Captain Hollywood Project
Over 20 million sold records worldwide and 10 Top20 hits in the European charts including the No.1 hit in the US and Europe “More & More”!
Captain Hollywood
Tony Dawson – Harrison aka Captain Hollywood was born in Newark New Jersey. After his active duty time in the US Army he moved to Germany in 1983, where he lived for many years.
Captain Hollywood actually pioneered the worldwide Eurodance movement in the 90s.
He has been called Captain Hollywood since 1982, the name was given to him by his friends because he even danced when he was in uniform.
Captain Hollywood – The Choreographer
Captain Hollywood was the very first Breakdance artist in Europe.
In 1983 he performed on the national TV show “Formel Eins” and danced to the song “Pack Jam”. The whole nation was watching the first TV channel ARD when the Captain started his musical career and he became famous in Germany overnight.
Soon Tony Harrison became the choreographer of the TV show “Formel Eins” and worked as choreographer for many international superstars like LaToya Jackson, Kim Wilde, Natalie Cole, O-Town, CC Catch, DJ Bobo and 3rd Wish.
Tony also represented Germany in Cannes at the “Film Festival” for the breakdance movie “Beat Street”.
Captain Hollywood – The Musician 1985 – 1987
From 1985 till 1987 Tony released 3 singles (“Grand Piano”, “Deborah” and “Soulsister”) and 1 album (“Do That Thang”) as Captain Hollywood and he charted as an independent artist without any help from a major record label.
This gave him the respect in the clubs and the support from the DJs.
Through these hits Tony established himself in the music business as a serious musician, rapper, singer and producer.
Twenty 4 Seven
In 1989 Tony Harrison founded the Holland based project “Twenty 4 Seven” together with the Dutch producer Ruud van Rijen.
Tony was the head and leader and the founders of the band, featuring his close friends Hanks (Giovanni Falco), Jacks (Wolfgang Reis) and the Dutch singer Nancy Coolen.
After their 3 months European tour with MTV London, sponsored by the company “Swatch”, the band charted with their hits “I can`t stand it” and “Are you dreaming”.
After taking “Twenty 4 Seven” to Top5 chart positions all over Europe including Great Britain,
Tony left the Dutch group to return to his solo career and to dedicate himself completely to his own project, the Captain Hollywood Project.
Captain Hollywood Project
1st album: “Love Is Not Sex”
Between 1992 and 1994 the Captain Hollywood Project released 4 Eurodance singles – some of the first and most successful Eurodance hits of all times: “More & More”, “Only With You”, “All I Want” and “Impossible”.
All 4 singles became worldwide hits and still belong to every classic 90s music collection in the music scene today.
The single “More & More” charted at No.1 for 8 weeks in the German National Media Control Charts and No.1 in the US Billboard Sales Charts for 3 weeks. The record “More & More” sold over 7 million copies worldwide.
The 2nd single “Only With You” charted at No.4 in Europe and Top10 in the US Billboard Charts. It sold 3 million units worldwide.
The 3rd released single from this album “All I Want” was a Top20 record worldwide, even though the video was banned from MTV America because of its controversial content.
The 4th single “Impossible” was also a Top20 Hit in Europe but was not released in the US.
In that year Captain Hollywood Project received the award for the most played music video of the year from MTV London.
The debut album “Love Is Not Sex” sold 400.000 copies only in Germany and over 7 million copies worldwide.
2nd album: “Animlas or Human”
In 1995 Tony released with his Captain Hollywood Project the album “Animlas or Human” which sold over 300.000 copies only in Germany and another 350.000 copies in France.
3 singles followed the release of the album: “Flying High”, “Find Another Way” and “The Way Love Is” – another 3 huge hits and classic Eurodance songs of the 90s.
3rd album: “The Afterparty”
In 1996 Tony Harrison decided to team up with P.Force and Alex Belcher for the production of his 3rd album “The Afterparty”.
The single “Over & Over” became a huge summer hit,
The album included 2 more singles: “Love & Pain” and “The Afterparty”, which were also very big hits in the European territories.
Captain Hollywood – The Producer
Creative break as artist 2000 – 2008
Even before and during his international breakthrough as Captain Hollywood, Tony always had a passion for music production and was a very successful music producer, producing many international stars such as Old Dirty Bastard (WutangClan), Crazy Bones (Bone, Thugs & Harmony), Nick Carter (Backstreet Boys), O-Town, B4 4, Primary Colorz, CC Catch, 3rd Wish, DJ Bobo, Haddaway, Turbo B and many more.
Tony also produced movie music, e. g. the music for “Mohammed Ali’s documentary”, for the movie “Dying Young” feat. Julia Roberts and all of the background music for the TV show “Making the band”.
In 2000 after many successful years of touring and traveling Tony decided to take a creative break as artist, to move back to the US and mainly work in the background of music industry as producer and manager of other music acts.
Tony worked very closely as music producer and choreographer together with the godfather of boybands, the music manager Lou Pearlman, also known as the founder of the Backstreet Boys, NSync, Britney spears and many more.
Together with Lou Pearlman Tony Harrison founded the boyband “O-Town”.
The TV format “Making the band” was the first TV casting concept worldwide and was aired on Americas biggest TV channel ABC and later worldwide on MTV, which made Tony one of the most wanted music hit producers at that time.
Shirin Amour
The singer of the Captain Hollywood Project
In 2006 Tony married his girlfriend Shirin Amour (Ginette-Shirin von Gehlen) in Orlando / Florida, who is also the singer of the Captain Hollywood Project.
Captain Hollywood and Shirin Amour met in Germany in 2000 at a music festival where they both performed at, became a couple shortly after and moved together on the island St. Pete Beach / Florida on the Gulf of Mexico in 2002.
Shirin Amour was born and raised in Düsseldorf / Germany and even as a child she was gifted in music, arts and sports. At the age of 6 Shirin started playing the piano, followed by drums and at the tender age of 10 she already belonged to the best upcoming German talents in artistic gymnastics.
9 years old Shirin gathered first experiences in the acting world. Because of her athletic potential she was chosen to perform the stunt scenes in the German cinema movie “Der kleine Vampir”. After also performing as a circus acrobat and all the achievements made in the field of artistic gymnastics Shirin discovered her love for singing and dancing and devoted herself entirely to her new discovered passion ever since.
In 2000 Shirin Amour won the German Hip Hop Championship together with her dance formation.
After her highschool graduation Shirin completed her singing and dance education in Germany and the US and decided to study psychology and law.
Shirin Amour is not only the singer of the Captain Hollywood Project but also worked as choreographer and dancer for several national and international music acts, such as the US boygroup 3rd Wish, DJ Bobo, the German RTL 2 Popstars winner “Overground”, “DJ Tomekk”, German “Pop Idols”” and many more.
Shirin was also the director and host of the first online music video channel “Skreem TV”.
Still today Tony and Shirin are working as a team as producers, writers, choreographers for video, music and stage productions of the Captain Hollywood Project as well as for other international artists.
Together with her husband Tony Harrison, Shirin worked for the famous US record label “Skreem Records USA” in Orlando / Florida on the success of the band 3rd Wish who were also managed by Tony and Shirin.
Tony Harrison became the Vice President and Director of the record label and Shirin Amour the Executive Assistant. They both decided to take the band 3rd Wish to Europe to jumpstart the bands career from overseas – with great success: The band 3rd Wish became very successful with their Top10 album “Reflections Of The South” and their hit single “Obsession” which sold over 1,5 million copies worldwide.
Captain Hollywood Project 2008 – today
In 2008 the Captain Hollywood Project produced in cooperation with DJ Base two more singles “It Hurts With You” and “More & More Recall” exclusively for the release in the UAE. Both songs were very successful in the UAE territory.
One year later the famous Swiss artist DJ Bobo requested Tony and Shirin to help him choreograph his upcoming “Fantasy Tour”. They spent 3 months in Switzerland to choreograph his new songs and his stage performance for his “Fantasy Tour 2010”.
In 2010 DJ Bobo invited the Captain Hollywood Project to accompany him on his tour and to perform as special guest in 20 major cities in Germany.
The “Fantasy Tour 2010” was a great success, also for The Captain Hollywood Project. They inspired the masses in the biggest concert arenas of Germany.
Since 2010 the Captain Hollywood Project is touring throughout Europe again with their “20 Years Greatest Hits Show”.
Because of their outstanding stage performance and a great collection of the biggest 90s hits the Captain Hollywood Project is still able to excite the masses and withdraw the audience of all ages back into the 90s`s feeling.