In 1984 Bles Bridges released his first album. It was an immediate success and went gold in less than a month (selling 25,000 copies). Before his second album was released, the first one went platinum (50,000 copies). Until this time, all his songs were sung in Afrikaans. His record company tested the market by releasing an English album and it was an even bigger success. From that time every year at least two albums were released, one Afrikaans and one English, each one going at least platinum and many going on to reach double platinum.

Through the efforts of Eurovision South Africa, Bles started singing ESC entries in Afrikaans and English. Bles sang "Nina" (Iceland 1991) and it sold almost 100,000 copies, making it one of the biggest ESC hits in South Africa. Bles also recorded an English version of "Frei zu leben" (Germany 1990) titled "Let me love you".

In 1995 Bles signed to BMG Africa and in February 2000, they decided to team Bles, the biggest male singer in South Africa with Patricia Lewis, the biggest female singer in South Africa. Patricia had released 3 CDs, all going platinum. BMG invited several top songwriters in South Africa to compose songs exclusively for them. The first one, "The first kiss goodnight" was written by Dennis East, a top songwriter and they recorded it on 21 March 2000. Three days later, Bles died tragically in a car crash on his way home from a shop. His death sent shockwaves through the music industry and "The first kiss goodnight" has been very much in demand reaching gold on advance orders.

Biography | Photographs | Lyrics