Sylver

Biography

Sylver (or Liquid ft Sylvie if you like their old name) was the Belgian hype of the summer of 2000. Their debut single Turn the tide was immediately a hit and became the number one in the official ultratop dance charts and the singles top 50. And the success started spreading quickly ! After the Netherlands, they conquered Germany and other European countries, going as far as China in 2008!

The producers of the project are two Belgian guys, who proved already a lot in the Belgian dance-world: Wout Van Dessel en Regi Penxten. Wout Van Dessel is known for his outstanding remixes and is also one of the resident DJ’s of discotheque Illusion in Lier. Regi Penxten is the face and together with Philip Vandueren , the brains behind another successful Belgian project, namely Milk Inc.

Silvy De Bie, a 19 year old Belgian beauty, is the singer of the group. As a little child, she already scored a number-one-hit with ‘Ben’, a cover of Michael Jackson. In the meanwhile, this child star grew up to a young attractive lady, who knows what she wants and hopes to score! In three weeks, Sylver climbed up to the number one of the belgian charts with their debut single Turn the Tide. This single has started an international career! … Universal Music Germany released the single in Germany together with an expensive video clip shot in a Berlin hospital. (they probably saw the movie ‘Anatomie’ shot in the Heidelberg mortuarium 😉 ?)

Wout and Silvy in a Berlin hospital to shoot the video for Turn The Tide

Wout and Silvy in a Berlin hospital to shoot the video for Turn The Tide

Buy online at iTunes Sylver – Turn the tide

Wout @ the keyboards...

Wout @ the keyboards

Skin was the follow-up track for Sylver and also a production of Wout Van Dessel and Regi Penxten. It was released to the radios in mid-december 2000 and to the shops in January 2001. And once again, it turned out to be a smash hit reaching the number 2 position in the Belgian charts. Around the time the second single came out Liquid ft Sylvie changed their name into Sylver. This was due to the protest of an Irish band, also called Liquid. They claimed that they were the only ones to rightfully use that moniker.

Given the success of the first two singles, it was no surprise that Sylver kept on releasing singles: On April 9th 2001 the third single Forever in Love was released to the Belgian market. Forever in love made it to the number 11 position. Follow-up In your eyes did less well, only barely entering the top 20 (peaking at number 19). Clearly, the fans were less interested in ballads seeing that the 5th and final single Forgiven turned out to be a big hit again, stopping only at the number 9 position in Belgium.

On October 29th, 2001 a special edition of their cd Chances was released, that includes a second cd with all the remixes of their singles, acoustic versions and video clips ! Overall, the album Chances was hugely successful. It reached the number 2 position in the Belgian album charts and also did very well outside Sylver’s home country.

On January 13th 2003, the single Livin’ my life was released on vinyl. The CD Single came out on February 24th 2003 and saw Sylver return to the top of the singles chart, only stopping at number 5. A new album called Little Things was presented on March 24, 2003. The album featured a special edition 2 Disk set including a DVD with some music videos and photoshoot and reached number 7 in the album charts. The follow-up to Livin’ my life was Why Worry, which was no less as popular seeing that it reached the number 10 position in the singles chart and featured a video that won the TMF Award for best video. Shallow Water (highest position: 20) became the third single and featured a double a-side track of Confused. Confused was remixed by CJ Stone and became an extremely popular club hit. The final single, Wild Horses was released in December 2003 and became an extremely popular track with fans. It’s chart performance was mediocre though, seeing that the single only made it to number 25.

After this, Sylver took a break during which Silvy collaborated with Milk Inc. to release the extremely popular single I Don’t Care. I Don’t Care stayed on the charts for 18 weeks and reached the number 3 position. DJ Wout also released a solo-single in that period called Somebody Else which peaked at number 31.

But Sylver returned on November 2, 2004, when the third album, Nighttime Calls, was released. The first single from this album, Love is an Angel, hit the Belgian top 10 immediately upon its release on September 20. Sylver also toured Germany to promote the single and album. In Belgium, the album peaked at number 23, but charted for 11 weeks. The follow up single, Make It was quite a surprise for Sylver fans seeing that it was a different sound for Sylver. The refreshing new sound was well received and the single reached number 12 in the Belgian charts. The single featured a remix by another Wout and Regi project, Flesh & Bones. The third and final single for Nighttime Calls was Take Me Back which became a big hit in October and November 2005. The single charted for 11 weeks and went all the way to number 6.

Buy online at iTunes Sylver – Nighttime calls
Sylver – Make It
Sylver – Love is an Angel

The fourth album, Crossroads was released in May 2006 just after Silvy married Khalid Boujida, who she had known for 4 years. The marriage made many headlines, but not all of them where good seeing that Khalid made homophobic remarks. Given Sylver’s popularity in the gay scene, the remarks were hard for Silvy.

Crossroads contained the ABBA cover Lay All Your Love On Mewhich was the first top 5 single for Sylver since Love Is An angel in 2004. Lay All Your Love On Me stayed in the Belgian charts for no less than 18 weeks, which made it the longest charting single for Sylver (1 week more than Turn the Tide).

Buy online at iTunes Sylver – Lay All Your Love On Me

Sylver released two more singles from the album, One Night Stand (August 2006) and Why (November 2006), which did not do well on the charts (only climbing to number 24 and 25 and charting for less than 2 months).

In 2007, a greatest hit compilation was released which was called Best of The Hit Collection 2001-07. The CD contained 1 new track, called The One. Both album and single were only released in Germany. However, 2007 was also the year that Silvy became pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl, Noor. Silvy continued to perform live while being pregnant and received some criticism about this. However, she defended herself and said that she did not jump around on stage anymore and always consulted her doctor. She even said that the baby only started kicking when she left the stage, which was a sign for her that she was enjoying it too. Her daughter Noor was born in early November.

2008 turned out to be a difficult year for Silvy as rumours about marriage problems became more frequent. Her husband Khalid was said to be involved with other women as well as having a violent temper. He also came under fire for making homophobic remarks. In June 2008, it was then officially announced that Silvy and Khalid would get a divorce after being married for only 2 years. Not much later, tabloids reported that Khalid was engaged to a 16 year old girl who he had known and was involved with for more than 2 years.

Despite the marital problems, Sylver went on a tour to China in springtime 2008, where they did several shows and lots of promotion for the release of their album Crossroads. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen,… They succesfully spread the Sylversound across China. Sylver also released a special single: an anthem for the 2008 Olympics, titled One World One Dream. The single reached the number 21 position in the Ultratop 50 and charted for 11 weeks in total.

Buy online at iTunes Sylver – One World One Dream

After this turbulent period, Silvy wanted to return to the spotlight with a strong statement and it was said that she would seek closure by releasing a new single single I Hate You Now, which would become the first release from the new album Ressurection (expected to be released mid 2009). However, it turned out that Rise Again would become the first single. Rise Again was released in November 2008 and reached the number 21 position in the Ultratop 50. At the end of 2008, Sylver also briefly returned to China to continue promotion for Crossroads, which was a big hit. She also supported her friend Linda Mertens on stage again during the highly successful Milk Inc concerts in Antwerp’s Sport Palace. Early 2009 it also was time for a new single, and yes, this time I Hate You Now was released. The track was well received and entered the Belgian top 50 singles chart at the number 13 position!

Buy online at iTunes Sylver – Rise Again

Buy online at iTunes Sylver – I Hate You Now

Discography

Single CDs

Five singles from their debut-album Chances have been released:


Turn the tide
Skin (released January 15th 2001 in the Benelux)
Forever in love (released April 9th 2001 in Belgium)
In your eyes (released June 21 2001 in Belgium)
Forgiven (released October 15th 2001 in Belgium)
The smile has left your eyes (released in Spain only, 2002)
Livin’ my life (released March 2003 in Belgium)
Why worry (2003)
Shallow water / Confused (2003)
Love is an angel (2004)
Make it (2005)
Take me back (2005)
Lay all your love on me (2006)
One night stand (2006)
Why (2006)
The one (2007, Germany only)
One world one dream (2008)
Rise again (2008)
I hate you now (2009)

Full CDs

Sylver debut cd is called Chances. You can find the following tracks on it:

Turn the tide
Skin
Forgiven
Forever in love
In your eyes
Mystery of tomorrow
The smile has left your eyes
The edge of life
Angel on my shoulder
Secrets
Turn the tide (CJ Stone remix)
Skin (Velvet girl remix)
Turn the tide video (MPEG format)

On October 29th, 2001 a special edition of their cd Chances was released, that includes a second cd with all the remixes of their singles, acoustic versions and video clips ! This is the tracklisting of the second CD: