Passion Fruit

**Passion Fruit** was a German Euro-Dance trio. The original members were Blade (Manye Thompson), Dawn (Viola Schubbe), Pearl (Carla Sinclair) and MC Steve (Mario Zuber). The second formation was made up of the trio Nathaly van het Ende, María Serrano Serrano, and Debby St. Maarten. The lyrics for their songs are a combination of English and Spanish.

Named after the tropical fruit, Passion Fruit got their start in 1999 with their debut hit single "The Rigga-Ding-Dong-Song". The single reached the top 20's 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 2000-2001 and they charted in the top 40's on the German singles chart. "I'm Dreaming of... A Winter Wonderland" was released in December 2001, just 9 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 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 Line-up

* Nathaly van het Ende (born. 2 January 1975 in Amsterdam, Netherlands – died. 24 November 2001) (aged 26)
* María Serrano Serrano (born. 26 November 1973 in Madrid, Spain – died. 24 November 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 they continued to perform live and released the singles "Sun Fun Baby (Looky Looky)", "Bongo Man", "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.

## Plane crash

On 24 November 2001, after the group gave their final performance in Leipzig for Coca-Cola, they 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 near the runway at Zurich Airport. María and Nathaly perished along with former La Bouche vocalist Melanie Thornton and 21 other people, while Debby survived along with 8 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 9 days later on 3 December 2001 and the royalties the single made were donated to the victims families and survivors of the accident. After the single was released the Passion Fruit act became discontinued and no more singles or albums were released. María is now a member of the 27 Club.

## Post-accident

From 2002-2006, Debby continued to have ongoing treatment for her injuries. She occasionally posted messages on the official Passion Fruit website, usually each November around the anniversary of the plane crash to remember María and Nathaly. On 5 December 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, one of them was called "Girls"; 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 fully recovered, she moved back to her home town in The Netherlands to work as a social worker. She was interviewed for the 20th anniversary of the crash on 3 December 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 with no response. She also said that it took her 6 years to figure out what she wants to do in the future instead of performing.