Before joining Madison Avenue, Cheyne Coates was working as a choreographer and singer in Melbourne. Coates met producer and writer Andy Van Dorsselaer in a dance club. Van was the founder of the Vicious Vinylrecord label and had remix credits for Tina Arena and CDB. Van Dorsselaer had won an Australian Recording Industry Association award for his production work on "Coma" by Pendulum. The duo started working together mainly as writers and producers in 1998. Madison Avenue recorded their first single, "Fly", featuring Kellie Wolfgram as lead vocalist. Coates sang lead on the group's breakthrough single, "Don't Call Me Baby" : Van Dorsselaer preferred her version, even though it was initially used as the guide track for Wolfgram. "Don't Call Me Baby" peaked at number two on the ARIA Singles Chart in 1999. By December 2000 it was certified as triple platinum for the shipment of 210,000 units in Australia. The single was released internationally in 2000. In the UK, the single topped the UK Singles Chart, selling 400,000 copies in that country. The song was also a top ten hit in Greece and Ireland. Coates became the public face of the band, although they had intended to be a collective dance group like C&C Music Factory or Soul II Soul. The group's only studio album, The Polyester Embassy, was released in 2000 and reached number 4 on the Australian album charts. It provided three other singles: "Who the Hell Are You?", a number-one hit in Australia, "Everything You Need", and "Reminiscing", a cover version of the 1978 hit written by Graeham Goble for the Little River Band. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2000 they won Single of the Year, Highest Selling Single and Breakthrough Artist - Single for "Don't Call Me Baby as well as Best Video for Mark Hartley's direction of "Who the Hell Are You". The were also nominated for Best Group, Best Dance Release, Producer of the Year and Best Video for "Don't Call Me Baby". Madison Avenue won the Best Dance Artist award at the International Dance Awards in 2001 in Miami. Madison Avenue broke up in 2003. In April 2004 Coates issued her debut solo single, "I've Got Your Number". She followed with a solo album, Something Wicked This Way Comes. Soon after she left the music performance industry and according to Van Dorseelaer, " has a successful career writing songs for other people." Andy Van went on to create the band Vandalism.
Personnel
Cheyne Coates – vocals and lyrics
Andy Van Dorsselaer – producer and writer
Discography
Studio albums
Mix albums
Ministry of Sound: The Summer Annual - Summer 2000
