Believe it or not, it’s been 20 years since Cascada debuted with Miracle – and now they’re back with a brand new album that celebrates the sound, style and and spirit of Studio 54.
The legendary New York nightclub forms the basis of ‘Studio 24‘, the fifth studio album from the Eurodance legends – who rocketed into the global charts back in the mid-2000s with their international smash hit Everytime We Touch – with singer Natalie Horler opening up on her attraction to the iconic venue.
‘Obviously, I’m too young to have been a part of that era, but I would have loved to have gone to that club in the ‘60s and ‘70s,” she tells RETROPOP. “There’s a reason why people have Studio 54-themed parties; it’s that connection to freedom, you can do and be whoever you want to be and it’s a safe space with no judgement. That’s what I love about it.”
On the album, she tackles hits from the golden era, belting out tunes made famous by disco divas such as Diana Ross, Thelma Houston, Chaka Khan and Cheryl Lynn, building on Cascada’s trend for reworking other artists’ hits – such as Savage Garden’s Truly Madly Deeply, Rascal Flatts’ What Hurts The Most and Roxette’s How Do You Do – in their own inimitable style.
In fact, Everytime We Touch borrowed its chorus from Maggie Reilly’s 1992 single of the same name and when it became a global smash hit, peaking at No. 2 in the UK and No. 10 in the US, while charting across the world, it changed the performer’s life forever.
“I was only in my early 20s when it got going and it went so quickly,” she recalls. “Normally, you’d start playing locally, then doing a few gigs abroad – but it wasn’t like that. I was doing gigs in Germany and Austria – where there’s a similar market for dance music – then all of a sudden it went to No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and I was travelling to the States every two weeks.
“I was homesick, missing all my sisters’ kids birthday parties, and it was hard. But I was also totally up for it, because I wanted to do this, you know? You have to work really, really hard, and you do make sacrifices for this sort of thing, but it was quite crazy. I didn’t have a chance to really adapt to that sudden fame.”
Between 2006 and 2011, Cascada released four studio albums and landed a run of hit singles, before representing Germany at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest with Glorious.
It led to some confusion about the singer’s nationality, which arose once again earlier this year when Natalie performed with Jax Jones at Capital’s Summertime Ball at Wembley Stadium, with one backstage interviewer being stunned to discover she’s English.
Fans were quick to react online, with the vocalist laughing: “I was a surprise guest that day so they weren’t prepared for me being there. Normally, a journalist would prepare their interview and find out a few bits and bobs, and obviously back in the day people knew because I was doing interviews left and right.
“I never made it a secret and on socials I always speak in English, even though I speak fluent German. But it was such a shock! It was quite a surprise and quite funny as well, because everyone just went, ‘Oh my God, you’re British!’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, my mum’s from Romford Essex and my dad’s from Lymington!'”
Her family moved to Germany a year before she was born, where Natalie has stayed all of her life and, according to the star, it made things a lot easier when it comes to her life in the limelight. She reflects: “Even though my music’s very famous, and I’ve been fortunate to have such a great career, I’m still not Madonna. There is a difference between someone like her – where you can’t live a normal life – and me.
“Also, I live in Germany and they do have different laws here. If I lived in London or if I lived in the States, I think the paparazzi situation would have definitely made my life a lot more tricky, because there’s just certain things you’re not allowed to do here.
“I did think about moving to London for a while in my mid 20s, when I had a lot of friends there, but it just turned out that I didn’t…”
