Believe is a twenty-second studio album by American singer Cher, first released on October 22, 1998 by WEA and distributed in North America by Warner Bros. Records. Following the failure of previous studio albums This is the Human World, his record company encourages him to return to the studio to pursue new musical direction. The recording took place during the summer at Dreamhouse Studios in London and Soundworks Studios in New York under the guidance of British producers Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling. The album is dedicated to ex-husband Sonny Bono, who died earlier that year.
Believe represents a complete musical departure from his earlier works, comprising dance-pop and Eurodance-oriented styles, yet it covers a broader range of music genres such as techno, house, disco and Latin while lyrical topics include freedom, individualism and relationships. The album featured several new technologies at the time, such as the use of Auto-tune, which would eventually be known as the "Cher effect". After its release, the album received mixed reviews from music critics, who praised Cher's vocal performance, while others criticized the high number of vocoders and the overall production. It won a Grammy for "Best Dance Recording" of a total of three nominations.
Commercially, Believe has proven to be very successful, peaking at number four on Billboard 200 and receiving platinum certificates fourfold by the Recording Industry Association of America for the delivery of four million copies worldwide. United States of America. Records reached top positions in Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand and Portugal, and charted in the top ten in France, Spain, Britain, the United States and several other international regions.
Four singles were released from the album. The first single, "Believe", became one of the best-selling singles ever with topped the charts in a total of 23 countries and has sold over 10 million copies. "Strong Enough" was released as the second single from the album, becoming less successful than Believe , especially in the US and UK, peaking at numbers 57 and 5, respectively. "All or None" and "Dov'ÃÆ'¨ l'amore" were released as the third and fourth singles, both of which became quite successful. In support of Believe, Cher began his sixth concert tour entitled Do You Believe? Tour which became one of the best-selling tour ever for the female artist at the time.
Video Believe (Cher album)
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After the previous bad record This is the Human World (1995), Warner Music UK's head label Rob Dickins suggested that Cher record a dance album to attract his gay audience. However, Cher said he was not interested in dance music anymore because he thought it was not genre with "original song", leaving Dickins with the option to convince him otherwise. In Warner London office, Dickins meets with songwriter Brian Higgins, who is asked to sing a song for Cher's album. Three days later, a tape with sixteen Higgins songs arrived. "I lay in bed and put the tape down and listened to every song.The ninth song was' Believe 'I thought:' Cher can do this chorus, especially the lyrics, with his personal life like that.He went through all these things, Dickins. When Dickins asked the songwriter to finish "Believe", he came up with the song "horrible", and gave the song to other producers.
Cher began work on Believe in summer 1998 in London, meeting producers Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling, who previously worked with Dickins; Additional manufacturers include Todd Terry ("Taxi Taxi") and Junior Vasquez (who originally worked on "Dov'ÃÆ'¨ L'Amore", but when he sent back his version of New York, it was rejected by Dickens, who decided otherwise to provide production tracks to Taylor and Rawling as well). Cher works also with longtime collaborator Diane Warren (who wrote "Takin 'Back My Heart") and covered two songs: "The Power" (Amy Grant) and "Love Is the Groove" (Betsy Cook). Subsequently, he decided to introduce the remixed form of his 1988 single "We All Sleep Alone" from his 1987 album Cher .
The "Believe" single was originally written only by Brian Higgins, Matt Gray, Stuart McLennen and Tim Powell, and circulated on Warner Bros.. as an undesirable demo for months. Mark Taylor said, "Everyone loves the choir but not the whole song, When we've written another song for Cher, Rob asks if we can finish it.Our two writers, Steve Torch and Paul Barry, engaged and eventually appeared the complete song that Rob and Cher loves it. "
Maps Believe (Cher album)
Critical reception
Once released, the album received mixed responses from international music critics. Allmusic Michael Gallucci calls Cher Believe Cher the "latest play movement" and describes Cher "just moving through the beat factory with a boring range of vocals into one endless, free personality," and "with perseverance, if not with all my heart, stick to the tip of his tail ". In his review he gave the album two and a half out of five stars. The main criticism is the powerful use of Auto-Tune that changed Peter's voice. Beth Johnson from Entertainment Weekly gave it a B rating, comparing it to Madonna's Ray of Light (1998). She said, "One minute, this dance bag takes on the next Ray of Light, paying homage to Donna Summer's disco days - then both at once!" But whether to say "Believe is uncertain (and sometimes cheap) as hell, but you must love how the nature of its glory shines."
Commercial performance
The album has debuted at number thirty-nine on the Australian Albums Chart, and finally peaked at number thirteen there, and a 2x Platinum certificate by the Recording Industry Association of Australia (ARIA). The album also peaked at number forty-one, and peaked at number one on New Zealand's Album Charts and 2x Platinum certificates by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ). It peaked at number two on the Swedish Album Chart, and the 3x Platinum certificate was there. This is also the 73th Best Selling of All Time in Sweden. It peaked at number five on the French Album Song Ladder, and remained on the charts for forty-seven weeks. This album has Platinum certificate in that country. It peaked at number one in Austria, and stayed there for thirty-seven weeks. That's 2x Platinum certificate in that country. In the United States, after the release date, the album debuted at # 139 on the 28 November 1998 issue and then reached at number four on May 8, 1999.
Accolades
In 2000, the album received a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Pop Album" and the song title was nominated for "Record of the Year", and won a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. Throughout 1999 and 2000 Cher was nominated for, and won, many other awards for the album, including the Billboard Music Award for "Female Vocalist of the Year".
Track list
- Notes
- "Believe" feature contributed by Cher which remains unidentified.
- "The Power" was originally performed by Amy Grant
Personnel
Adapted from Allmusic.
Diagram
Certification and sales
Releasing history
See also
- List of top-selling albums
- List hit number one in Europe in 1999
- Album list number one from the 1990s (New Zealand)
Note
External links
- Cher.com & gt; Music & gt; Believe
- Cher on IMDb
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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