About Hooverphonic
After an extensive European tour with artists such as Massive Attack, Morcheeba and Apollo 4-40, and a tour opening for Fiona Apple in the United States in 1997, the band released Blue Wonder Power Milk in 1998 with 18-year-old Arnaert on vocals. A marked departure from their debut, the album is driven less by breakbeats and samples and more by organic string elements and traditional song structures. The single "Club Montepulciano" was a hit in native Belgium and minor college hit in the U.S.; "Renaissance Affair" was featured in the North American commercial campaign for the new Volkswagen Vapor Beetle.
The band followed up Blue Wonder Power Milk with 2000's The Magnificent Tree, which expands on the sound of Milk with a warmer, more approachable sound. Highlights from the album are the string-laden "Out Of Sight", "Mad About You" (a big hit in Europe), and the title track, which borrows heavily from Crosby Stills and Nash's "Guinnevere". The same year, Hooverphonic was asked to write a song specifically for the opening ceremony of the 2000 European Football Championship, which took place in Brussels, Belgium. The result - a 12-minute long track called "Visions" - became the theme song of the championship, and Hooverphonic's performance at the opening ceremony was heard/seen by more than than 1 billion people. On the heels of Tree's success, the band became the first Belgian outfit to headline one of the largest and most successful European musical festivals, Rock Werchter, in 2001.