Sky

In 1992, college classmates Antoine Sicotte and James Renald launched the Montreal pop duo Sky after first crossing paths on campus. Their partnership began with joint assignments for music courses and soon expanded into informal performances away from academic obligations. By 1995 the pair had established the independent imprint Phat Royale, through which they completed both a demo CD and a matching video. Rotation of the clip on MusiquePlus, the French-language arm of MuchMusic, sparked nationwide interest in Sky’s dance-pop style and yielded a contract with EMI. The label’s first Sky release came in 1998 with the hit single “Some Kind of Wonderful,” whose momentum carried the group into its 1999 full-length debut, Piece of Paradise. The album opened at number six on Canada’s pop charts, registering the highest Soundscan debut by a Canadian act at that time. Later in the year the project also reached the United States.