New wave band from Denmark formed in 1983.

The band performed live the first time as Anne Linnet with friends at the Aarhus carnival in 1983, and debuted under the name Marquis De Sade on August 9th the same year, at Hotel Klitten, Søndervig. Drummer Kent Hansen and guitarist Per Møller also played in Anne Linnet’s previous band Anne Linnet Band. Linnet formed Marquis De Sade to reinvent herself musically, with a more hard-hitting sound. This was inspired by her attendance at a concert on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn, and sadomasochistic experiences in New York’s Hellfire Club on a three-week vacation alone in Berlin and New York City, initially to prepare for the album [m=311996]. She bought a Jupiter-8 synthesizer in New York that was used in Marquis De Sade. Linnet has since described this time of her life as a necessary, but long gone way to overcome the deteriorating marriage with then husband Holger Laumann, and the grief of her father’s recent death.

Their first album came out as an Anne Linnet release, where only the title appeared as [m=290264]. Linnet’s name is on the front cover of all Marquis De Sade releases. The album caused a great deal of turbulence, due to the theme and nature of the lyrics, as well as the cover design (more on this topic in the master release notes). The controversy eventually died out, and the more light-hearted second album [m=290261] became a huge commercial success in Denmark, selling 100,000 copies in the first year. Marquis De Sade toured Denmark in the summer of 1985, including [l1397161] and [l270767]. Third album [m=290262] was less successful commercially, perhaps because it was a rushed production released less than half a year after Barndommens Gade. Marquis De Sade toured extensively again, also [l270767]. Sanne Salomonsen sang backing vocals for these three releases. The band members subsequently drifted away from each other, and activity was put on hold until 2002, when fourth album Over Mig Under Mig was released. The album received negative reviews and was described as lackluster by the press, and the band has since been on hiatus.