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Club Skirts — celebrating 20 years of Dinah this spring — is bringing an international act into the mix with the Paradiso Girls taking the stage Saturday, April 3 at the Hilton.
Dinah Shore has become an international affair with women from around the world set to descend on Palm Springs, Calif., March 31 to April 4 for sun, fun and shows.
So Club Skirts — celebrating 20 years of Dinah this spring — is bringing an international act into the mix with the Paradiso Girls taking the stage Saturday, April 3 at the Hilton.
Each member of the girl group — Aria, Chelsea, Kelly, Lauren and Shar — hails from a different country: France, the U.S., England, Barbados and the Philippines. “It’s great,” says American-born Chelsea Korka, “because we can related to people around the world.”
Perhaps best know for their single “Patron Tequila,” a club jam generating buzz about a drunk girls’ night out featuring Lil’ Jon and Eve, the girls also boast an eclectic sound.
The soon-to-be-released self-titled debut album is an edgy mix of pop, rock, R&B, hip-hop and even a taste of opera.
“It’s a little bit of everything,” says Korka. “We’re from all different parts of the world so we’re influenced by different music.”
The project also pulls together maverick, game-changing songwriter/producers including Gnarls Barkley’s Cee-Lo, Christopher “Tricky” Stewart, The-Dream, Sean Garrett, Fernando Garibay and Black Eyed Peas mastermind will.i.am.
“Everybody’s been waiting for the album but we keep finding more songs we want to record,” says Korka.
In addition to their ongoing work in the studio, the Paradiso Girls are known for putting on quite a show.
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“The funny thing when people hear girl group they automatically think either Spice Girls or Pussycat Dolls,” says Korka. “We have a lot of sex appeal … but there’s also a lot of hardcore dancing — it’s definitely entertaining.”
As for their Dinah debut, “It’ll be fun, outgoing, sexy — you’ll feel like your drunk but then you’re not, just excitement all together,” says Korka. “I love performing meeting new people, and we’ve never been (to Palm Springs) so for me it’s a new place and something new to experience so I’m excited for that.”
In addition to more music, there’s also talk of a TV show (and maybe even matching tattoos). “Oh yeah, we’re going to take over,” laughs Chelsea.
But playing shows in the States wasn’t the initial plan for the now Los Angeles-based Paradiso — the group was conceived of as more of a European act, says Korka. Interscope Records was looking for a new girl group and spotted Aria at the Crazy Horse cabaret in Paris. After London auditions, Kelly, Shar and Lauren were added to the mix. Korka, a finalist in the reality show “Search for the Next Pussycat Doll,” was the final addition to Paradiso Girls.
“I was the cherry on top of the cake,” she laughs.
Since the group’s start, the girls, all in their 20s, have spent time living together at various spots around L.A. and drinking together, epically during the shoot for the “Patron Tequila” video.
“Lil’ Jon kept trying to make us take shots of Patron (between takes),” says Korka. “We knew if we got drunk, we wouldn’t be able to dance; we’d just be falling over.”
About the 40th hour into filming, Lil’ Jon convinced the girls to take a break, “and then all of a sudden there’s the bottle of patron,” laughs Korka. “So we took shots of Patron, and we thought we were done for the day, but the director said, ‘I need to you do one more hardcore dance for the last shot.’
“And we were four shots in already and drunk, and we actually put on sneakers because we didn’t want to dance in our heels and fall over,” she laughs. “We actually danced really well — I guess because the Patron encouraged us.”
Sounds like perfect training for Dinah.
For more on the Paradiso Girls, visit: www.paradisogirls.com, their MySpace, or Facebook.
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