Effective period / Period of releases: 1989 - 2021

Members: Martha Wash, Charvoni, Mirko Limoni, Valerio Semplici, Daniele Davoli, Lee Bennett, Celestine Walcott-Gordon, Katrin Quinol

Black Box is an Italian house music band that had a huge success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was comprised and founded by three Italian studio musicians (Daniele Davoli, Mirko Limoni and Valerio Semplici), collectively known as Groove Groove Melody, their imprint label.

In 1989, Black Box released their first single "Ride On Time" which featured sampled vocals of Loleatta Holloway from her 1980's hit "Love Sensation". French model Katrin Quinol was hired to lip-sync the track on TV performances and stage and to be featured on the cover art as well, even though she didn't sing a single note. After Loleatta realised Black Box were using her sampled vocals without her permission nor giving her any credit, she and Dan Hartman, the composer of the original track, successfully sued Black Box for copyright infringement and unauthorized sampling. After that, Black Box was forced to remove "Ride On Time" with the original vocal samples from distribution and then they re-released it again this time re-recorded by the singer Heather Small. Besides the controversy, the single became the first of a series of Italian house records to crossover to the UK charts, staying at number 1 for six weeks and becoming the best dance selling record of all times (still today).

In April 1990, they released the album "Dreamland", which broke in the US charts as well as UK + the rest of the world, and featured the hit singles “Ride on Time”, "I Don't Know Anybody Else", "Everybody Everybody", "Strike It Up", and "Fantasy", a remake of the Earth, Wind And Fire hit. All the other tracks of the album (except "Ride On Time") were sung by Martha Wash, but Katrin Quinol continued to be shown as the lead singer, lip-synching to the recorded vocals of Wash on stage and in music videos. Wash also sued the producers, and like Loleatta Holloway, she also won the case and was properly credited for her vocal contributions.

In 1993, Katrin left the project and Black Box producers started looking for somebody who could actually sing on their records. In 1995, the second studio album called "Positive Vibrations" was released, now featuring the American singer Charvoni, and including the singles "Not anyone", "I've got the vibration", “Native New Yorker” “Rocking to the Music” and "Fall into my love".

Black Box is still active. Recent releases are remixes of older tracks. In 2018, they released their compilation album "Superbest" with one brand new song and some inedit mixes. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the hit "Ride On Time", they remade the song in the Disco style featuring the original vocal samples of Loleatta Holloway and released it on all the digital platforms in 2019. In 2021 they released the album "Dreamlanders", which consists of new remixes and remakes from all the tracks of their debut album "Dreamland". They keep touring around the world with their current vocalist Celestine Walcott-Gordon.