Black Box is an Italian house music group popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The group is currently made up of DJ Daniele Davoli, classically trained clarinet teacher Valerio Semplici, keyboardist and electronic musician Mirko Limoni, and vocalist Celestine Walcott-Gordon. French fashion model Katrin Quinol joined the act in 1989 and became the official face of Black Box, appearing on the cover of their single and album releases as well as in music videos.
Daniele Davoli, Valerio Semplici, and Mirko Limoni formed a production team called Starlight (often credited as Starlight Invention Group). The group’s first single was a dance single called “Numero Uno”, released in 1988. The song was often credited by their other alias, Groove Groove Melody. “Numero Uno” peaked at number nine on the UK Singles chart. In early 1989, they produced a single called “Vocalizado” for Italian singer Robby Magno. In mid-1989, the group released the maxi-single “Airport 89” under the name Wood Allen. The single peaked at number 99 on the UK Singles chart.
In 1989, the group changed their name to Black Box and began working on their first album. They added French Caribbean model Katrin Quinol to the lineup as the group’s “frontwoman”. Quinol’s contribution was to lip sync songs in music videos and during televised performances. In July 1989, Black Box released their single “Ride on Time”. The song became an international hit, peaking at number one in three countries, including the UK, where it became the UK’s best-selling single of 1989, selling over 1.5 million copies worldwide. In November 1989, they released the single “Grand Piano” under the alias Mixmaster. The song peaked at number nine on the UK Singles chart. In December 1989, they released the follow-up single “I Don’t Know Anybody Else”. The song became an international top-ten hit and gave the group their first number-one song on Billboard’s Dance chart. In March 1990, they released their fourth single, “Everybody Everybody”. Like its predecessors, the song also became an international hit and earned the group their second number one on the Dance chart.
In May 1990, they released their debut album Dreamland. Despite its moderate performance on the charts, the album became certified gold in the United Kingdom and United States and peaked at number one in the Australian chart. In late 1990, the album’s fourth single, “Fantasy”, a cover of the 1978 hit by Earth, Wind & Fire, peaked at number five on the UK Singles chart and became certified silver in the United Kingdom. In February 1991, “Strike It Up” was released as the album’s fifth single. The song became another international top-ten hit for the group and earned them their third number-one single on the Dance chart. The album’s final singles “Open Your Eyes” and “Hold On” performed moderately well on the charts. In the same year, Black Box released a re-issue of “Ride on Time” called “Bright on Time”. Quinol, who did not contribute vocally or musically to the group’s music, left Black Box in late 1991 after the band became the subject of a media backlash involving lip-syncing scandals and lawsuits.
In 1993, Black Box added American singer Charvoni Woodson to the line up. They released the single “Rockin’ to the Music”, which performed poorly on the charts. In 1995, Black Box released their second album, Positive Vibration, which failed to chart or rise to the same level of success as their previous record. The album spawned the singles “Not Anyone” and “A Positive Vibration”, both of which fared well on the charts. In 1997, the album was re-issued with three additional singles: “I Got the Vibration”, “Native New Yorker”, and “Fall into My Love”. In April 1998, Black Box released a compilation album, Strike It Up: The Best of Black Box. In June 1998, they released another compilation, Hits & Mixes. In 1999, a maxi single of remixes for “Bright on Time” was exclusively released in France. Woodson continued touring and performing as the lead vocalist of the group periodically until 2015. That year, Celestine Walcott-Gordon began performing live as the new lead vocalist. In 2018, the group released the single “Everyone Will Follow”, featuring vocals by Walcott-Gordon.
