Belladonna

Belladonna
Background information
Origin	Australia America Scotland
Genres	Pop R'n'B Dance
Years active	2012-2013
Labels	Next Generation
Associated acts	Electra Kleo
Members	Danielle Atkins Rebecca DeKay Maxine Frost Odette Silverton Joanna Valenti

Belladonna were a multi-national five-piece pop group, formed in late 2012 to weigh in on the boom of girl groups in the UK market. While active, the band released one album ("Pretty In Poison") and three singles ("What's Your Pleasure?", "Tonight (Goodbye)" and "Forward In Reverse"), all of which hit the top 5. All three singles hit Gold certification, and the album was certified Platinum. Due to personal issues within the group, they split up before they could release a fourth single from their album.

Band Members

Danielle Atkins - 26 years old, born March 1st, 1987. Danielle hails from Edinburgh, Scotland. She is known for her thick Scottish brogue which is in stark contrast to her clear soprano tone. Danielle has aspired to become a singer since she was a young girl, ever since she saw the popular TV show "Popstars". She was too young to audition at the time, and more recent attempts to audition for The X Factor were unsuccessful, with Danielle never making it past the initial stages despite her strong voice and talent. It was her audition attempt that afforded her the invitation to audition for Belladonna.

Rebecca DeKay - 26 years old, born October 30th, 1987. Rebecca is one of two Australians in Belladonna; having been born and raised in Queensland before her family moved to Perth in her teens. She attended the same performing arts school as Maxine Frost, and the two bonded over their love of music and singing. Together they auditioned for Belladonna, and both of them made the group. Rebecca was the de facto leader of the group, being the one to keep the other girls in line and the one to handle self-appointed to deal with the press. Rebecca is generally considered to have been the 'lead' singer of the group, despite vocal duties being shared roughly equally between all five girls.

Maxine Frost - 25 years old, born January 22nd, 1988. Maxine is the second Australian member of Belladonna, born and raised in Perth before meeting Rebecca at their performing arts school. Maxine and Rebecca were in different year levels, but they became friends despite Maxine's issues with aggression. Maxine has the weakest voice in Belladonna, and indeed the only reason she made it into the group is because she was a replacement for a girl that was fired from the band after stealing from the other girls. Maxine desired a larger role in Belladonna than she has been given, and was the main reason why the group imploded.

Odette Silverton - 24 years old, born November 4th, 1989. Odette is considered the 'baby' of the group, being the youngest girl to make it into Belladonna. Odette comes from Miami in the United States, and is a complete valley girl, with an obsession with boys, fashion and shopping. She is also known for being less-than-intelligent, however she has the biggest voice in Belladonna. Despite no formal training, Odette is distinctive for being a coloratura soprano, meaning Odette is capable of singing in the whistle register and providing high-end ornamentation in the girls' harmonies.

Joanna Valenti - 27 years old, born July 9th, 1986. Joanna is the second American member of Belladonna, and the one who orchestrated their assembly. She is not the group's best singer, with her strengths lying in songwriting and production. Joanna produced some but not all of the band's debut album. Belladonna could be considered 'manufactured' because Joanna expressly intended to create a girl group just so she could produce them, but she has done it for a love of music rather than to exploit the music market and the more commercial side of things.

Formation

An aspiring producer and songwriter, Joanna Valenti wanted to put together a girl group to share in her love for music so she used her connections and family money to put out a call across English-speaking territories to audition for a new girl group. She got a number of responses, and the group was narrowed down to a final ten, which Joanna then worked with to determine who would work together the best with her and with each other. She hand-picked Rebecca, Odette and Danielle for the group, and another girl whose name was not made public because the fifth member stole from the rest of the girls so she was fired. Maxine was brought in as her replacement, reuniting her with friend Rebecca.

Music

Belladonna's sound and image were inspired by the turn of the century, with the band pursuing a 90's sound on their debut material. Debut single "What's Your Pleasure?" was produced by Darkchild and features a slick pop/R'n'B groove. Other material on the album was a mix of R'n'B and pop music, all with 90's sounds. Joanna produced some of the band's material, while the girls also worked with Darkchild and Max Martin to help reproduce the sound of the top-tier producers' earlier works. The released album includes eight tracks, having been cropped down from the originally-planned ten due to the album being rushed to completion in time for holiday sales.

The two announced b-sides on their debut single weren't featured on the album because they did not conform to the strictly-90's formula that Belladonna established for the album. "Pretty In Poison" was initially pushed back to give the girls time to perfect it, but was eventually rushed to coincide with the single. Both releases made a solid chart impact, each debuting at #4. "What's Your Pleasure?" was eventually certfied gold. Radio was hesitantly supportive of the song, however it came close to breaking into the top 10. The heavily Max Martin-esque "Tonight (Goodbye)" was announced as the girls' next single, and released on February 18th. Radio was far more welcoming of this single, and while it didn't initially perform as well in sales as its predecessor, it too eventually went gold.

"Forward In Reverse" was released on April 22nd as the third and final single from the album; it stormed the airplay chart to become a #1 hit, and was also their largest sales hit. It was their third consecutive gold-certified chart hit. With the support of its three singles, "Pretty In Poison" was certified platinum with nearly 700k sold in total. A fourth single was planned from the album; it is rumoured that this was to be "Superbitch", but after tensions came to a head Maxine was fired from the band and the single was scrapped. As a four-piece, the girls recorded new material for a planned re-release, but "Poison 2.0" never eventuated, and the band split up.

Controversy

Early criticisms

The band's introduction was met with criticism from industry peers and the media; the band were poorly-introduced and their intentions not clearly stated, leading to criticisms that the band's image was 'dated' and that they would be another generic girlgroup. They were also accused of being 'manufactured' due to the girls each holding onto a character archetype. All of this criticism came prior to the girls' single even premiering. Criticism lightened once the song itself premiered, and a slightly understated promo campaign helped turn around perceptions of the band enough so that they weren't drastically affected by the initial scrutiny.

Odette's money troubles

In early 2013 Odette was caught up in the middle of a scandal when her father was arrested for massive business fraud and her family's accounts were all frozen. This effectively rendered Odette broke. Odette's money troubles caused difficulties for the band, because they had not yet begun to turn a profit from record sales, and Odette was relying on the band to retain some level of income. Eventually police ruled that she had nothing to do with the family troubles, and her accounts were unfrozen but the damage had been done.

Maxine's firing and subsequent break-up

Tensions spiked within Belladonna during the release of their third single; much of the drama was kept out of the band's TV show in editing, but the deterioration started after Joanna told media about their troubles, putting her at odds with the more media-savvy Rebecca. The band was also annoyed at Danielle's constant need for affection when it began to impact on the band's professional lives. The band eventually had difficulty working with each other due to in-fighting, and the video shoot for their fourth single (rumoured to be "Superbitch") was cancelled before they could complete it. Plans to create an animated video clip for the single were also scrapped after it was decided the band could not work together at all to promote any more. Additional recording sessions for a tour edition of their album were disrupted due to the drama.

The final nail in the coffin, however, is when they found out that Maxine had been sleeping with their manager, and that there had been a plot to steal a large amount of money from the band without the rest of the band's knowledge. When this was discovered, the band engaged into an extreme row which resulted in both Maxine and their manager being fired. The remaining four members hired a new member and tried to make up their differences. The new recordings they'd been working on were re-done as a four-piece for an intended re-release called "Poison 2.0", but the girls discovered that they really couldn't continue to work together and the group dissolved, leaving Next Generation in the process.

Discography

Main Article: Belladonna Discography

Albums

2012: Pretty In Poison

Singles

2012: "What's Your Pleasure?"
2013: "Tonight (Goodbye)"
2013: "Forward In Reverse"