Passion Fruit was a German Eurodance trio. The first-generation line-up was formed with Blade (Manye Thompson), Dawn (Viola Schubbe), Pearl (Carla Sinclair), and MC Steve (Mario Zuber). The second generation was formed with Dutch singers Nathaly van het Ende and Debby St. Maarten and German-Spanish singer María Serrano Serrano. The lyrics for their songs are a combination of English and Spanish. They were managed by Georg Bergheim. The lead vocalists for the group were Leticia Pareja-Padron and Kenneth Clemmons.

Named after the tropical fruit, Passion Fruit got its start in 1999 with its debut hit single "The Rigga-Ding-Dong-Song." The single reached the Top 20 charts in 14 countries, including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Mexico, and the Netherlands. The singles "Wonderland," "Sun Fun Baby (Looky Looky)," and "Bongo Man" were released from 2000 to 2001 and charted in the Top 40 on the German singles chart. "I'm Dreaming of... A Winter Wonderland" was released in December 2001, just nine days after María Serrano Serrano and Nathaly van het Ende were killed in the crash of Crossair Flight 3597, and it became a minor hit, reaching number 56 on the Swiss singles charts and number 72 on the German singles charts.

First-generation line-up

Blade (Manye Thompson)
 Dawn (Viola Schubbe)
 Pearl (Carla Sinclair)
 MC Steve (Mario Zuber)

The first line up was established in June 1999 after the release of "The Rigga-Ding-Dong-Song," but the line-up soon parted ways in October due to tensions and musical differences.

Second-generation line-up
Nathaly van het Ende † (born January 2, 1975, in Amsterdam, Netherlands – died November 24, 2001) (aged 26)
María Serrano Serrano † (born November 26, 1973, in Duisburg, Germany – died November 24, 2001) (aged 27)
Debby St. Maarten (born 1973 in Delft, Netherlands) (age 50) 
The second line-up replaced the first line-up in January 2000 with the release of "Wonderland," and it continued to perform live and released the singles "Sun Fun Baby (Looky Looky)," "Bongo Man," and "I'm Dreaming Of...A Winter Wonderland" and the album Spanglish Love Affairs. In October 2001, the trio appeared in the German Playboy magazine with a photo of them topless.

Nathaly and Debby were both Dutch; María was born in Germany and of Spanish descent.

Plane crash
On November 24, 2001, two hours after the group's performance in Leipzig for Coca-Cola, the group boarded Crossair Flight 3597 to travel from Berlin to Zurich. During the flight's final approach to Zurich Airport, the captain made a fatal decision by descending too early while attempting to spot the runway due to poor visibility and failing to read the DME, which would have told him how far from the runway he actually was. This caused the plane to crash into a forest and catch on fire in Bassersdorf, just 2.5 miles from the runway at Zurich Airport. María and Nathaly died in the crash along with former La Bouche vocalist Melanie Thornton and 21 other people, while Debby survived along with eight other people. Debby was rushed to the hospital to receive treatment for her wounds, and doctors discovered that she had second and third degree burns on her hands and face and multiple bruises. "I'm Dreaming of...A Winter Wonderland" was released posthumously nine days later on December 3, 2001, and the royalties that the single made were donated to the victims' families and survivors of the accident. After the single was released, Passion Fruit disbanded, and no more singles or albums were released.

Post-accident
From 2002 to 2006, Debby continued to have ongoing treatment for her injuries. She occasionally posted messages on the official Passion Fruit Web site, usually each November around the anniversary of the plane crash, to remember María and Nathaly. On December 5, 2006, she appeared in an interview on the ZDF television show Hallo Deutschland, which showed her visiting the site of the crash with her family, and she announced that she had recorded some songs for her comeback album; however, due to her health and other personal reasons, she was not ready for her comeback, and the album was eventually shelved by her manager. In 2007, after Debby had fully recovered, she moved back to her hometown in the Netherlands to work as a social worker. She was interviewed for the 20th anniversary of the crash on December 3, 2021. She explained in the interview that she knew that María and Nathaly were dead during the events of the accident because she called out their names but got no response. She also said that it took her six years to figure out what she wanted to do instead of performing.

Second-album release and other material
Passion Fruit was working on its second studio album in mid-2001, shortly before the accident. Only two singles were released during the period: "Bongo Man" and "I'm Dreaming Of...A Winter Wonderland." The second album would have been the first release under Passion Fruit's new label, Edel, but it was shelved after the plane crash. The single "Bongo Man" featured the song "Passion Gang (Ladadi)" as a bonus track. The single "I'm Dreaming of...A Winter Wonderland" included an altered version of "I'm Dreaming of...A Winter Wonderland" with mainly the same lyrics but different chorus lines and two mixes of the "Winter Wonderland" version.

The song "P.A.S.S.I.O.N." was recorded in 1999 and was intended to appear on the album Spanglish Love Affairs, but it was later cut. It was later released on the single "Sun Fun Baby (Looky Looky)" as a bonus track.

The 2004 single "Kiss Me (Na, Na, Na)" by Leticia Spormann, who recorded vocals for most Passion Fruit releases, on the Edel label, is believed to have been meant for Passion Fruit, likely for the shelved second album.

"I'm Dreaming of...A Winter Wonderland" is the only Passion Fruit single that is available worldwide on streaming services after it was released in 2014; the other singles and the album were released only as CDs.

The real voices of Passion Fruit
The lead vocals for the majority of the songs were credited to Cuban-German singer Leticia Pareja-Padron (a.k.a. Leticia Spormann) (born February 23, 1971), and the rapping verses were credited to German rapper and producer Kenneth Clemmons from Flensburg. This meant that both line-ups were performing the songs through lip-synching. "I'm Dreaming of...A Winter Wonderland" was the only single for which the second line-up was credited for the vocals.

Discography

Album

Singles

References

External links
 Passion Fruit biography, news, discography at Bubblegum Dancer

German Eurodance groups
Musical groups established in 1999
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Switzerland
2001 deaths
Pop artists
Girl groups