Vengaboys are a Netherlands dance-pop troupe specializing in slightly wacky, hook-filled Euro house who dominated European singles charts in the late 1990s. They were originally formed by the Dutch DJs Wessel van Diepen and Dennis van den Driesschen (aka Danski and Delmundo) who performed live under the Vengaboys name between 1992 and 1996 and scored a handful of underground club hits. During the summer of 1996, the duo was joined by singers/dancers Kim Sasabone, Robin Pors, Roy Olivero den Burger, and Denise Post-Van Rijswijk, all of whom became full-time members of the group. With Danski and Delmundo locked in the studio, the four vocalists toured Europe under the Vengaboys name, and in February 1998 the single "Up and Down" hit both the Dutch and U.K. Top Five. Its follow-up, a fun-filled Ibiza beach anthem "We Like to Party! (The Vengabus)" appeared in May and repeated that feat in eight countries. Vengaboys' 1999 multi-platinum-selling The Party Album -- an international iteration of their similarly titled debut Benelux full-length -- also featured "Boom Boom Boom Boom," an infectious single that reached number one in seven countries, and "We're Going to Ibiza!" which also earned the top spot in both their homeland and the U.K.
Further chart success came with "Kiss When the Sun Don't Shine," "Shalala Lala," and "Uncle John from Jamaica," which all landed on the March 2000 effort The Platinum Album. Prior to this album's release, Pors left to pursue solo endeavors and Yorick Bakker stepped in to take his place. After the release of their 2001 single "Forever as One," a pregnant Post-Van Rijswijk left the group to tend to life as a new mother and, by 2002, Vengaboys were on hiatus.
In 2007, Sasabone, Post-Van Rijswijk, and Bakker returned with Donny Latupeirissa replacing den Burger on a tour across Europe. However, their comeback began in earnest with the release of 2010's "Rocket to Uranus," by which time Pors was back on board to replace the departing Bakker. The song's accompanying 3-D video featured gossip columnist Perez Hilton, along with Euro-dance legend Pete Burns from the group Dead or Alive. In 2013, they released a cover of "Hot Hot Hot," the classic soca hit from Arrow that had become a worldwide party favorite in 1987 thanks to a version by David Johansen in his Buster Poindexter persona. They released "2 Brazil" a year later to coincide with the 2014 World Cup, and they ended 2014 with The Xmas Party Album, which featured the single "Where Did My Xmas Tree Go?"
In 2016, Vengaboys toured Australia and New Zealand and charted modestly in their homeland with "Supergeil," a collaboration with the Dutch radio DJs, Coen and Sander. They then spent late 2017 on an arena tour of the U.K. in support of a re-formed Steps, a year that also saw the release of a joint single, "The Sign," with the German dance act R.I.O. In celebration of their 20th anniversary, Vengaboys issued the Unplugged No. 1, which contained pared-down versions of their '90s chart-toppers. They released a new version of "Up & Down," in 2020, revitalized by the Australian DJ, Timmy Trumpet. Late 2021 saw them issue "1999 (I Wanna Go Back)," a retitled cover of Charli xcx and Troye Sivan's 2018 single, before Willy William helped them breathe new life into "Boom Boom Boom Boom" in 2023. To mark their 25th anniversary, the Vengaboys issued We Like to Party: The Greatest Hits Collection in 2024. ~ Jason Ankeny & James Wilkinson