Musical team : Dee Dee Halligan, Junior Torello
Real name : Nestor Alexander Haddaway
Born 1966, Tobago, West Indies.

Licensed to Arista Records from his German home at Coconut Records /Logic Records, Haddaway scored a huge crossover hit throughout Europe with the anthemic What Is Love in 1993, followed by the equally strident Life.

Nestor was born on 9th of January 1965 in Trinidad. His father is a marine biologist and his mother a nurse. He has lost any contact with his brothers and sisters. The artist grew up in Washington DC, USA (or New York according to a French magazine). He was very shy and stuttered during his childhood. He used to be a fan of the Beatles, Police and Prince, he learns how to sing, to dance, and to play the trumpet and the guitare, before relocating to Cologne, Germany in 1987, to find employment as a singer and dancer. He has a college degree in marketing (previously he began medecine studies in the Chicago University but he gave up after 2 years and a half), his own business career (he is a stylist and a choreograph), his own fashion company (Energy) and until 1994 was completely self-managed. Prior to his chart residencies he was also a professional American footballer for the Cologne Crocodiles.

There he formed a band, Elegato, with keyboard player Alex Trime, before embarking on solo work with the production duo of Dee Dee Halligan and Junior Turello in 1992. Halligan and Turello are also known as Tony Hendrik and Karin Hartmann respectively, and jointly head the Coconut record label. They had previously produced Bad Boys Blue, Chypnotic and the Hollies. Backed by the songwriting and production expertise of Trime, Halligan and Turello, What Is Love, originally written as a ballad, only for his own pleasure, eventually reached # 2 in the UK charts in April 1993, as well as # 2 Israel, # 11 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart (where it sold Gold), # 1 in Europe, and #1 at MTV Europe. Life also earned good chart position a few months later, ensuring Haddaway's status as Europe's most successful solo artist of 1993. It stayed # 1 for 2 weeks in Israel, reached # 6 in UK, # 33 in the US, # 1 in Europe, and # 1at MTV Europe. Haddaway was elected male singer of the year in 1993 in Israel.

His debut album, however, was little more than a roster of fillers sandwiching the hits. It featured the voices of Lisa Noya, Elkie Schlimbach and Rena R. Otta as background. It achieved gold status in France and reached # 8 in the UK charts in November 1993. Haddaway himself, though often compared to the Eurodance fare of 2 Unlimited and Cappella, is a far more sophisticated proposition. In 1994 he again scored significant success with two further singles, I Miss You (a slow, which reached # 7 in Israel, # 7 in UK , and # 3 MTV Europe) and Rock My Heart (which stayed # 1 in Israel for 2 weeks, and reached # 8 in UK, # 6 at MTV Europe) and began his first European tournee.

The second album, The Drive was then released in 1995. The first single to be released was Fly Away, it reached # 4 Israel, # 20 UK, # 12 MTV Europe The follow-up Cathc A Fire reached # 4 in Israel, but failed to enter the top 40 in UK. Who Do You Love, released in 1998, was # 26 in Israel.

3 other songs : Breakaway, Waiting For A Better World, and Another Day Without You were at first planned to become singles. They were released as promo, but finally the official release was cancelled.

In 1995 he left Cologne to settle in Monaco (to avoid paying taxes). The clothes he wears are very important for him : he likes dressing cool but smart. He is absolutely athee. He thinks that love will be the main value for the forthcoming century. He presents himself as being patient, tolerant, and having a sens of logic. He only sleeps 5 hours a night. With his girlfriend Marijke (now : Gloria ?) he spends 6 holiday weeks a year in his native country. He loves reading and going out to search for mushrooms. He likes eating spicy food and finds German meals tasteless.

1998 : he released his third album Let's Do It Now. 3 singles were taken from this album : What About Me, Who Do You Love and You're Taking My Heart.

1999 : a Best Of album was released.

2001 : Haddaway is back with a brand new single entitled Deep and an album : My Face containing 13 new tracks, unfortunately with a majority of ballads and too little danceable tracks.

2003 : Haddaway released his new single What Is Love Reloaded under the label Kontor. The vinyl included 3 mixes : a Reloaded mix, a Jens O. hard remix, and a What is club mix. A new album is planned : entitled Overdrive, it will include new version of What Is Love (Reloaded).

2004 : in February Haddaway took part to the German TV program Comeback - Die Grosse Chance. The concept of the show was to select who, among stars who had a huge success during the past years and were now almost forgotten, would have the opportunity to record a new single. In the first broadcast they sung their biggest hit (for Haddaway, it was of course What Is Love). Then, during the following shows, they had to sing a song of different styles, sometimes very far from the style in which they had succeeded. An eliminating vote from a jury and the public ended every show. Among the other competitors, the rapper Coolio, the singers Emilia, CC Catch, Limahl, Chris Norman, the Weather Girls... Even if all his appearances were technically perfect, he was finally eliminated in March after 4 shows. He recorded with all the other artists a single under the name Comeback United Survivor.

2005 : in January, 2 best Of albums were released : Hit Collection Vol.1 and Vol. 2, gathering the main tracks of his previous albums.

Haddaway took part to the UK TV show Hit Me Baby One More Time, based on the same concept than Comeback the previous year. Unfortuntaly, he did not make it to the final.

In July he released another best of album entitled What Is Love, which had approximatively the same tracklisting as Hit Collection Vol.1. Then came a brand new single entitled The Spaceman. Unfortunately if was not eurodance, but a ballad. It contained another slow acoustic song on the B-side entiteld Shout. It entered the German charts. Finally, the brand new album was released on the 18th of July. Entitled Pop-Splits, it contained 12 brand new tracks.

2007 : Rumors tell that Haddaway could be back with a new album, named Crucified, the release date is not yet known.