Put Your Hands Up in the Air! — Danzel

“Put Your Hands Up in the Air!” was the third single by Danzel, the Belgian singer Johan Waem. Released in 2005, it followed his breakthrough “Pump It Up!” and, like it, went back to a late-1990s club record by the Black & White Brothers.

Who is Danzel?

Johan Waem was born on 9 November 1976 in Beveren, Belgium. His debut single as Danzel, “You Are All of That”, came out on Ministry of Sound in late 2003. It sampled Sylvester’s hi-NRG hit “Do You Wanna Funk” and reached No. 9 in Belgium.

The second single changed his career. “Pump It Up!” (2004), a remix of a late-1990s hit by the Black & White Brothers, reached No. 11 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 2 on the UK dance chart, and went top ten in Belgium, Germany and Austria. His debut album, The Name of the Jam, also came out in 2004.

Remaking a 1998 record

For the follow-up, Danzel returned to the same source. “Put Your Hands Up in the Air!” is a remake of the Black & White Brothers’ 1998 song of the same name. The French chart archive credits the writing to Bert Boon, Dario Mancini, Johan Waem and Michael Hall.

It came out in the UK in May 2005. It did not enter the UK Singles Chart, but it reached No. 6 on the UK Dance Chart. A month later it was released across Europe and Asia.

The chart run

Denmark gave it its best result, No. 14. It reached No. 34 in Flanders, where it spent five weeks, and No. 40 in France, where it entered on 22 October 2005 and stayed nine weeks. Germany (No. 52), Austria (No. 56), Switzerland (No. 74) and the Netherlands (No. 77) followed further down.

What came next

Danzel kept working through covers and remakes: Rick Astley’s “My Arms Keep Missing You” with DJ F.R.A.N.K. in 2006 (No. 15 in Belgium), “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)” in 2007 and the album Unlocked in 2008. For more Belgian dance records from the same years, read about “Oh O O O Oh Ooh” by D-Me, and for an earlier Eurodance landmark, “The Rhythm of the Night” by Corona.