Toy-Box

Total songs:
26
Total releases:
18

Toy-Box is a Bubblegum eurodance project from Denmark, headlined by vocalists Aneela Mirza and Amir El-Falaki. They are best known for their hit singles "Tarzan & Jane", "Best Friend", and "The Sailor Song". T-y-Box are also famous for their incredible likeness to fellow Danish group Aqua, and many of their songs are commonly mistaken as Aqua songs. In 1999 they released their debut album "FanTastic", which was followed by their second album "Toy Ride" in 2001.

In 2011, Toy-Box announced their plans to reunite in 2012. However, on November 14th 2012, the plans fell through after a 2 year battle between the lead singers and their music label. As a result, the plans for a Toy-Box comeback were sadly been canceled.

Brief Biography

Toy-Box is Aneela Mirza and Amir El Falaki. They had met each other at a New Year's Eve party in 1996 and decided to combine their talents. They had been both singing and dancing professionally for some years, and also stand behind the choreographies of the group.

Aneela was born in Hillerid (Denmark) on the 8th October 1974. Aneela's parents are from Indonesia and, when she was young, they moved to Denmark and made a very good life. She is 1,54 m tall and her hobbies are singing and designing clothes. Her hair and eyes are brown. Her favourite movie is Titanic, and the boy of her dreams is Will Smith.

Amir was born in Copenhagen (Denmark), on the 12th of August 1973. He is 1,86 m tall and he loves playing football, dancing, and playing with his Playstation. Before becoming a part of Toy-Box, he used to be a dance teacher.

FanTastic!

In the end of 1998 Toy-Box released the debut single "Tarzan & Jane". The single was a huge success, with many fans excited by the sound that was so similar to the famous Aqua's who was making a huge impact on the dance charts at the time. A couple months later, Toy-Box released their second single "Best Friend". The single was a smashing success, and remained on the charts for a long time with Taran & Jane. Best Friend even peaked #1 in the charts in Denmark. Toy-Box's third single "The Sailor Song" was released on August 25th. Although not quite as bigger hit as the other singles, The Sailor Song did manage to make the Top 20, and Toy-Box began to work on their debut album. Before the release of their album, Toy-Box released the promo single "Teddybear", a bubblegum ballad that both Aneela and Amir were very proud of. However, the single was an initial flop, and didn't make it onto the charts. Aneela and Amir were disappointed, because they had believed very strongly in Teddybear.

On 21st May 1999, Toy-Box released their debut album "FanTastic". The album was very successful, especially in Holland, where it reached #1 after only 2 weeks. It took a long time before it got any lower, and only after 1 year did the album disappear completely from the charts, only to comeback soon after.

The Pirate Song

The Sailor Song was actually originally recorded as "The Pirate Song", but the vocals were changed last minute to "Sailor". The lyrics about "making robberies" and "causing panic everywhere they go" definitely make more sense when applied to pirates!

The reason for the change is unknown, although we can assume it was likely because Toy-Box and its producers thought "Sailor song" had a better ring to it when sung than "Pirate song" which doesn't roll off the tongue as easily. The only known publication of "The Pirate Song" is featured in the remix "Album Sneak Preview" on the Taiwanese print of the Tarzan & Jane single, published by Avex Asia in 1998. All other following releases changed the title to "The Sailor Song".

Toy Ride

Toy-Box released their second album Toy Ride on 28th July 2001. Included was fan-favourites "Www.girl", "Superstar" and "Wizard of Oz". The album also featured a cover of E-Type's famous eurodance song "Russian Lullaby."

Misinterpretations

Toy-Box's song "Tarzan and Jane" is often mis-credited to Aqua, as is "Best Friend", due to the incredible likenesses between the vocals of Aneela and Lene Nystrøm Rasted, and Amir and René Dif. Toy-Box are occasionally mis-credited with the song "Butterfly" by Smile.dk largely due to distributions of the song on peer-to-peer networks and file-sharing programs being tagged as by the group.

The song "Fantasy Dreamworld" is widely thought to be a Toy-Box song, but is actually by a bubblegum dance group named Combayah.

Breakup

Toy-Box's breakup was never officially announced, but rumours began to circulate that Amir is either working as a dance teacher or is planning a solo career. Aneela has changed her name to Aneela and begun a solo career.

In 2004, Aneela began a solo career in music. She focuses on Indian pop/dance, and released her first solo single "Bombay Dreams" in 2005, and "Say Na/Jande" in 2005/2006 in the Bollywood movie "Bluffmaster". nila has also performed alongside Arash in the hit songs "Chori Chori" and "Bombay Dreams". She also participated in the Arash's album Crossfade on the song "Say Na Say Na" that she sung in Punjabi.

In 2006, Aneela released her debut solo album "Mahi". Aneela's official Web site has more up to date details on her current career, as well as a forum which Aneela posts in, answering fan questions.

When asked about another Toy-Box release, Aneela said, "I don't know, anything's possible."

Aqua Similarities

As well as the similar sound, there are many reasons why Aqua and Toy-Box are alike. Here are some reasons. Can you think of any others?

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