Anybody who grew up in or partied through the 90s will swear by how much of a monster hit Coco Jamboo was, and how irresistible of a dance number it continues to be. In a gig that’s sure to bring back sweet old memories to most, LayZee Dee aka Mr. President will call the shots on the dance floor at Qube, Radisson Blu Hotel Doha, next month.
Ray McRobbie, Director of Entertainment, Radisson Blu Hotel Doha, told Community, “Radisson Blu Hotel Doha is pleased to announce LayZee D aka Mr. President will be performing EuroDance music at Qube Nightclub on Thursday, October 6. He will be performing his hit songs including the famous Coco Jamboo which reached number 1 in Austria and Number 2 in the Netherlands. Come along for a great evening!” The doors open at 7pm. The tickets for VIP Area – Ladies/Gents are priced at QR160 per person; Gents – QR130, and Ladies, QR50 per person after 10pm.
Best known as the frontman of the German Eurodance group Mr. President, Delroy “LayZee Dee” Rennalls replaced the former frontman of the band and this followed quite some hits and their first German Gold Award with Up ‘n’ Away. It was with their follow-up album We See the Same Sun in 1996 that Mr. President would go on to achieve major international success.
It was in the late 80s that LayZee came to Germany from Birmingham, England, with his brother. There, they met the now top hit producer and remixer Mousse T and founded their very first group Fresh and Fly, according to his bio. “After a while, LayZee took to working the clubs and discos of Hannover and the north German area as a deejay. Due to a lot of hard work and perseverance, he managed to take the North German Deejay Championships held in Bremen only after two years of becoming a deejay, mixing, rapping and scratching all at the same time to mesmerise the crowd and give him the title. This was LayZee’s first real step into the world of music. Later, while rapping his way through various studios, clubs and projects, he received a call from the Mr. President management, asking him for his help with their project.”
Moving from standard dance music to a lighter, more exotic sound, We See the Same Sun sounded refreshing. The reggae-flavoured Coco Jamboo would rage on across world music charts to become the band’s biggest hit to date in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and become number eight in the UK charts and in the US, peaking at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100. The full-length album on which Coco Jamboo was released, We See the Same Sun, boasted two more additional singles which were largely successful in Europe.
With songs like Coco Jambo, Show Me The Way and I Give You My Heart, the band fetched Gold and Platinum awards in over 40 countries. The band ended up making five albums and one ‘Best of’ album, before the band announced in 2008 that they would be splitting up.
Following the split, LayZee continued his musical journey as songwriter, singer, rapper and producer. Travelling the world with his show of the old Mr. President songs and his new tracks, which he continues to write and produce, LayZee has witnessed a great amount of success in Eastern Europe and has worked with some very popular bands around the world.
With more than 27 years of experience of being in various levels of show business, LayZee is said to be a true showman who likes to involve the audience and make them feel a part of his show. He was the very first European act to be invited to the residence of the President of Kazakhstan to give a private concert – one of the many highlights in LayZee’s career. LayZee now travels with only one singer but this does not take anything away from his show and his music, says his bio.
LayZee has maintained that though he loved the Mr. President band, he also wanted to be creative without any guidelines. He even produces his own club dance tracks under his new Deejay name, Diezel Washington. Layzee told the website eurokdj, “I admire Denzel Washington and people say I look a bit like him; I can’t see it myself. So there you have it.”