Biography
2 Unlimited are a Belgian-Dutch dance music act, founded by Belgian producers/songwriters Jean-Paul De Coster and Phil Wilde in 1991 in Antwerp, Belgium. From 1991 to 1996, Dutch rapper Ray Slijngaard and Dutch vocalist Anita Doth fronted the act. During these five years, 2 Unlimited enjoyed worldwide mainstream success. They scored a total of sixteen international chart hits, including "Get Ready for This", "Twilight Zone", "No Limit", "Faces", and "Tribal Dance". The act has sold eighteen million records worldwide. Although they enjoyed less mainstream recognition in the United States than in Europe, several of their tracks became popular themes in American sporting series, mainly in the NBA and NHL.
Jean-Paul De Coster and Phil Wilde met in their hometown of Antwerp, Belgium, and created 2 Unlimited in their studio, initially without any performers or vocalists. Their first collaboration under the name of Bizz Nizz resulted in a single called "Don't Miss The Party Line" which entered the top 10 in the UK. The two then decided to continue to work together.
De Coster and Wilde had initially created an instrumental track called "Get Ready for This" in May 1991, but they wanted to try out some rap vocals on it. De Coster recalls:
That 12-inch single became a club hit, and we invited [rapper] Ray Slijngaard to have a go at it. We had worked with him on "Money Money", an unreleased single by Bizz Nizz. By September he returned the tape to us. To our surprise, he had also added the female vocals of a certain Anita Doth, a traffic warden from Amsterdam. He told us she was a good friend of his out of the city's nightlife. Ray discussed the possibility of forming a duo to front the project.
They were so pleased with the result that they agreed to work with them as a duo, and so 2 Unlimited was born.
