"Let the Beat Control Your Body" is a song by Belgian/Dutch Eurodance band

2 Unlimited 2 Unlimited are a Belgian/Dutch dance music act, founded by Belgian producers/songwriters Jean-Paul De Coster and Phil Wilde in 1991 in Antwerp, Belgium. From 1991 to 1996, Dutch rapper Ray Slijngaard and Dutch vocalist Anita Doth fronted the ...

. It is the fifth and final single released from their second album, '' No Limits'' (1993). The album version is largely instrumental and contains just a few spoken words from

Ray Slijngaard Raymond Lothar Slijngaard (born 28 June 1971) is a Dutch rapper and musician best known as one half of the Eurodance duo 2 Unlimited. Music career 2 Unlimited (1991–1996) 2 Unlimited is an electronic music project founded in 1991 by Belgian ...

and

Anita Doth Anita Doth (born 28 December 1971) is a Dutch singer and songwriter best known as the former singer of the duo 2 Unlimited, along with rapper Ray Slijngaard. Personal life Anita Daniëlle Dels was born in Amsterdam to a Surinamese father, Rolf ...

. The single version contains full verses rapped by Slijngaard and a new chorus sung by Doth, which were co-written by them both. The song charted in many European countries, peaking at number two in the Netherlands and within the top 10 in Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain and the United Kingdom. It was nominated in the category for Best Song on MTV Awards. Nigel Simpkiss directed the

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

for "Let the Beat Control Your Body".

Reception and airplay

James Hamilton from ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

s '' RM'' Dance Update described the song as a "

techno-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

galloper". Scottish newspaper ''

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'' stated, "You know what to expect and, yes, they deliver it!" Mark Frith from '' Smash Hits'' declared it as "buzzy" in his review of the '' No Limits'' album, complimenting it as a song "that stands out individually." Another editor, Tony Cross, gave it two out of five, saying, "It's still techno, techno, techno with a dash of techno for good measure." "Let The Beat Control Your Body" entered the European airplay chart Border Breakers at number 16 on 4 February due to crossover airplay in Central-, North West- and North-Europe and peaked at number four on 19 March.

Chart performance

"Let the Beat Control Your Body" was a sizeable hit all over Europe, peaking within the top 10 in Belgium, Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands (number two), Scotland, Spain and the United Kingdom. In the latter, the single peaked at number six on 27 February 1994, its third week on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. It also charted on the

UK Dance Singles Chart The UK Dance Singles Chart and the UK Dance Albums Chart are music charts compiled in the United Kingdom by the Official Charts Company from sales of songs in the dance music genre (e.g. house, trance, drum and bass, garage, synthpop) in record ...

, peaking at number 14. On the Eurochart Hot 100, "Let the Beat Control Your Body" made it to number five, entering the chart on 12 February at 87 and soaring up to peak at five within three weeks. It also reached number-one on the

European Dance Radio Chart The European Dance Radio Chart (also known as European Dance Radio Top 25) was a weekly chart compiled by pan-European magazine '' Music & Media''. After dance music had played a more dominant role on the magazine's Eurochart Hot 100 in the beginn ...

and number three on MTV's

European Top 20 ''European Top 20'' was a disk magazine and scene chart for the Commodore Amiga published by the demo scene group Equinox A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun crosses the Earth's equator, which is to say, appears directly above ...

. Additionally, the song was a top 20 hit in Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland. Outside Europe, it peaked at number six in Israel, number 29 in New Zealand and number 39 in Australia.

Music video

The accompanying

for "Let The Beat Control Your Body" was directed by Nigel Simpkiss and released in the UK in January 1994. It received

heavy rotation In broadcasting, rotation is the repeated airing of a limited playlist of songs on a radio station or satellite radio channel, or music videos on a TV network. They are usually in a different order each time. However, they are not completely ...

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and was A-listed on Germany's VIVA. The video was later published on 2 Unlimited's official

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

channel in December 2013, and as of December 2022, it had generated more than 4,1 million views. Simpkiss would also be directing the video for the duo's next single, "

The Real Thing The Real Thing or Real Thing may refer to: Film and television * The Real Thing (film), ''The Real Thing'' (film) or ''Livers Ain't Cheap'', a 1996 American film * ''The Real Thing'', a 1980 television documentary by James Burke (science historian) ...

Appearances

Dance music artist Chaah (aka Susanne Jark) uses the melody from "Let the Beat Control Your Body" in her 1999 release titled "The Funkiness of You".Mp3skyline.com
/ref> It also became famous again because of

Britain's Got Talent ''Britain's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated to ''BGT'') is a televised British talent show competition, and part of the global ''Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. Presented by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly (colloqui ...

when act DJ John performed the song in the auditions.

Track listings

* 7-inch single # "Let the Beat Control Your Body" (airplay edit) # "Get Ready for No Limits" (Part 2) * Belgian 12-inch maxi # "Let the Beat Control Your Body" (X-Out in Trance) (5:11) # "Let the Beat Control Your Body" (extended) (5:58) # "Let the Beat Control Your Body" (extended) (5:58) # "Get Ready for No Limits" (Murphy's Megamix Part 2) (6:45) * Germany 12-inch maxi # "Let the Beat Control Your Body" (X-Out in Trance remix) (5:11) # "Let the Beat Control Your Body" (extended) (5:58) # "Let the Beat Control Your Body" (X-Out in Rio) (5:06) # "Get Ready for No Limits" (Murphy's Megamix Part 2) (6:45) * UK CD single # "Let the Beat Control Your Body" (airplay edit) (3:38) # "Let the Beat Control Your Body" (X-Out in Rio) (5:06) # "Murphy's Megamix Part 1" # "Get Ready for no Limits" (Murphy's Megamix Part 2) (6:45) * Australian CD maxi # "Let the Beat Control Your Body" (airplay edit) # "Let the Beat Control Your Body" (X-Out in Trance) # "Let the Beat Control Your Body" (extended) # "Let the Beat Control Your Body" (X-Out in Rio) # "Murphy's Megamix Pt 2" * Dutch CD maxi # "Let the Beat Control Your Body" (airplay edit) (3:38) # "Let the Beat Control Your Body" (X-Out in Trance) (5:11) # "Let the Beat Control Your Body" (extended) (5:58) # "Let the Beat Control Your Body" (X-Out in Rio) (5:06) # "Get Ready for no Limits" (Murphy's Megamix Part 2) (6:45)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Let The Beat Control Your Body 1993 songs 1994 singles 2 Unlimited songs Byte Records singles English-language Dutch songs Music videos directed by Nigel Simpkiss Pete Waterman Entertainment singles Songs written by Anita Doth Songs written by Jean-Paul De Coster Songs written by Phil Wilde Songs written by Ray Slijngaard ZYX Music singles