Executive retreat

A delightful duo is entertaining folk at the Flamingo bar at the Movenpick Hotel in Muharraq hoping it will become a stepping stone to stardom.

Australian singers Ronnie Kingston and Mariie Foudoulis are delighting customers with upbeat melodies and chart sounds and one day hope similar acts will be covering their hits songs.

They both herald from Melbourne but had not met before touching down in the kingdom.

Ronnie said: "We are individual artists and song writers who have come together to Bahrain for this one-off contract. The timing was perfect and we felt it was right to work together at this time."

The entertainer had been in Japan prior to taking up the island's offer where he has been busy promoting his solo album - 'Ronnie K'.

He has written or co-written, produced, arranged and performed all the tracks including 'Love Bible', 'We Are As One', 'Do What You Want To Do' and 'Soften Your Heart'.

Ronnie's singing talents have allowed him to travel to 10 countries including Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, India and Brazil.

Mariie, on the other hand, has concentrated her work mostly in Canada and the US.

In 1998, she performed a live tribute song for the late football legend Ted Whitten at the Crown Palladium. She has also performed at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and was the main opening attraction for the Grammy-award winning artist Brian McKnight on his 'Back at One' Tour in Melbourne in 2000.

Mariie has been singing for as long as she could talk and hails from a musical family with a singer grandmother and a father who had his own band.

"I would sing with them on weekends and perform in competitions - it was a great way to start in the business.

"Appearing in Bahrain provides me with a great platform and financially will help me to further pursue my career and concentrate on auditions and performances in the US."

She hopes to release her own album in the near future. "I need to find a band to work with - start small but hopefully grow big!"

And, Ronnie wants to develop his song writing passion. "As an artist one needs to develop, grow and hopefully I can get enough support from people to make a career out of it - that's the aim."

Catch up with the likeable duo until the end of June.