En algunos oscuros lanzamientos de principios de los 70, Majority One escribió y grabó material a la manera del pop psicodélico británico de finales de los 60, aunque el estilo había pasado de moda hacía un par de años. El grupo evolucionó a partir de la banda británica Majority, que publicó ocho sencillos en Decca entre 1965 y 1968 sin llegar a las listas británicas. Tras muchos cambios de personal y una temporada como teloneros del cantante británico Barry Ryan, el grupo se trasladó a Francia y publicó un último sencillo como Majority, "Charlotte Rose", aunque sólo se publicó en algunos territorios europeos. En 1970, todavía en Francia, cambiaron su nombre por el de Majority One y publicaron algunos sencillos en 1970 y 1971 y un álbum autotitulado en 1971, aunque este último sólo se publicó en Francia y Holanda. Con algunas similitudes con los esfuerzos más ligeros de los Beatles, Bee Gees y Moody Blues de finales de los 60, los esfuerzos de Majority One pasaron desapercibidos en su país natal, aunque su sencillo de 1971 "Because I Love" llegó al Top 20 en Holanda, convirtiéndose también en un éxito en Italia y Brasil. Majority One también publicó algunos temas bajo los nombres de Black Label y Rocky Cabbage, pero se disolvió en el verano de 1971. Gran parte del material publicado por Majority One, incluidas algunas de las canciones publicadas bajo los nombres Majority, Black Label y Rocky Cabbage, se recopiló en 2006 en el CD Rainbow Rockin' Chair: The Definitive Collection 1969-1971.
martes, 4 de julio de 2023
lunes, 3 de julio de 2023
Cimorelli - Wannabe
Cimorelli es una banda pop estadounidense formada en Sacramento, California, en 2007 por Christina, Katherine, Lisa, Amy y Lauren Cimorelli. En 2010 Michael abandonó la agrupación. Ese mismo año, Danielle "Dani" se unió tomando el lugar de su hermano mayor y solo quedaron las seis hermanas. En enero de 2020, Dani abandonó el grupo.
En su primera aparición en público, donde sólo actuaron las tres hermanas mayores, cantaron el Himno Nacional de los Estados Unidos.
Después decidieron subir canciones a páginas como YouTube; sin embargo, al notar que no recibían muchas visitas, dejaron de hacerlo durante algún tiempo. En 2009, Katherine propuso subir una versión de una canción de Miley Cyrus, Party in the U.S.A., la cual tuvo una recepción positiva. A finales de agosto de 2016 el vídeo contaba con más de 8 millones de vistas.
La banda comenzó su primera gira en julio de 2013, la cual concluyó con un concierto en el Teatro El Rey el día 6 de agosto de ese mismo año. Han hecho numerosas giras, tanto a nivel nacional (Florida, Nueva York, Seattle y California) como internacional (España, Reino Unido, Alemania, Portugal, Filipinas, Chile, Argentina y Brasil).
La banda ha hecho varias versiones de canciones de artistas, las cuales han recibido críticas positivas, como Call Me Maybe, What Makes You Beautiful y Cups (When I'm Gone). Han colaborado con otros artistas, como MattyBRaps, The Vamps, James Maslow (del grupo Big Time Rush), Ryan Beatty, Tyler Ward y Gardiner Sisters.
domingo, 2 de julio de 2023
fDeluxe - Miss You
The Family was a band formed by Prince, and one of the first signed to Prince's record label, Paisley Park Records. The band reformed as fDeluxe in 2011. This band should not be confused with a 1970s Minneapolis R&B band of the same name. The band's origins started with the disintegration of the Time in 1984. Lead singer Morris Day had left the band to pursue a solo career and guitarist Jesse Johnson became the de facto band leader. Prince suggested restructuring the band with new member Paul Peterson to head the group, but Johnson opposed. A few of the Time's newer members followed Johnson to join his backing band (called Jesse Johnson's Revue).
As the band had served as an outlet for Prince to release more music, he wanted to continue this avenue, inviting the remaining members of the Time, Jellybean Johnson, Jerome Benton, and Paul Peterson, to his home and presented them with his new project. They agreed to become a new band called the Family, with Peterson renamed "St. Paul" as the new frontman and bassist. Johnson and Benton reprised their familiar roles from the Time. To the mix, Prince added Susannah Melvoin, the twin sister of Revolution guitarist Wendy Melvoin, as a backing singer and keyboardist. The fifth member was Eric Leeds, the brother of Prince's tour manager Alan Leeds, who provided saxophone and flute. Also joining was bassist Allen Flowers. Guitarist Miko Weaver, from Sheila E.'s band, is credited in the album credits because he was to be a session and tour player, but was never officially a member of the band.
Much like the Time, the band's material was composed entirely by Prince, with the exception of "River Run Dry", which was written by Revolution drummer Bobby Z. Prince wrote and performed all the other tracks and simply overdubbed Peterson's and Melvoin's vocals and added Leeds' saxophone and flute. On several tracks, Prince's vocals can be clearly heard. Some of the original demos have surfaced as bootlegs and circulate among fans with Prince's original lead vocals, as well as two outtakes: the instrumental "Feline" and the pop "Miss Understood". As on other associates' albums, Prince falsely gave writing credit to the various band members, though he kept his name on "Nothing Compares 2 U". The tracks were all recorded in a span of a few weeks at the end of 1984 after Prince had finished sessions for Around the World in a Day and just before he started recording for Sheila E.'s album Romance 1600 and his own Parade album. The album itself is a mix of uptempo funk songs ("High Fashion", "Mutiny"), unconventional soul ballads ("Nothing Compares 2 U", "Desire"), jazz-funk instrumental tracks ("Yes", "Susannah's Pajamas") and New Wave songs ("The Screams of Passion", "River Run Dry"). "The Screams of Passion" was released as the first single from the album. MTV placed the video for the song in light rotation. "High Fashion" was the second single, but no video was made.
The album sold poorly upon its release and has been out of print in any form since the late 1980s in the United States. A compact disc version was printed in Germany in the early 1990s following the success of Sinead O'Connor's cover version of "Nothing Compares 2 U" which was released that same year and is highly valued among Prince fans and collectors.
Prince often incorporated the track "Mutiny" into the setlist of his Parade Tour in 1986, which occasionally was extended to contain the chorus of his song "Dream Factory" and the snarky chant "St. Paul – punk of the month!" as well as on subsequent tours. From 1990 onward, Prince occasionally added "Nothing Compares 2 U" to his tour setlist. After the band performed a single concert, released their self-titled album and only two singles, Peterson felt constricted by Prince's control and opted to pursue his own career. Without a lead singer, Prince lost interest and absorbed most of the remaining members into the expanded Revolution with the exception of Johnson, who went on to join the Flyte Tyme music production team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. According to St. Paul's website, he fondly remembers his time with the Family and often plays songs from the album in concert. The Family reunited on December 13, 2003, for a single performance for charity along with other acts formerly associated with Prince. On January 26, 2007, the Family announced that they were returning to the music scene, with a tour and a recording of new music. Now called fDeluxe, they reformed in June 2011 and released a new record called Gaslight with four of the five original members performing.
sábado, 1 de julio de 2023
Marc Martel - Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Marc Martel is a Canadian Christian rock musician. In 1999, he formed the band Downhere before going solo in 2013. Aside from his own work, Martel is known for his Queen covers and his vocal likeness to frontman Freddie Mercury. He provided Mercury's singing voice in the film Bohemian Rhapsody. He was born in Montreal, Canada to Michel Martel and his wife Barbara Beresford Martel. He attended Briercrest College and Seminary in Caronport, Saskatchewan where he met his roommate Jason Germain. With him and a few friends he formed the band downhere. Downhere (stylized as downhere) developed their sound while touring on behalf of Briercrest College. After four years of college, the band relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, where they signed with Word Records. Downhere went on to win multiple Juno Awards, Covenant Awards and a Dove Award. They released 10 albums, including On the Altar of Love, before going on hiatus effective January 1, 2013. In September 2011, Martel entered a competition to join Roger Taylor's (original drummer for the rock band Queen) official Queen tribute project, the Queen Extravaganza, with a video of Martel singing along with the Queen classic "Somebody to Love". It generated more than one million views on YouTube after being up for only a few days and as of February 2021 it has over 22 million views. This led to an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show a week following the release of the video. Martel went on to be one of the winners of the competition which led to a six-week tour with The Queen Extravaganza in 2012. The Queen Extravaganza had continued to tour with Martel until the end of 2016.
Martel released an EP, Prelude, on February 1, 2013 The EP was recorded in Nashville and Los Angeles with producer John Fields. His full-length debut, Impersonator, released on September 30, 2014.
In September 2016, he collaborated on "Last Christmas", featured in the video game, Just Dance 2017. On November 18, 2016 The Silent Night EP, a collection of Christmas songs, was released.
In 2017, Martel left Queen Extravaganza and joined the Ultimate Queen Celebration.
In 2019, Martel recorded a new version of "Silver Bells" with Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith that reached No. 1 on the Billboard Christian AC Monitor charts, and the Mediabase Christian AC. This was Martel's first career No. 1 song. He accompanied them on their annual Christmas Tour.
Martel contributed vocal recordings for the Queen biographical film, Bohemian Rhapsody (2018). Film producer Graham King confirmed that Marc Martel recorded vocals for the film in a Rolling Stone article:
Most singing scenes in the movie rely on either vocal stems from Queen master tapes or new recordings by Marc Martel, a Canadian Christian rock singer whose voice is practically identical to the late frontman's. "Literally, you could close your eyes and it's Freddie," says King. "And that's a very tough thing to do."
And in an interview to FilmJournal International he revealed more details about Martel's involvement in the making of the film:
Rami sings a little bit in the film, there's a lot of Freddie Mercury obviously, and a lot of Marc Martel. He sent a video to Brian May and Roger Taylor and he sounds exactly like Freddie Mercury. We knew that we had someone we could use for parts that maybe Rami couldn't do and obviously Freddie didn't do. So we were in Abbey Road recording studio for maybe two and a half months with Marc and with Rami, recording bits and pieces that we knew we needed. It's hard to find someone who can sing like Freddie Mercury and I'm not sure the movie would have happened if we didn't have Marc.
viernes, 30 de junio de 2023
Madness - Money Money Money
Madness es uno de los principales grupos británicos de ska, formado en 1976. Estuvieron en medio del revival del ska del sello 2 Tone a finales de los 70 juntamente con The Specials y Bad Manners. Madness alcanzó la mayoría de sus éxitos a finales de los años 1970 y en la primera mitad de la década de los años 1980, estando más semanas en las listas inglesas que cualquier otro grupo. El álbum, The Liberty of Norton Folgate, alcanzó en 2008 el número cinco en las listas de Reino Unido. Su álbum editado en 2012, Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da, llegó a la décima ubicación en el Reino Unido, siendo estos dos últimos distribuidos por su discográfica propia Lucky 7 Records.
jueves, 29 de junio de 2023
Inna Modja - Son of a Preacher Man
Inna Bocoum conocida artísticamente como Inna Modja es una cantante y modelo franco-maliense, activista a favor de los derechos de la mujer. Su nombre artístico es un tributo a su idioma natal el fula, "modja" era el mote que utilizaba su madre con ella. A la edad de 6 años su padre la inscribió en un coro debido a las aptitudes musicales que posee. Su familia siempre la apoyó para seguir adelante en el mundo de la música. Desde pequeña se vió influenciada por los gustos musicales de sus allegados (Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Otis Redding). Más tarde se unió a la Rail Band de Bamako con su vecino Salif Keita con los cuales realizó su debut a los 15 años. Con la experiencia adquirida hasta ese momento, la joven Inna es capaz de adaptarse a cualquier ritmo africano o disco; finalmente optó por el pop. Después de un dueto con Jason Mraz en la cadena de televisión France 2 con ocasión de la Fiesta de la música, saltó definitivamente a la fama con el single Mister H perteneciente a su álbum debut Everyday is a New World. Volvió a la actualidad musical en 2011 con la publicación del single French Cancan (Monsieur Saint Nitouche), que se convertiría en uno de los éxitos del verano posicionándose el primero de la lista France Top 40. Al cabo de los meses lanzó al mercado dos nuevos singles igualmente bien aceptados por la crítica y el público (La Fille du Lido y I'm Smiling), consolidando así definitivamente su carrera musical. Durante 2012 recibió la invitación personal del cantante Alain Chamfort, para participar en su nuevo álbum de estudio Elles & Lui con varios singles. En 2015 publicó su tercer álbum, Motel Bamako, un disco homenaje a Mali con canciones en inglés, francés y bambara. En 2016 se sumó al cartel del Stop War Festibala de San Sebastián.
miércoles, 28 de junio de 2023
Sheridan Smith - Addicted to Love
Sheridan Smith (Epworth, Lincolnshire, 25 de junio de 1981) es una cantante, bailarina y actriz británica de teatro, cine, radio y televisión. Sheridan Smith nació el 25 de junio de 1981 en Epworth, como hija de Colin (1936–2016) y Marilyn Smith, quien era parte del dúo de música country "Daltons". Su tátaratátarabuelo, Benjamin Doubleday, tocaba el banjo en Yorkshire y luego tocó en un trío con sus hijas. Smith estudió danza en la Joyce Mason School of Dancing desde temprana edad. Luego asistió al South Axholme Comprehensive School, donde recibió la nota más alta en un GCSE en Artes Interpretativas. Aunque nunca se capacitó en una escuela de teatro, fue miembro de la National Youth Music Theatre desde 1995 hasta 2001, actuando en varios papeles protagónicos en Bugsy Malone, Pendragon, e Into the Woods. Completó su formación académica en John Leggott College en Scunthorpe.
Ha recibido diversos reconocimientos en el ámbito teatral, entre ellos el Premio Laurence Olivier en la categoría mejor actriz en un musical en 2011 por su papel en la obra Legally Blonde - The Musical estrenada en el Savoy Theatre y a la mejor actuación de reparto en 2012 por su papel en Flare Path estrenada en el Theatre Royal; adicionalmente, en 2008 recibió su primera nominación a dicho galardón en la categoría mejor actriz en un musical por su trabajo en Little Shop Of Horrors montada en el Duke of York's Theatre y en el Ambassadors Theatre.
En televisión, ha recibido un Premio BAFTA TV a la mejor actriz de televisión en 2013 por su papel en Mrs Biggs, por el que también tuvo una nominación a los Premios Emmy Internacional a la mejor actriz el mismo año y a los Premios AACTA a la mejor actriz dramática de televisión en 2014. Por otro lado, en 2015 recibió el National Television Awards a la mejor actuación dramática por Cilla.
En 2014 fue nombrada oficial de la Orden del Imperio Británico (OBE) por sus servicios en el ámbito del teatro.
Sheridan is the debut studio album by English singer and actress Sheridan Smith. It was released by East West on 3 November 2017, and debuted at number nine on the UK Albums Chart.
Details of the album were first announced in August 2017, with Smith subsequently confirming Sheridan as its title in October. To coincide with its release, she appeared in a one-off television special for ITV, also titled Sheridan, in which she chatted to comedian Alexander Armstrong and performed tracks from the album. The album received a mixed reception. Smith also announced that she would embark on a UK tour in 2018.