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Toy-Box

Danish pop band

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

Toy-Box is a Danish bubblegum pop band, best known for their hit singles "Tarzan & Jane", "Best Friend", "E.T.", "Superstar", and "The Sailor Song". The group's members are vocalists Amir El-Falaki and Anila Mirza.

01History

Toy-Box was founded by Amir El-Falaki and Anila Mirza in 1996, after they had met each other at a New Year's Eve party. They had been both singing and dancing professionally for some years, and also stand behind the choreographies of the group. Before becoming a part of the group, El-Falaki used to be a dance teacher.

The group's debut single, "Tarzan & Jane", was championed by Smash Hits magazine in the United Kingdom in 1999, but their UK label Edel decided to hold back the release until later on in the year, to coincide with the release of Disney's Tarzan. They elected to release "Best Friend" first; although it received a lot of rotation on the television channel The Box, it only reached number 41 in the UK Singles Chart, and plans to release "Tarzan & Jane" were cancelled. It reached number 2 in the Dutch hit lists and number 15 on the Eurochart Hot 100. In 1999, the single peaked at number 16 on MTV Europe.

The group's debut album, FanTastic, includes the hits "The Sailor Song", "Best Friend", "Tarzan & Jane", "Teddybear" and "Super-Duper-Man". It was released in September 1999 and followed in 2001 by a second album, ToyRide, which includes fan-favorite songs "www.girl", "Wizard of Oz" and "Prince of Arabia".

After the group broke up, El-Falaki worked as a dance teacher, music video choreographer and trainer to F.C. Copenhagen's cheerleading team. Mirza later released a solo album as Aneela, featuring collaboration with Arash, including the singles "Jaande", "Chori Chori", and "Bombay Dreams". When asked about another Toy-Box release in 2007, Aneela said, "I don't know, anything's possible."

In 2017, Toy-Box returned to tour alongside Aqua, Vengaboys, and many more groups for a series of 1990s concerts. They performed at the Vi Elsker 90'erne events in Denmark in 2017.

02Discography

Studio albums

Title Album details Peak chart positions Certifications
DEN
FIN
NLD
NOR
SWE
FanTastic 3 28 1 9 17
  • DEN: Platinum
  • NLD: Platinum
ToyRide
  • Released: 28 July 2001
  • Label: Edel
  • Formats:
    • CD
    • cassette
    • digital download
22 , 91 , ,
", " denotes items which were not released in that country or failed to chart.

Singles

Year Title Peak chart positions Certifications Album
AUS
DEN
EUR
GER
NED
NOR
NZ
SWE
SWI
UK
1998 "Tarzan & Jane" 41 2 15 37 2 3 27 8 34 , FanTastic
1999 "Best Friend" 39 6 11 , 1 13 , 23 , 41
  • NVPI: Gold
"The Sailor Song" , , , , 9 , , , , ,
2001 "Superstar" , , , , 41 , , , , , ToyRide
"www.girl" , , , , 35 , , , , ,
", " denotes items which were not released in that country or failed to chart.

Promotional singles

Title Year Album
"Teddybear" 1999 FanTastic
Watch videos about Toy-BoxExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Toy-Box, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

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