Dr Alban
Dr Alban Bio
Alban Nwapa, aka Dr Alban, the voice behind worldwide 90s smash "It's My Life".
Alban Nwapa grew up listening to Fela Kuti and James Brown. At age 23, he began studying dentistry. In order to be able to finance his university studies, Nwapa started making his own music. During this time he worked as a DJ in the well-known Stockholm club Alphabet Street. Very quickly his name became widely known, especially since Alban often sang to the records he put on the turntables as a DJ. DJ René couldn’t help but notice him and so he was discovered. Alban finished his studies and even opened his own dentistry practice, keeping his disk jockeying as a lucrative sideline.
In 1990 he met Deniiz Pop from the SweMix label; together with Denniz and Rap-Queen Leila K came his first record Hello Africa and broke all records. Alban Nwapa took the stage name Dr. Alban, a nod to his dental studies. His debut album Hello Africa sold roughly one million copies worldwide.
One year later this success was surpassed by the second album One Love. 1.6 million copies of the song It’s My Life were sold and was #1 in the Netherlands, Israel and Germany and #2 in the UK, while the following single One Love was #5 in Israel. The album immediately sold over 1.7 million units. Shortly after came the albums Look Who’s Talking and Born In Africa. All in all, Dr. Alban has racked up worldwide sales of over five million copies of his albums and over six million copies of his singles, which resulted in seven times Silver, thirty times Gold and thirty times Platinum. His hit single No Coke was used to illustrate an anti-drugs campaign in Sweden, while the single Sing Hallelujah reached #5 in Israel.
After a re-release of No Coke, Dr. Alban has succeeded to hit the Top 10 charts worldwide with all of his following singles in countries like, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, France, Russia, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Turkey, Spain, Italy to name a few.
He created his own record company Dr Records on which he released Born in Africa, the first album recorded completely in his Dr Records studios. He had production credits on projects by artists such as La Cream and Daddy Showkey.
More recently, his voice was featured on the Sash’s single Colour The World. After one year of silence he came back with a new track entitled Because Of You followed by What Do I Do and a new album Prescription. Many hands have been involved in making this new album sound special with guest appearances in the likes of Tony Rebell and Anthony B.
In 2007 Dr. Alban released another album titled Back To Basics. The single of this album was Don’t Joke with Fire. In 2008 he released a single with pop-star of the 90s Haddaway entitled I Love The 90s. Alban proves that he didn’t forget his fellow artists of the last decade and he mentions in the lyrics some of the best hits of the Euro years: Rhythm Is A Dancer, What Is Love, Scatman, All That She Wants and, of course, his own It’s My Life.
So stay tuned… because this year will be the 90s year! It’s time for the European acts to take back the control of the American music dominance.