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Robby
Valentine was born in the Netherlands in 1968 and began with
classical piano lessons at the age of six. Initially his
taste ran more to Mozart and Chopin, but a revelation
occurred when he saw the video of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody".
The fusion of heavy rock and various classical themes,
combined with the talent of the individual band members,
changed his musical views forever. Robby joined his first
band at the age of fourteen and with his third band LINE he
recorded his first single : “Solitary Nite” which he wrote.
But the real breakthrough in his career happened when he
decided to start up a band himself.
The result was 1st
Avenue, who became one of the most promising bombastic rock
bands from the Netherlands. But unfortunately they never
made it big time. After First Avenue, Robby joined Zinatra.
They released an album, "The Great Escape" and three singles.
One of those, "Love Never Dies" is the first release to
feature Robby on lead-vocals, singing a duet with Zinatra's
singer Joss Mennen. Then finally his dream came true:
Polydor offered him a contract to produce a solo album and a
year later, in 1991, the first Robby Valentine single, "Over
And Over Again" was released.
The single was
a huge success in the Netherlands, giving Robby a top five
hit. In february 1992 Robby released his first album, simply
entitled “Robby Valentine”. In 1993 Robby released his
second album, “The Magic Infinity”. In the autumn of 1993
Robby’s big hero Queen guitarist Brian May asked Robby to be
his support act on the second half of his European ‘Back to
The Light’ tour in France and Germany. In 1994 Japan
discovered Robby Valentine. People were paying enormous
amounts of money to have the two albums imported, so Polydor
decided to release the albums over there.
After that Robby
Valentine's name was changed into Valentine, releasing
another 4 very successful studio albums (the self-titled
“Valentine”, which was the last one to be released in the
Netherlands, “United”, “No Sugar Added” and “Believing Is
Seeing”). In between several successful promotional and
concert tours took Robby to Japan. In 1999 he teamed up with
the other very talented dutch artist Valensia to give birth
to V . Valensia / Valentine (two albums released in Japan
only). And together they toured Japan to promote the album.
Now after several years of hard work, Valentine returns with
an official release on the European market with his brand
new album entitled “The Most Beautiful Pain”: another slice
of bombastic, riveting and pompous melodic pop- rock! |
