kusjesdag” — Flemish for “Kissing Day.” One and a half million YouTube viewers can’t be wrong!

Three From Three K’s

Coming up will be Petula Clark’s recent appearance on BBC TV, but a couple of posts ago I featured a British pop music video by Spiller (who apparently is Italian). A girl group that really pushes the bouncy boundaries of Euro Pop is called K3, from Belgium.

Their language is Flemish, a variant of Dutch, but there’s some French in the lyrics too. These ladies don’t act their age, and in fact they do songs and shows for kids, but I still like this stuff, especially the catchy first song, “Frans Liedje.” Perhaps that’s because years ago Xuxa conditioned me, and before her it was ABBA. More about Xuxa later.

Here’s “Frans Liedje” in stereo. This song annoys my twin sister, and it’s a brother’s lifetime duty to annoy his sisters!

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUN/FransLiedje.mp3]