German trance music project by former E-Rotic singer Lyane Leigh (born Liane Hegemann). Leigh wanted to leave E-Rotic after disagreements with producer David Brandes. When he was replaced by Jeanette Christensen and Terence d’Arby, Leigh had to continue providing vocals for E-Rotic until 1999 as a result of contractual obligations. Instead of trying to obtain the E-Rotic band name, she started her own ‘side project’ with Raz-ma-taz, and thus S.E.X. Appeal was born.
The first release was the 1996 single ‘Voulez-vous coucher avec moi’, which proved to be a hit in Europe. Raz-ma-taz left S.E.X. Appeal to join the group Magic Affair and was replaced by Gino Gillian. The second single ‘Life goes up, life goes down’, produced by Lyane’s brother Thijs. Further singles ‘Dirty talk’ and ‘Sex is a thrill with the pill’ (both 1998) proved less successful, and the project was left without a record label. They carried on using their own record label 3H Music Productions, and released the debut album ‘Peeping Tom’. The album featured a cover version of Kids in America as a ‘bonus track’ on the album.
After touring, promoting and releasing some side projects for years, Leigh returned to the media as S.E.X. Appeal in 2004 with a more hands-up sound instead of the eurodance sound on the previous album and singles. In 2004, the single ‘Do you love me’, followed by a new version of ‘Fragile love’ in 2006, which already appeared on ‘Peeping Tom’ in its original version. In 2007, the band’s second album ‘Sensuality’ was released, and this again featured their version of ‘Kids in America’. Although there was a remix album of ‘Sensuality’ released in 2008, this didn’t feature a remix of ‘Kids in America’.
The third studio album ‘Russian Roulette’ was released in 2013, after the release of singles ‘Poison Called Love’ (2011) and ‘Wild Beast’ (2012).