Zee U
Zee U is the name of a bubblegum dance girl group from Denmark, made up of two members Tanja Jessen and Lonnie Madsen. Zee U released their debut album "Vingardium Leviosa" in 2004, and are probably best known for the single "Let's Rock."
Prior to Zee U, Tanja and Lonnie were in a Danish children's bubblegum project called Cocktail, in which they released two Danish-language albums, Jul Paa Ny and Snik Snak. Cocktail's music was purely aimed at children, and most of the songs were dance remakes of children's songs. As the girls got older they decided to change their image and focus their target audience to teenagers rather than children. And so Zee U was born.
Biography
The following biography was taken from Candied Crush blog:
Although the Zee U project was created in 2003, the duo of Tanja Jessen and Lonnie Madsen has a longer history together. In 2001, their first recording, a Christmas album entitled "Jul Paa Ny" was released in Denmark under the name "Cocktail". As one may assume from the album's title, Jessen and Madsen sang Danish-language holiday songs that were marketed toward children.
Perhaps due to the fact that Cocktail released the album through a small company called Uggi Guggi Records, or maybe because it is difficult to measure the impact of non-English-language music, the CD was not wildly successful. However, that same year, Cocktail emerged into the public eye with an entry in the 2001 MGP, Denmark's national selection round for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Despite not managing to take the top honors, the duo released another children's album that in 2002, "Snik Snak," which included their MGP entry, "Uma Ma."
By May 2003, the Uggi Guggi Records site had posted a news piece about a major change in direction for Cocktail:
Cocktail has grown, and their style has changed completely. They now perform under the name Zee U. They have a new single ["Let's Rock"] released from their upcoming CD.
So, Zee U began touring and performing in promotion of "Vingardium Leviosa," their first and only album under the new moniker. In addition to a tour of Denmark, Jessen and Madsen sang live on the children's show "Snurre Snups soendagsclub" (Bugs Bunny's Sunday Club). This guest appearance can be considered either fitting, considering their happy Europop sound, or ironic, if one considers the lyrics to some of their songs (I shall elaborate more on this later).
Following the release of one promo single, "Let's Rock", "Vingardium Leviosa" was released later in 2003. The album boasted eleven original tracks, as well as two remixed songs.
The tracks were written by a renowned Danish songwriter, Jacob Launbjerg. Additionally the songs were slickly produced, and as a testament to Launbjerg and the other songwriters, had catchy melodies. But the album never took off; to this very day, the only place that I could find it available for purchase was on several (apparently) legal Russian mp3 sites. The album's obscurity is likely due to the poor timing of its release; by 2003 and 2004, Zee U's bubblegummy brand of teen Europop was rapidly losing popularity. Presumably, the group disbanded sometime in 2004 due to poor sales.
Regardless of its status as a relatively unknown album, "Vingardium Leviosa" does manage to succeed, assuming that the listener is willing to tolerate the genre. Generally, when reviewing music of this sort, I focus less on the lyrics than with other genres. That being said, the lyrics are fitting but somewhat superficial, but that is to be expected from the genre.
Out of all of the songs on this CD, my top pick would be "Do It," which focuses on a girl trying to seduce a study partner. This song made Zee U seem to be a strange pick to perform on a children's show (or at least by American standards), but given that one episode of "Snurre Snups soendagsclub" featured full-frontal male nudity, a teen pop group with one slightly racy song would probably not ruffle any feathers.
In lieu of "Do It," I shall provide a video of another album track, "Tell Me." Although it has more of a electro-rock riff than the other tracks (minus "Let's Rock," of course), it is a song that represents the album well.
