Germany's dance music industry is among the tops in the world, and German group Groove Coverage (GC) came to Shanghai to fuel the summertime fever for dance music. They threw a dance party. What else?

With the download volume of God Is a Girl at one million, the song has become the top foreign music on the Internet in China. The group itself is surprised.

"We never knew we were so popular here," says DJ Novus.

This was the group's first visit to China. Chinese fans can also play the album Greatest Hits of Groove Coverage, including all the top music like God Is a Girl, Moonlight Shadow and Seven Years and 50 Days.

They are hard at work on a fourth album and hope to bring it to China soon.

Singer Mel has a beautiful and magnetic voice. Her performance of the traditional song "Jasmine" won the hearts of all the fans at the show.

Early in 2001, Groove Coverage's first solo Are You Ready? reached the top 10 on Germany's DJ Chart as soon as it was released. At that time, nobody thought the electronic dance music group would become a leader of the dance music scene.

The cornerstone of their success is Moonlight Shadow, a rework of Mike Oldfield's piece from the 1980s. It also went gold. Immediately afterwards, God Is a Girl won GC international status.

Mel and Novus call themselves perfect music partners.

Novus says that when he was 15, his music teacher asked him to give up singing. "That's why I am now a DJ," he jokes.

His favorite DJ is Paul Van Dyk, and Novus hopes to be No. 1 like him someday.

The dance party also attracted one of the band's fans from South Korea, now working in Shanghai. "GC is very popular among young people and my friends back home would envy me if they see I got an autograph and photo with them," says a man who gave his name only as Jung.

GC's success means they regularly visit discos around the world to share their music. In 2005, they won the ZIP Dance Awards in Japan and Mel became the No. 1 dance music singer that year. Their albums have been distributed through Europe as well as in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada.

"I'm looking forward to performing a Chinese song in our new album," Mel says.

From her excellent performance of the Chinese folk song, the so-called language barrier is not a problem. GC's melody and passion touch everyone.

(Shanghai Daily May 10, 2007)