Dance Nation (dance group)

Dance Nation is a Dutch Electronic Dance Music formation founded in 2001 by songwriters, producers and DJs Rob Janssen & Brad Grobler. Dutch singers and performers Sean & Kim are the live act fronting Dance Nation since their first and highly successful single "Sunshine".
Their debut single, Sunshine, was especially successful, blending trance and house influences with catchy vocals. The group’s live performances are fronted by singers Sean and Kim, who have been part of Dance Nation since the beginning, bringing energy and charisma to the stage.
Dance Nation released their debut single 'Sunshine' in 2001. This was followed by singles such as "Dance", "Words", and "You Take Me Away". In 2004, they switched to the name "Double Nation" due to legal proceedings.
In 2003, they also collaborated with The Lovestern Galaktika Project for the single "My First Love".
In this period, following the label crisis Noculan Music (after inglobed into Jamie Lewis by his Purple Eye Entertainment), that struck not only Dance Nation, but also other trance artists such as Noémi and 666 and the general mutation of the music genres in Europe, going House, Hard House and Electro, lead Dance Nation to land in Japan, where they still have a great deal of success and their production focused in the last years. From this moment on, the group had a sort of split life, releasing Trance projects for Japanese market and House ones for the European one. In this climate born singles like "Beachtime" in Japan and "I'm Gonna Get You" and the House/Electro track "Move Your Love" in Europe.
It's because their production are more Asian based than European, that it is difficult to find their releases outside Japan, both in online and retail stores and it's because of that too that no one knows about the release of two albums and a compilation. Titles are Trance Champion, released in 2005 by the Japanese label Avex Productions, containing all the past-released singles, including "Celebrate Your Life", that, listening to some people, should have been the next single; One Nation in 2007 always by the same label; and Christmas Trance in winter 2006, including a lot of popular Christmas melodies rearranged in Trance style, like Dance Nation always did.
Just before summer 2006 Dance Nation released their single "Ridin' High", which confirmed a general move towards House music sounds of the European market. An album was going to be produced too, with an undisclosed release date, containing some remixes of their first single, "Sunshine". Remixes were being collected from their numerous fans all over the world but sadly such a remix Lp never happened. Continuing the house music sound in 2007 they released the single 'Move Your Love', a collaborative rework of the popular year 2000 released 'On The Move' by Barthezz. It was not until two years later that new material were published in the form of the two compilation albums 'Vocal Trance Years 2001-2004 // 2004-2009'. Compilations containing the early singles, 'Move Your Love' as well as additional singles in the form of 'Celebrate Your Life', 'Reach For The Light' and 'I'm Gonna Get You'. In addition popular tracks such as 'Fired Up', 'Lovin Arms' and 'Summer Rain'.
2010 saw the release of the two House singles 'Surround Me' and 'Great Divide', while their collaborative track with dance-project R.I.O. 'Miss Sunshine' was released with great success in 2011. 'Storm' followed in 2015. The following six years no new original material was released, although a string of remixes/reworks of their most popular track 'Sunshine' were published throughout those years.
The Dance Nation track 'Rise & Shine' was originally written and produced back in year 2002. It was written as a potential second single following 'Sunshine', but 'Dance!' was eventually chosen. While the 'Ralphie B Tech Mix' of 'Rise & Shine' was included on the 2002 vinyl 'Dance/Rise & Shine', released by Black Hole Recordings (In Trance We Trust), the additional mixes in the 2022 released digital package have never been published before. Dutch producer & DJ Ralph Barendse (Ralphie B) did a 'Ralphie B's Tech Edit' for the digital release.
The two main writers and producers of Dance Nation - Rob Janssen and Brad Grobler - are still very much active in own as well as collaborative projects, writing and producing for various artists. 2022 saw the very early Dance Nation singles made digital available - 'Sunshine', 'Dance!', 'Words' and 'You Take Me Away'. In addition 'My First Love' and the never before released 2002 single 'Rise & Shine'. The Dance Nation producer team are currently discussing new releases and in which direction to go sound wise. In addition Brad and Rob still perform live as part of a Dance Nation live formation.
Bonuses