Mandalay was a trip hop duet from the United Kingdom, comprised of Saul Freeman (formerly in the duo Thieves with David McAlmont) and Nicola Hitchcock.
In 1998 Mandalay's first album titled Empathy was released to critical acclaim.
After hearing Empathy, Madonna became a big fan, declaring Mandalay to be her favorite band. She chose the first single "This Life" to be featured on the soundtrack for her film, The Next Best Thing, as well as the soundtrack to the British film This Year's Love.
Many other Mandalay songs have been featured on TV series' including La Femme Nikita, Six Feet Under and CSI Miami.
The third single "Beautiful" appeared on a number of chillout albums of the time including Cafe del Mar (Vol 6) and Hed Kandi's Serve Chilled. As a result Mandalay were invited to headline at the Café del Mar 20th anniversary celebrations in Ibiza in 2000. A sunset remix of "Beautiful" was recorded and mixed by Lenny Ibizarre, the leading chillout DJ/musician on the island. The song "Beautiful" went on to be used in a major advertising campaign by Estee Lauder and was chosen for the title track of German film Der Eisbar. More recently "Beautiful" was covered by Sarah Brightman and released as the lead single for her hit album Harem.
Mandalay's 2nd album Instinct was co-produced with Andy Bradfield (Everything But the Girl, Future Sound of London, Björk) and Yoad Nevo (Jem). MK from The Guardian states, "Instinct draws inspiration from jazz and classical music to create resolutely elegant, affecting pop .... lush and expansive, Instinct's musical world is perfectly realised."
The first single from this album, "Deep Love," was remixed by Nitin Sawhney and Mandalay went on to support Sawhney on his UK/London dates. Performances at Ibiza's chillout festivals followed including "Las Dallias" and "Dreamdaze" culminating in a headline performance at The Big Chill festival in the UK.
A third album Solace followed, released exclusively in the US comprising a mix of tracks from Mandalay's two existing albums Empathy and Instinct (both previously unavailable in the US) together with an 11 track remix album with contributions from Wagon Christ, Alex Reece and Charlie May. Solace sold more than 44,000 copies in the US.
The band parted ways after the release of Solace due to artistic and personal differences. Hitchcock went on to collaborate with a number of other artists, the results of which appeared on her 2005 album Passive Aggressive. She is currently working on her next solo album.
