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The Times of London has called it one of the most unlikely turnarounds since it became cool to dig Abba. And although skeptics may have trouble imagining the raspy-voiced Canadian rocker as the new messiah of European dance clubs, Bryan Adams has indeed fallen under the spell of modern techno trance. You could say he's Bjorn again.

Some say the conversion harkens back to 1998, when the international superstar -- who sprang from the suburbs of Vancouver -- traded in his power chords and ballads for a melodic duet with Sporty Spice. This resurrection around, though, Adams has made amends and earned himself some credibility with the club kids.

Don't Give Up, a recent collaboration with Nick Bracegirdle, one of the U.K.'s most successful dance music producers, has given Adams his first No. 1 hit since (Everything I Do) I Do It For You back in 1991. Bracegirdle, who boasts a string of Top 40 hits and fronts a band called Chicane, has updated Adams in the same way that William Orbit refreshed Madonna. And after last week's christening in the starry glow of Ibiza, it appears that the rave set is ready to embrace Adams as a new ray of light.

Ibiza is the white-stone party paradise in Spain's Balearic Islands. Albeit a popular package destination for lager louts from Liverpool, it is also widely known as the dance capital, not just of the Mediterranean, but of all of Europe. Hundreds of thousands of hardcore dance fiends make pilgrimages to its bougainvillea-tangled shores each summer, to experience a 12-week Eden of rave and lose themselves on the famed dance floors, which fill up to the waist with thick sudsy foam.

Rising over the hills like a decadent spaceship is a club called Privilege. The hangar-sized nightclub, which attracts the best DJs and has made many a vinyl spinner's career, can hold 10,000 people. Its amenities include a swimming pool, terraced gardens of fake rainforest and, until recently, a live sex show.

Last week, on Aug. 4, Privilege hosted the biggest night on the island this summer. More than 7,000 turned out for the regular Friday-night party put on by London club promoters Xtravaganza. But this wasn't just any all-night rave. Xtravaganza, which has set its sights on becoming the premier clubbing-lifestyle brand, also houses one of Britain's hottest and widely respected independent dance record labels. And on this particular night, it was featuring a live performance from Chicane, its most valued act.

Xtravaganza spared no expense. The promoters poured approximately $50,000 (U.S.) into the production, including a laser-light show. And if you were able to take your eyes off the transvestites tottering by on stilts or the brightly painted performance artists dancing in slow motion on podiums, you might have caught Bono and Noel Gallagher in the VIP balcony, surveying the pulsating masses from on high.

Chicane came on around 1 a.m. And by this time, Robbie Nelson, had warmed up the room with a set of progressive house, from his DJ booth in the middle of the Guiness World Book of Records-sized dance floor.

The energy, says Xtravaganza founder Alex Gold, was "absolutely electric." After Chicane's first set, the room was screaming for an encore. They knew what was coming. The band hadn't played Don't Give Up yet. And sure enough, when the band bounced back onto the stage, they weren't alone. Bryan Adams, the featured vocalist on the hit single, had arrived.

"The crowd just erupted," Gold recalled over a cellphone from Ibiza, as he watched the sun set on the beach, earlier this week. Gold has an obvious bias, but he's spot-on when he says there's a strange yet compelling novelty to having an international rock star perform at a major dance event. "We made history that night," Gold says with a happy sigh.

Adams, a three-time Oscar nominee with 55 million records sold, 70-something music awards and two greatest-hits compilations under his belt, is no stranger to collaboration. But it's unlikely that any of the hedonists on Ibiza have ever heard his duets with Tina Turner, Bonnie Raitt or Luciano Pavarotti -- unless they were forced to, as children in their parents' cars.

That all changed when Adams, happily ensconced in London for the past decade or so, caught himself humming along to a melody on one of Bracebridge's songs. He tracked the producer down and asked him to remix one of his country-hued pop ditties, Cloud Number Nine. "To be honest," Adams told Tower Record's European Top Magazine, "it was less of a remix and more of a complete overhaul. Whatever, I absolutely loved it. It was what the song should have been in the first place because he knew exactly where to take it. It really made me sit up."

As did the charts. The jazzed-up single became a Top 10 hit in the U.K. last year. Soon after, Bracegirdle asked Adams to repay the favour by singing the lyrics for a new song he was working on.

"It was a bit of a challenge," Bracegirdle has said about his attempts to harmonize Adams's gravelly voice with his own trademark essence-of-summer sound, a mellow, island-inspired trance often referred to as "atmospheric," featuring up-tempo strings, flutes and synths. "But trying to step away from Bryan's rock vocal and make his voice work in a dance context was something I knew I could do . . . It seems to have gone down quite well."

No kidding. Originally a club hit, Don't Give Up crossed over to a mainstream audience and knocked Madonna's American Pie off the pop chart's top slot when it was released last March. It went on to become No. 1 in Australia, No. 4 in Europea and the No. 1 single in Russia. Pete Tong, a renowned dance DJ, crowned the runaway hit when he declared the Adams-Bracebridge single the first "essential" tune of the millennium.

If Bracebridge had any misgivings about Adams, he certainly doesn't now. "He is quite brilliant," Bracegirdle said. "He's kept himself in that soft-rock vein for a long time, but now he is looking to do new things and reinvent himself."

When the single first came out, Adams's contribution was not loudly promoted. "We didn't tell anyone, just to stop any prejudice around it," Bracegirdle told the West Australian.

But as the single continued its soaring flight, both Bracegirdle and Adams came clean. Bracegirdle said he didn't care if the "cool people" thought he had sold out. And Adams certainly didn't lose any sleep worrying about the rock purists on the other side of the Atlantic. "I gave up wondering what people would think of me ages ago. All I can say is I live in England and it's the best place in the world creatively. I'm just embracing it."

But is this just a fleeting affair? Gold can't predict. "He's definitely opened himself up to a new audience. What he does after this is up to him. He's a cool guy. A really funny bloke, very quick-witted. And he's so young -- in mind and spirit anyway. He can do anything he wants, I guess."

The 40-year-old pop star is currently working on a new album. And even though Bracegirdle is producing several tracks, Adams says it's not going to be a dance album. But that doesn't mean he's leaving the new groove religion.

"I've always loved good electronic dance music, dating back to the first Kraftwerk records. Music is music to me, I don't categorize it. If I like it, it could be anything from death metal to jazz, as long as it speaks to me in some way. Normally that has a lot to do with the energy or melody of the track. At the end of the day, it's still whether a song gets you off or not."

Back at Privilege, there were still about 1,000 people going hard on the dance floor as the sun streamed in through the glass dome on the roof at 7 a.m. And somewhere out there in the sweaty throng, Adams was still mixing with the crowd. "It was really cool," Gold enthused. "He's so down to earth. Of course, if it were one of his own concerts, he would've been mobbed. Perhaps it's because some people in the dance community don't know who he is, or maybe it's just a different vibe. But I think he felt very comfortable."

Maybe Adams hasn't changed all that much. He's still, as he's wont to say, just the singer in the band.

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