BONEY M. was founded in Germany in 1975 by Frank Farian. Their first record was titled “Do You Wanna Bump?”, followed by the first album with hits like “Sunny” and “Daddy Cool”. BONEY M.’s success continued worldwide over the following years with record-breaking hits such as – “Rivers Of Babylon; Brown Girls In The Ring; No Woman, No Cry; Painter Man; Mary’s Boy Child; Rasputin; Ma Baker; It’s A Holiday ” and many more – continued.
From 1975 until now, BONEY M.’s songs were written by Frank Farian, along with original lead singer LIZ MITCHELL.
LIZ MITCHELL was born on a July 12th in Jamaica. Before her career with BONEY M., she sang in the musical HAIR in Berlin and Hamburg, as well as with the LES HUMPHRIES SINGERS from their beginning between 1970 – 73.
Even as a little girl, LIZ MITCHELL knew what she wanted to be when she grew up – an actress or a singer. She dreamed of her future success and founded a band with friends while she was still at school, with which she then played and sang in her free time.
LIZ MITCHELL then had the opportunity to go to Germany with the musical HAIR, where she had a great career for many years. Through her experience as a professional singer, she finally got the offer to join the group BONEY M. as lead singer. LIZ’s sensational voice became BONEY M.’s female “identification mark” in the 70s and 80s.
Furthermore, LIZ’s greatest wish for the future is to do what she always wanted to do: sing.
The success story continues:
An entry in the Guinness Book of Records for the best-selling single of all time: “Mary’s Boy Child” was sold every (three (…) seconds in 1978/79; the longest chart position (“Rivers of Babylon” was number for a year 1 in the German charts); the best-selling LP (every track on the LP “Night flight to Venues” was a No. 1 hit); around a thousand gold and platinum records, etc. There is only one group that can do that – and remains on the road to success: the megastars BONEY M.
But how did it all actually start?
In 1975, producer Frank Farian had the idea of forming a band that would accompany their catchy disco songs with an acrobatic stage show. From the beginning, the linchpin of BONEY M. was the likeable, dark-skinned singer Liz Mitchell, who also wrote the group’s big hits together with Frank Farian.
The Jamaican-born woman’s greatest wish has always been show biz. She celebrated her first successes with the musical “Hair” in London, Berlin and Hamburg, which was followed by a career with the Les Humphries Singers – until, while recording a record, she was offered the opportunity to found a new group: BONEY M. “Do you wanna bump?”, Sunny”, “Rivers of Babylon”, “No Woman, no Cry”, “Rasputin”, “Ma Baker” and many other hits wrote a big chapter in pop history.
The BONEY M. fever continues worldwide: Liz Mitchell was on a big tour again this year: Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Russia. By the way, they have an old love with the Russians: BONEY M. was the first western band that was allowed to get the Russians dancing before general detente and perestroika. Even today, the number of fans is large, as the current sales figures show: in the six months of April to September 1995 alone, BONEY M. received two gold and one platinum records for two “Star Collection” records. In the meantime, an increasingly younger audience is being encouraged to dance by the spirited singer, and in Liz Mitchell’s rousing and technically perfect live performances, many a father finds himself next to his dancing daughter – “Daddy (stay) cool” – that is.
