Being a musical is hard work, first of all, you have a control voice, then society expects you to follow certain body canons and fashion trends. But most importantly, a singer is a media person who has a great influence on listeners, so you should control the information you produce. To understand in more detail what it is, you can order term papers and also consider the creative path of Donna Lewis.
Donna Lewis was born in Cardiff, Wales. Growing up, she tells me she often listened to her fathers Jazz record collections: “My father had a vast jazz record collection; from big band stuff like Count Basie and Duke Ellington to Nancy Wilson, Ella Fitzgerald to Jobim,” Lewis explains. “In my teenage years, it was Motown, Elton John, T Rex and Bowie to Tears for Fears, the Blue Nile, Cyndi Lauper and Rickee Lee Jones.”
From a young age, Lewis wanted to be a musician. By the time she went to study music at the Welsh College of Music, she knew this was the path she would take. Lewis would spend several years looking for a record deal in the UK before being signed to Atlantic Records in the U.S. “I came to New York to do a show case, which led me to visit some friends in Woodstock. My demo of songs found their way to Jen Stark at Atlantic Records,” Lewis recalls.
“Atlantic loved the song “I Love You Always Forever”, but they had no way of finding me. They were about to hire a private detective, which was quite amusing, but contacted Jon Mostyn, who was the manager of the Fine Young Cannibals in Birmingham at the time. They asked him if he knew me. He rang me to ask if Atlantic could have my number and, of course, I said yes!
“Atlantic flew me to NYC to play for Doug Morris in his office. I was told beforehand that it was just a formality and that they wanted to sign me, but nobody really believes that! Just before I sat down at the piano and sang, Doug Morris said to me, “You know everyone has played this piano from Elton John to Tori Amos,” Donna explains. “After my performance, he said “Congratulations we’d like to offer you a record deal”. It was all quite surreal.”
Upon its release in the spring of 1996, “I Love You Always Forever” pushed Donna Lewis into the forefront of the pop music arena. The song, which was inspired by the H. E. Bates novel Love for Lydia, reached No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and held the spot for an impressive nine weeks. “I Love You Always Forever” helped to push her debut album, Now In A Minute, to No. 31 on the album chart.
“I wrote the intro in my head whilst walking around Birmingham town centre, and came home and recorded the whole thing on my Korg M1 onto my Tascam 8 track, which eventually became the recording apart from a few over dubs and vocals,” Lewis remembers of the song. She also recalls being taken by surprise with the song’s success in America, “I was taken by surprise at the song’s success as it grew so fast at radio. It was number 31 in the US billboard charts and we didn’t even have a video.”
In the autumn of 1996, Lewis followed the release of “I Love You Always Forever” with “Without Love,” an equally catchy single and my personal favorite. The song failed to make much of an impact on top 40 radio, although it did almost reach the top 40; peaking at No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100. Lewis feels the release of “Without Love” may have been too hasty. “At the time, “I Love You Always Forever” was still peaking at the point of “Without Love’s” release and it continued to do so. We remember feeling that maybe it was too soon to release “Without Love.” It definitely had an effect on the second single, even though people loved the song.”
Lewis continued to release music through the years. Blue Planet came 1998, Be Still in 2002 and Lewis returned with In the Pink in 2008. “Without Love” is available on iTunes.
