Euphoria (Australian band)

Euphoria was a popular Australian Pop/Dance music trio from the early 1990s based in Sydney, NSW. The group was founded by producer Andrew Klippel (son of visual artist Robert Klippel^[1]) and featured the vocals of Keren Minshull and Holly Garnett. Model Jodhi Meares joined after Garnett left.

Profile

The group achieved prominence in Australia in late 1991/early 1992 with their first single, "Love You Right", after the song and video was featured on the Australian soap opera "E Street." Widespread radio airplay followed, and the single reached #1 on the ARIA singles chart,^[2] becoming the 24th highest selling single of 1992.^[3] The music video for the song featured E Street cast member Kelley Abbey, who played Jo-jo, as a backup dancer. The video was shown at the beginning of episode 260 of E Street, where Wheels sees the video on TV and comments on Jo-jo's participation in it. Simon Baker, who was also an actor on E Street, was a back-up dancer in the video.

Other top ten singles followed, including "One In A Million" (#1^[2]), "Do for You" (#7^[2]), and the less-successful fourth single, "I Will Never Leave You" (#41^[2]). All of these tracks came from their only album, "Total Euphoria" (#14^[2]), which was released in October 1992. A further single, "Elated", was released in 1993 (#66^[2]), after which the group disbanded. "Love You Right" was remixed in 1997, and the single included a remix by 2 Unlimited. However, the 1997 remix did not chart.

Klippel later explained that the group had formed only after the "Love You Right" single had achieved success. The song had been written and recorded with no expectation of success, and when it became a hit, Klippel felt compelled to assemble a group to promote it. Unfortunately, their success would be tarnished after it was revealed that Garnett lip-synced Minshull's vocals in the video (although Minshull also appeared briefly in the video). For the following single, "One In A Million", both Garnett and Minshull shared vocals and screen-time in the video. Behind the scenes, however, there were tensions between the trio that resulted in Garnett departing the group, with Meares replacing her for the act's final two singles.

In 2011, Minshull commented that despite their success, she feels that Euphoria is dated and does not reflect the mainstream music of today.^[4]

Life after Euphoria

Klippel has continued to work in music as a producer for such artists as Human Nature and Jocelyn Brown, and formed the dance bands Elastic and AK Soul. Female members Minshull and Garnett pursued solo and background vocal projects. Minshull continues to work as a Sydney based singer/songwriter, releasing the album 'You're Driving' in 2011 and launching Keren Minshull Music in 2012. Meares returned to modeling and later launched a fashion clothing line.

Holly Garnett committed suicide in October 1998 at the age of 29, due to the plight of her brother Martin Garnett, who was imprisoned in a Thai prison for drug trafficking.^[5][6]

Discography

Albums

Singles

See also

• List of artists who reached number one on the Australian singles chart

References

External links

• Euphoria tribute at MySpace
• Keren Minshull at MySpace
• Keren Minshull Music at Facebook
• Drunken Victim.com's profile on Eurphoria
• Track listing at e.discogs.com