1998, BLØF released XXL Live Met Het Zeeuws Orkest, a live album recorded with an orchestra from Zeeland. With the help of Peter Bauwers (2 Unlimited) and Ronald Vanhuffel, they released the studio album Boven. This album had a stronger rock sound and saw the single "Harder Dan Ik Hebben Kan" become a hit in less than a month. In 2000, the band received an Edison Award for Best Dutch Band and they performed for the Dutch Olympians and their crew at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. After this, the successful Watermakers was released and in 2001, BLØF once again won an Edison for Best Dutch Band. On 17 March 2001, Drummer Chris Götte was killed in a motorcycle accident while riding from his home to the venue where the band was scheduled to perform later that day. The band took a hiatus from performing and one year later, they released the live CD Oog In Oog — Live I in Ahoy, the last concert with Götte. Götte was replaced by Norman Bonink, who had previously played in Frank Boeijen's band. Their next album, Blauwe Ruis, released in 2002, was dedicated to Götte and his family. In 2003, BLØF released a lighter, more positive album called Omarm. In 2003, they travelled to Kenya to play with local musicians. They used this experience as an inspiration for their seventh studio album. In 2004, the American band Counting Crows toured with BLØF, and together they rerecorded "Holiday in Spain", a duet sung in both English and Dutch, which gave BLØF exposure in the United States. In 2005, BLØF travelled around the world in order to be exposed to new cultures and inspirations for a new album. These efforts saw the release of a new album, Umoja, in 2006. The goal of the Umoja project was to raise awareness for the Millennium Development Goals. The band collaborated with artists from the 12 countries they visited. The project resulted in a book, Umoja Travel Lodge, concerts in the Netherlands, and a DVD of the Umoja concerts the band performed in the Netherlands with some of the international musicians that participated in the project. The project was very demanding for the band and they later stated that they greatly underestimated the amount of work involved with a project of that scale. For their next album, Oktober, released in October 2008, the band decided on