BACCARA - Spanish group two beautiful girls Mayte Mateus (Matee Matheos) and Maria Mendiola (Marie Mendiola) - one of the world's most popular duo in the late 70's! Mayte was born in 1951 on 7th of February (Logrono/La Rioja/Spain), Maria in 1952 on 4th of April (Madrid/Spain).

BACCARA's career started in 1977. Mayte, graduated as a teacher from the "Royal Spanish Academy for Arts, Drama and Dance" in Madrid, was selected to join the Spanish TV's Ballet Company and perform with them for several years. There she met Maria. The two of them decided to quit the ballet company and start working independently with their own show program. By accident -- or actually more because of a mistake -- they got sent to a night club as their first engagement. They sang and danced with all their heart and soul, but a week later they were asked to leave. "-Too elegant", was the commentary of the night club owner.

But Mayte and Maria didn't give up, they believed in themselves and in their success. They found a stage for themselves in the "Tres Islas" hotel on the Spanish island of Fuerteventura. Very soon, their energetic and lively show program had become the absolute highlight of the evening. "But we also performed classic flamenco pieces", Mayte remembers, "Since 90 percent of the guests were from Germany. And they loved to see the flamenco pieces." Maria and Mayte were performing flamenco and singing traditional Spanish songs in cabarets for tourists.

And so did the employee of the RCA record company in Hamburg, now BMG Ariola Hamburg GmbH. Leon Deane was so fascinated by the show on January 17th, 1977 that he spontaneously invited Mayte and Maria to come to Hamburg. Roughly a month later, the two arrived in Hamburg for first rehearsals with German composer/producer Rolf Soja. The bosses at RCA were so swept away by their talent and their voices that only six days later their first single, "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie" was recorded. The Girls officially started to work as BACCARA (Baccara - a kind of the rose)!

Their song "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie" (text and sound) immediately entered all the hit charts (BACCARA's official chart positions). All the TV stations wanted to include BACCARA in their program and do interviews. In just eight weeks, BACCARA had climbed to the top of the German charts (25.000 copies of the single were sold daily in Germany, the peak was 48.000 copies sold in one day). In no time at all, the whole world lay at their feet. This was "Life in the Fast Lane"! From Hongkong to Helsinki, BACCARA collected awards and prizes for top positions in the charts like other people collect stamps. For example: number one status in the UK and Germany. "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie", was the first Number 1 single in Europe, performed by a female duo, and the first by a Spanish singers until Julio Iglesias four years later! They sold more than 16 million singles of "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie". They reached a world-wide book of Guinness as the female group that had sold such more to 1977. In January 1978, "Darling" was a hit-single in most European countries.

The follow-up single "Sorry, I'm A Lady" also topped the German charts and in November 1977, BACCARA's first album was released all over the world. The first album was "Baccara" (RCA PL 28316, 1977) containing "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie" and also "Sorry, I'm A Lady". It got gold, double gold, platinum and double platinum. Baccara's second album was "Light My Fire" (RCA LS 70888, 1978) including: "Parlez-vous francais?", "La Bamba", "My Kisses Need A Cavalier", "Adelita", "Darling" etc. The third album "Colours" was released in 1979 (RCA PL 28380) with "Ay Ay Sailor", "One, Two, Three, That's Life", "Body Talk", "By 1999", etc. Hits was originally produced by Frank Dostal and Ralf Soja.

Baccara participated in the 8th edition of the Yamaha World Popular Song Festival (Tokyo - November, 11th, 1977), representing then West-Germany with the song "Mad in Madrid" (for example: special edition "The Hits of Baccara" and Japanese release Baccara SP!). In 1978 (on April 22nd) Mayte and Maria were represented Luxembourg during Eurovision Song Contest in Paris, France (song: "Parlez-vous francais", position: 7, 73 points / the winner was: Izhar Cohen and The Alphabeta from Israel, song: "A-Ba-Ni-Bi", 157 points).

In January 1979, "The Devil Sent You To Lorado" ("...Laredo" in Spanish) was a top ten hit in Germany. At the same time, a compilation album "The Hits Of Baccara" was released (date-1978!). "Body Talk" and "Ay, Ay, Sailor" were released as singles. Both tracks were taken from the third album, "Colours". The Girls were regularly seen on TV variety shows (mainly in Germany, Spain and UK) around the world. Baccara was a resident musical guests on the weekly "Sacha Distel Show" on BBC2 in UK and "Musikladen" in Germany.

Baccara also released a SP with a German version of "One, Two, Three, That's Life" called "Eins plus eins ist eins" - for the UNICEF "Year of The Child" in 1979.

Then, in 1981, things started to go wrong. Their new single "Sleepy Time Toy" had to be called back from the retailers, because Maria complained about her voice being underrepresented. Maria got a lawyer to represent her claim against the record company. She wanted the final mix to be changed. "I was really baffled and didn’t know what was going on", says Mayte. "Because it was my voice that had carried BACCARA for most of the time. And that's the way it had been for years."

But it became more and more clear that there was no hope for a resolution with the record company and they stopped their collaboration with producer/composer Rolf Soja. BACCARA recorded a single "Colorado" and a fourth album, "Bad Boys" (RCA PL 28476) with another production team. The last (4th) album of "Old" Baccara was arranged by Bruce Baxter and with Graham Sacher as Producer. Both records flopped. By then, Mayte & Maria decided to go separate ways.

It was in 1981 and... this was The End!

The contract with RCA ran out and Mayte left the band. The Girls both started to solo projects and... both carriers didn't last very long. (Maria: "Aerobic", "Stupid Cupid", "Born again", "Enchanté", "Haunted by your love", "Higher and higher", "Hit on the radio", "I Wanna See The World", "Hungry for love", "Luxury life", "That thing", "The time of your life", "They were an angel", Mayte: "Gipsy", "Malaguena", "Recuerdos del Ayer", "Roses and wine", "Temptation", "Touch touch", "I Do I Do", "When I Get Lonely").

In 1983 NEW BACCARA were established. Mayte Mateos was still with the duo. Jane Comerford, from Australia, has replaced Maria Mendiola. Jane worked at the School of Music in Hamburg teaching music and performance for young musicians. She was a very good piano player. She was married and she was living in Hamburg since 10 years. She also worked as an actor and as a singer in difficult musicals (leading rolls in Cats, etc). Mayte was teaching in Spanish-dance when she's not touring with Baccara. But in the next year... Gina T. (Gina T. solo CD) replaced Jane Comerford!

Remember that some of 70's Baccara CDs "best of" are in fact released by "New" Baccara, mainly by Maria and Marissa. Some old songs sound really bad. The next problem - some CDs cover are mistaken. They show "old" Baccara on picture (Mayte and Maria) but contain new songs only.

For example - the German release "Die Highlights" CD was named as being by BACCARA, with the cover showing a picture of the original duo Mayte and Maria. This was in fact false, as the CD comprised all the tracks from NEW BACCARA "Fun" CD as well as the 12" versions of both "Fantasy Boy" and "Touch Me" and their other successful single "Call Me Up". There were no tracks featuring Mayte on the disc.

There are also some CDs with pictures "old" and "new" Baccara together (for example: "Baccara Golden collection 2000" with Maria, Mayte and Christina inside)! It's unclear for Me, when the new duo have dropped "new" from their name. And, by the way, Who is legitimate owner of the name BACCARA?!

This way we have two groups now: BACCARA (ex- NEW BACCARA) with Maria / Marissa and BACCARA (ex- BACCARA 2000) with Mayte / Christina. The best one is... ?

Mayte and CristinaIn among other Swedish artists, like Alcazar, A*Teens, Antique, took part in the Swedish prefinals for Eurovision Song Contest 2004 with the following song:

"Soy to Venus por esta noche",
Writers & composers: Robert Habolin, Mats Jansson, Robert Olausson,

Maxi single and CD: "Soy to Venus". Take a look at details... here.

And... the last bad news...

Baccara, consisting of Mayte Mateos and Cristina Sevilla, has taken the decision to split!!!

The group will however continue to exist. Mayte Mateos has found herself a new partner to join the new Baccara. Paloma Blanco will from now on be the new member of Baccara and replaces Cristina Sevilla who ended the Baccara cooperation with Mayte Mateos. The new Baccara will continue bringing the joy of music to all their fans. This split isn't the first in the history of Baccara.

New special 3CD BOX SET was released on 31.08.2007: "Baccara 30th Anniversary Album" by Sony BMG Entertainment Germany. This CD box set is the ultimate BACCARA collection. It includes all hit singles as well as many songs available on CD for the very first time. This is a very complete retrospective of BACCARA, the most famous singing duo of the disco era. This compilation is a success and the sales in Germany, Austria, Switzerland are very good.

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