A remixed version of Boney M’s 1978 disco hit, Rasputin, has been certified platinum in the United Kingdom for sales of over 600,000 units. The certification was made September 30 by the British Phonographic Industry.
The remix, released in February, 2021, is credited to Majestic x Boney M. Majestic is a DJ/producer from north London.
The original Rasputin is from Nightflight to Venus, Boney M’s 1978 album. Last year, it entered Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs Chart at number 10 after renewed interest through the #rasputindancechallenge that trended on TikTok in late 2020.
That revival did not surprise Jamaican Liz Mitchell, one of the members of Boney M’s classic quartet.
“We’re in the COVID period and people are looking for things to feel good,” Mitchell told the Jamaica Observer newspaper from London where she has lived since the early 1960s.
Mitchell joined Boney M in 1976, one year after it was formed in Germany by Franz Farian, a German impresario who later started Milli Vanilli. Fellow Jamaican Marcia Barrett, Maizie Williams from Montserrat and Bobby Farrell from Aruba were its other members, whose disco hits also included By The Rivers of Babylon and Mary’s Boy Child.
Rasputin was inspired by Grigori Rasputin, a holy man in the court of Emperor Nicolas II in the years leading to the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. He was killed on December 30, 1916 in St Petersburg by Russian nobles jealous of his influence over Nicholas II.
Ironically, Farrell died on that date in that city in 2010.
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