出道25年的惠妮休斯頓已經成為一位超級巨星, 一個傳奇, 一個標竿, 她是史上最賣座女歌手之一, 全球賣出超過一億四千萬張唱片, 當代許許多多的歌手都坦言深受她的影響, 譬如Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson, and Leona Lewis 等等。去年, 滾石雜誌還將她列為"百位最偉大歌手", 但是當他的恩師Clive Davis, 也是新力唱片創意總監找她回來錄製這張自2002年Just Whitney專輯後首張全新專輯時, 她卻意興闌珊, 萌生退意。
"當Clive打給我時, 他說, 妳準備好了嗎? 我說, 準備好幹嘛?" 惠妮回憶當時的對話。
還好, Clive非常堅持找她回來, 而成果呢, 就是這張耗時三年, 非常優秀的專輯 I Look To You, 專輯裡惠妮和時下最棒的詞曲創作人和製作人合作, 包括R. Kelly, David Foster, Akon, Stargate, Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz等, 歌曲充分展現她招牌式的強力嗓音和對音樂的熱情, 專輯的整體精神圍繞在不屈不撓的求生意志, 也相當程度反應出名人私生活上的種種挑戰與誘惑, 而這正是惠妮在過去幾年來所學到狠狠的教訓。
專輯裡一首相當重要的歌曲叫做 Nothing But Love, 一首層層推進,充滿律動的舞曲, 由Fernando Garibay製作 (他曾製作Britney Spears, Lady GaGa等流行藝人歌曲), 惠妮說: "如果你要我談談經過這麼多風雨後, 我有什麼話說, 我會說, 我只想給大家一份愛, 不管在哪種情況下, 或許這是因為我從小就是被這樣養大的, 也或許是我已經走到現在這田地(所以不得不這麼說), 但我確實已經把那些過往都拋諸腦後, 我正往前走"。
Clive是這張專輯的共同製作人, 當他把R. Kelly譜寫的曲子"I Look To You"交給惠妮時, 她當下第一個反應是, 這些東西並不完整, 惠妮說: "我聽了一下, 還蠻喜歡這短短但甜甜的曲子" "後來我飛去芝加哥錄音, Robert (R. Kelly本名)卻告訴我這首歌還沒完成, 他還沒寫出第二段歌詞和bridge! 於是我們兩個站在錄音室裡, 他開始創作剩餘的部份, 他閉起眼睛找尋靈感, 我們在彼此身上都學到些東西, 當他唱著旋律時, 我在旁邊禱告著, 歌詞就這樣源源不絕的湧現了。"
這首歌(R. Kelly還貢獻了另一首相當放客風格的歌曲Salute)可能將成為專輯的名字, Clive很了解這首歌歌詞對於惠妮本人的意義, "當Clive聽到I Look To You時, 他馬上知道因為我的福音背景, 這首歌百分之百會讓我滿意" 惠妮說。
惠妮和Clive兩人的關係開始於1983年, 當年他簽下了年輕的惠妮並一手包辦她首張專輯的規劃和行銷, 創下1300萬張的銷售佳績, 直到今日, 他們兩人還是維持非常親近的關係, 惠妮稱他為"我音樂界的老爸"。
"Clive和我是最佳拍檔" 惠妮說, "他到現在還是非常愛音樂, 愛好的歌詞和旋律, 他是極少數擁有上天恩賜可以了解哪些歌曲該搭配哪種聲音的人, Clive能夠不受一個人的個性影響, 完全看穿一個人, 知道哪些音樂能真正激發那個人" 。
"能夠再和惠妮相聚(製作音樂)真是太令我滿足了" Clive說, "這張專輯給了我一生中最令人興奮的挑戰, 我知道不管發生什麼, 這張專輯都會是非常特別的, 因為這些音樂和她的歌聲都將再一次深深地影響世上百萬人, 年復一年的下去"。
即使有多首好歌在製作中, 惠妮總覺得還沒有找到她真正想要的專輯走向, 然而"Million Dollar Bill"的到來是個轉捩點, 也是整張專輯最無心插柳的一刻。
"這首是我和Alicia Keys合作的" 惠妮說, "也是最有趣最好玩的一首, 我覺得我在跟一個很了解我的人合作, 我們是兩個可以相互了解的歌手, 就在那一刻, 我知道我的專輯將大功告成, 這將會是一張我要的專輯, 終於要結束這長達兩年半的製作過程"。
另一位21世紀的金曲製造機Akon與惠妮合作了Like I Never Left, 惠妮說Akon是她女兒和同學間最愛的歌手之一, "她們都用Akon的歌當手機鈴聲" 惠妮說, 她很喜歡這首歌流露的熱帶島嶼風情, "當我聽到這首歌時, 我直覺覺得可以當我的專輯名稱"。
或許最令人難忘的錄音場景來自於Diane Warren譜寫的芭樂歌 "I Didn't Know My Own Strength", 這首歌讓惠妮與David Foster重逢 (1992年David為她製作了I Will Always Love You, 來自The Bodyguard, 史上最暢銷專輯之一) 。
當時2007年Daivd在馬里布海灘的家遭受森林大火毀壞, 所以和惠妮的錄音室移到了他臨時的一間小公寓進行。
"基本上, 我是在一間小辦公室裡錄音, 旁邊就是廁所, 麥克風附近還堆了一些床單" 惠妮說, "這跟以前完全不一樣, IWALY是在一間美麗的錄音室完成, ILFTB是在David豪華的家裡完成, 但當我錄完聽自己的聲音時, 覺得好真實, 好激情, 沒想到在廁所旁邊唱歌還能唱出這樣的感覺", "唱這首歌時, 我並不是只想著自己(的處境), 還想到其他人生命中的掙扎, 我想到成為一位單親媽媽, 我想到我媽, 我表姊Dionne, 我哥的老婆, 我想到有病痛的人們, 我想到突破逆境成功的人, 從我歌聲中傳達出的單純和力量讓我了解這首歌多麼可以讓人們變得堅強。
I Look To You專輯中一個最受人歡迎的元素是再度聽到惠妮以高超的技巧和歡愉的態度唱起快歌, 即便是挑戰已被多次成功翻唱 (Ray Charles, the Carpenters, Donny Hathaway)的 Leon Russell不朽經典 A Song For You, 這首歌忠於原味地以慢拍開頭, 接著轉入興高采烈的,讓人忍不住起舞的舞曲節拍。
惠妮說她很高興能再次呈現出她舞曲的一面, 不過她本人還是最愛慢節奏的,情感濃郁的芭樂歌, "我喜歡快歌,但我是個芭樂精呀(balladeer)!" 惠妮說, "我很會駕馭芭樂歌, 只要它能抓住我的心, 我就能知道它該怎麼呈現"。
最重要的是, 惠妮相信她是一條鏈子, 將重視歌聲表現的傳統延續下去, 她也相信I Look To You專輯傳遞出了她從小到大最熟悉的聲音, "我希望我聲音中的福音傳統, 也就是我的靈魂, 能被以後接續的歌手聽到並被感受到"。
專輯8/31發行! 轉貼本文請先告知!
英文原文: 這裡 或下面:
WHITNEY'S I LOOK TO YOU, IN HER WORDS
In the twenty-five years since she recorded her history-making debut album, Whitney Houston has become a superstar, a legend, an icon. One of the bestselling female artists of all time, she has sold over 140 million albums worldwide. She has been cited as an influence by the likes of Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson, and Leona Lewis, and last year, Rolling Stone listed Houston as one of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time." But when her longtime mentor Clive Davis, currently Chief Creative Officer of Sony Music Entertainment Worldwide, first approached her about recording her first album since 2002's Just Whitney, Houston didn't think that she wanted to get back in the game.
"When Clive called me and said, 'Are you ready?,' I said, 'Ready for what?,'" she recalls. "
Fortunately, though, Davis was persistent-and the result, almost three years later, is the remarkable new album I Look to You. The disc matches Houston with some of the hottest writers and producers in pop and R&B (including R. Kelly, David Foster, Akon, Stargate, Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz) for a set of songs full of her signature vocal power and passion. The album is built on a strong message of survival and perseverance, and reflects the hard-earned lessons of the high-profile personal challenges Houston has encountered in recent years.
A key song for the project was "Nothin' But Love," a propulsive dance groove co-produced by Fernando Garibay (Britney Spears, Lady GaGa). "If there was anything I wanted to say after some of the things I had gone through," Houston says, "it was that I had nothing but love, regardless of the situation. Maybe that's just the way I was raised, or maybe I had just gotten to the point of, it's all behind me now and I'm moving forward."
Davis, the album's Co-Producer, brought R. Kelly's composition "I Look to You" to Houston, and her reaction was instant-though she hadn't been given all the information. "I heard the song, and I loved that it was so short and sweet," she says. "And then I got to Chicago, and Robert told me there was still another verse to write and a bridge! So he stood there with me in the studio and wrote the second verse right off the top of his head. He closed his eyes, we kinda leaned on each other. As he was singing, I was praying, and the words just came out."
The song (one of two Kelly contributed; he also delivered the defiantly funky "Salute") would go on to give the album its title, and she credits Davis with understanding what the lyrics would mean to her. "When Clive heard 'I Look to You,' because he knows my background in gospel, he knew that song would put it all in check for me," she says.
The relationship between Houston and Davis goes all the way back to 1983, when he signed the young artist to Arista Records. He oversaw the development and marketing of her thirteen-million-selling debut, Whitney Houston. After all these years, he remains so close to the singer that she refers to him as "my father in the industry."
"Clive and I are partners," says Houston. "He still loves music, still loves lyrics and melodies. He's one of the few people who still has that gift of knowing what song fits with what voice. Clive is able to go beyond the personality and see what's inside a person, what really motivates them."
"To be reunited with Whitney is so fulfilling," adds Davis. "The album provides the most exciting challenge I've ever had and whatever happens, I know it's very special. Its music and her voice will once again impact millions all over the world for many years to come."
Even with a few strong songs in motion, though, Houston still wasn't sure that she had found the direction she was looking for. Surprisingly, it's the most light-hearted moment on I Look to You-the disco-flavored roller-skating jam "Million Dollar Bill"-which she considers the turning point.
"I worked with Alicia Keys on that one," she says, "and it was probably the most fun, but it also felt like I was working with someone who understood me, who could relate to me, singer to singer. At that point, I knew that it was coming together, that this was the album that I wanted, and that it was going to get done after two-and-a-half years in the making."
Akon, another 21st-century hitmaker joined forces with Houston for "Like I Never Left." She notes that the singer was a favorite among the friends of her daughter, Bobbi Kristina; "they all had his songs as their ring tones," she says. Houston praises the "island feel" of Akon's work, and adds that when she heard "Like I Never Left," she thought, "that sounds like it could be an album title for me."
Perhaps the most memorable recording session came on the powerhouse ballad "I Didn't Know My Own Strength," written by Diane Warren. The song reunited Houston with producer David Foster, who worked with her on the incomparable soundtrack to the 1992 film The Bodyguard, one of the biggestselling albums in history. Foster's home was damaged in the Malibu fires of 2007, and when Houston came in to record her vocal, he was working out of a small apartment.
"Basically, I recorded in an office, next to the bathroom, with some sheets up near the microphone," she says. "It was totally different from doing 'I Will Always Love You' in a beautiful studio, or 'I Learned From the Best' in David's beautiful home. But when I listened to my vocal, it was real, it was passionate-which is most unusual when you're singing next to a bathroom! "I wasn't thinking only in terms of myself," she continues. "I was thinking about other people and other struggles. I thought about becoming a single mother, I thought about my mother, my cousin Dionne, my sisters-in-law. I thought about people with sicknesses, people who triumph in the face of adversity. The simplicity and strength that came out in my singing made me know how strong that song could be for a lot of people."
One of the most welcome elements of I Look to You is hearing Houston reconnecting with the dance floor and delivering uptempo songs with finesse and joy. Even the album's lone cover-Leon Russell's immortal "A Song For You," which has been recorded by greats from Ray Charles to the Carpenters to Donny Hathaway-begins at its traditional, stately pace but then breaks out into a celebratory, irresistible club beat.
Houston says that she enjoyed bringing that side of her singing out again, but that her heart will always be with the slower, more emotional numbers. "I love the uptempo songs, but I'm a balladeer," she says. "I can take a ballad and it gets in my heart, and I can understand where it's coming from."
Most of all, Whitney Houston believes that she is a link in a chain of vocal tradition, and that I Look to You is one more extension of the sounds she was raised with. "I hope that the gospel tradition in my voice-which is just my soul-that it comes out, and that it is heard and felt by those who come after me."
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"當Clive打給我時, 他說, 妳準備好了嗎? 我說, 準備好幹嘛?" 惠妮回憶當時的對話。
還好, Clive非常堅持找她回來, 而成果呢, 就是這張耗時三年, 非常優秀的專輯 I Look To You, 專輯裡惠妮和時下最棒的詞曲創作人和製作人合作, 包括R. Kelly, David Foster, Akon, Stargate, Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz等, 歌曲充分展現她招牌式的強力嗓音和對音樂的熱情, 專輯的整體精神圍繞在不屈不撓的求生意志, 也相當程度反應出名人私生活上的種種挑戰與誘惑, 而這正是惠妮在過去幾年來所學到狠狠的教訓。
專輯裡一首相當重要的歌曲叫做 Nothing But Love, 一首層層推進,充滿律動的舞曲, 由Fernando Garibay製作 (他曾製作Britney Spears, Lady GaGa等流行藝人歌曲), 惠妮說: "如果你要我談談經過這麼多風雨後, 我有什麼話說, 我會說, 我只想給大家一份愛, 不管在哪種情況下, 或許這是因為我從小就是被這樣養大的, 也或許是我已經走到現在這田地(所以不得不這麼說), 但我確實已經把那些過往都拋諸腦後, 我正往前走"。
Clive是這張專輯的共同製作人, 當他把R. Kelly譜寫的曲子"I Look To You"交給惠妮時, 她當下第一個反應是, 這些東西並不完整, 惠妮說: "我聽了一下, 還蠻喜歡這短短但甜甜的曲子" "後來我飛去芝加哥錄音, Robert (R. Kelly本名)卻告訴我這首歌還沒完成, 他還沒寫出第二段歌詞和bridge! 於是我們兩個站在錄音室裡, 他開始創作剩餘的部份, 他閉起眼睛找尋靈感, 我們在彼此身上都學到些東西, 當他唱著旋律時, 我在旁邊禱告著, 歌詞就這樣源源不絕的湧現了。"
這首歌(R. Kelly還貢獻了另一首相當放客風格的歌曲Salute)可能將成為專輯的名字, Clive很了解這首歌歌詞對於惠妮本人的意義, "當Clive聽到I Look To You時, 他馬上知道因為我的福音背景, 這首歌百分之百會讓我滿意" 惠妮說。
惠妮和Clive兩人的關係開始於1983年, 當年他簽下了年輕的惠妮並一手包辦她首張專輯的規劃和行銷, 創下1300萬張的銷售佳績, 直到今日, 他們兩人還是維持非常親近的關係, 惠妮稱他為"我音樂界的老爸"。
"Clive和我是最佳拍檔" 惠妮說, "他到現在還是非常愛音樂, 愛好的歌詞和旋律, 他是極少數擁有上天恩賜可以了解哪些歌曲該搭配哪種聲音的人, Clive能夠不受一個人的個性影響, 完全看穿一個人, 知道哪些音樂能真正激發那個人" 。
"能夠再和惠妮相聚(製作音樂)真是太令我滿足了" Clive說, "這張專輯給了我一生中最令人興奮的挑戰, 我知道不管發生什麼, 這張專輯都會是非常特別的, 因為這些音樂和她的歌聲都將再一次深深地影響世上百萬人, 年復一年的下去"。
即使有多首好歌在製作中, 惠妮總覺得還沒有找到她真正想要的專輯走向, 然而"Million Dollar Bill"的到來是個轉捩點, 也是整張專輯最無心插柳的一刻。
"這首是我和Alicia Keys合作的" 惠妮說, "也是最有趣最好玩的一首, 我覺得我在跟一個很了解我的人合作, 我們是兩個可以相互了解的歌手, 就在那一刻, 我知道我的專輯將大功告成, 這將會是一張我要的專輯, 終於要結束這長達兩年半的製作過程"。
另一位21世紀的金曲製造機Akon與惠妮合作了Like I Never Left, 惠妮說Akon是她女兒和同學間最愛的歌手之一, "她們都用Akon的歌當手機鈴聲" 惠妮說, 她很喜歡這首歌流露的熱帶島嶼風情, "當我聽到這首歌時, 我直覺覺得可以當我的專輯名稱"。
或許最令人難忘的錄音場景來自於Diane Warren譜寫的芭樂歌 "I Didn't Know My Own Strength", 這首歌讓惠妮與David Foster重逢 (1992年David為她製作了I Will Always Love You, 來自The Bodyguard, 史上最暢銷專輯之一) 。
當時2007年Daivd在馬里布海灘的家遭受森林大火毀壞, 所以和惠妮的錄音室移到了他臨時的一間小公寓進行。
"基本上, 我是在一間小辦公室裡錄音, 旁邊就是廁所, 麥克風附近還堆了一些床單" 惠妮說, "這跟以前完全不一樣, IWALY是在一間美麗的錄音室完成, ILFTB是在David豪華的家裡完成, 但當我錄完聽自己的聲音時, 覺得好真實, 好激情, 沒想到在廁所旁邊唱歌還能唱出這樣的感覺", "唱這首歌時, 我並不是只想著自己(的處境), 還想到其他人生命中的掙扎, 我想到成為一位單親媽媽, 我想到我媽, 我表姊Dionne, 我哥的老婆, 我想到有病痛的人們, 我想到突破逆境成功的人, 從我歌聲中傳達出的單純和力量讓我了解這首歌多麼可以讓人們變得堅強。
I Look To You專輯中一個最受人歡迎的元素是再度聽到惠妮以高超的技巧和歡愉的態度唱起快歌, 即便是挑戰已被多次成功翻唱 (Ray Charles, the Carpenters, Donny Hathaway)的 Leon Russell不朽經典 A Song For You, 這首歌忠於原味地以慢拍開頭, 接著轉入興高采烈的,讓人忍不住起舞的舞曲節拍。
惠妮說她很高興能再次呈現出她舞曲的一面, 不過她本人還是最愛慢節奏的,情感濃郁的芭樂歌, "我喜歡快歌,但我是個芭樂精呀(balladeer)!" 惠妮說, "我很會駕馭芭樂歌, 只要它能抓住我的心, 我就能知道它該怎麼呈現"。
最重要的是, 惠妮相信她是一條鏈子, 將重視歌聲表現的傳統延續下去, 她也相信I Look To You專輯傳遞出了她從小到大最熟悉的聲音, "我希望我聲音中的福音傳統, 也就是我的靈魂, 能被以後接續的歌手聽到並被感受到"。
專輯8/31發行! 轉貼本文請先告知!
英文原文: 這裡 或下面:
WHITNEY'S I LOOK TO YOU, IN HER WORDS
In the twenty-five years since she recorded her history-making debut album, Whitney Houston has become a superstar, a legend, an icon. One of the bestselling female artists of all time, she has sold over 140 million albums worldwide. She has been cited as an influence by the likes of Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson, and Leona Lewis, and last year, Rolling Stone listed Houston as one of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time." But when her longtime mentor Clive Davis, currently Chief Creative Officer of Sony Music Entertainment Worldwide, first approached her about recording her first album since 2002's Just Whitney, Houston didn't think that she wanted to get back in the game.
"When Clive called me and said, 'Are you ready?,' I said, 'Ready for what?,'" she recalls. "
Fortunately, though, Davis was persistent-and the result, almost three years later, is the remarkable new album I Look to You. The disc matches Houston with some of the hottest writers and producers in pop and R&B (including R. Kelly, David Foster, Akon, Stargate, Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz) for a set of songs full of her signature vocal power and passion. The album is built on a strong message of survival and perseverance, and reflects the hard-earned lessons of the high-profile personal challenges Houston has encountered in recent years.
A key song for the project was "Nothin' But Love," a propulsive dance groove co-produced by Fernando Garibay (Britney Spears, Lady GaGa). "If there was anything I wanted to say after some of the things I had gone through," Houston says, "it was that I had nothing but love, regardless of the situation. Maybe that's just the way I was raised, or maybe I had just gotten to the point of, it's all behind me now and I'm moving forward."
Davis, the album's Co-Producer, brought R. Kelly's composition "I Look to You" to Houston, and her reaction was instant-though she hadn't been given all the information. "I heard the song, and I loved that it was so short and sweet," she says. "And then I got to Chicago, and Robert told me there was still another verse to write and a bridge! So he stood there with me in the studio and wrote the second verse right off the top of his head. He closed his eyes, we kinda leaned on each other. As he was singing, I was praying, and the words just came out."
The song (one of two Kelly contributed; he also delivered the defiantly funky "Salute") would go on to give the album its title, and she credits Davis with understanding what the lyrics would mean to her. "When Clive heard 'I Look to You,' because he knows my background in gospel, he knew that song would put it all in check for me," she says.
The relationship between Houston and Davis goes all the way back to 1983, when he signed the young artist to Arista Records. He oversaw the development and marketing of her thirteen-million-selling debut, Whitney Houston. After all these years, he remains so close to the singer that she refers to him as "my father in the industry."
"Clive and I are partners," says Houston. "He still loves music, still loves lyrics and melodies. He's one of the few people who still has that gift of knowing what song fits with what voice. Clive is able to go beyond the personality and see what's inside a person, what really motivates them."
"To be reunited with Whitney is so fulfilling," adds Davis. "The album provides the most exciting challenge I've ever had and whatever happens, I know it's very special. Its music and her voice will once again impact millions all over the world for many years to come."
Even with a few strong songs in motion, though, Houston still wasn't sure that she had found the direction she was looking for. Surprisingly, it's the most light-hearted moment on I Look to You-the disco-flavored roller-skating jam "Million Dollar Bill"-which she considers the turning point.
"I worked with Alicia Keys on that one," she says, "and it was probably the most fun, but it also felt like I was working with someone who understood me, who could relate to me, singer to singer. At that point, I knew that it was coming together, that this was the album that I wanted, and that it was going to get done after two-and-a-half years in the making."
Akon, another 21st-century hitmaker joined forces with Houston for "Like I Never Left." She notes that the singer was a favorite among the friends of her daughter, Bobbi Kristina; "they all had his songs as their ring tones," she says. Houston praises the "island feel" of Akon's work, and adds that when she heard "Like I Never Left," she thought, "that sounds like it could be an album title for me."
Perhaps the most memorable recording session came on the powerhouse ballad "I Didn't Know My Own Strength," written by Diane Warren. The song reunited Houston with producer David Foster, who worked with her on the incomparable soundtrack to the 1992 film The Bodyguard, one of the biggestselling albums in history. Foster's home was damaged in the Malibu fires of 2007, and when Houston came in to record her vocal, he was working out of a small apartment.
"Basically, I recorded in an office, next to the bathroom, with some sheets up near the microphone," she says. "It was totally different from doing 'I Will Always Love You' in a beautiful studio, or 'I Learned From the Best' in David's beautiful home. But when I listened to my vocal, it was real, it was passionate-which is most unusual when you're singing next to a bathroom! "I wasn't thinking only in terms of myself," she continues. "I was thinking about other people and other struggles. I thought about becoming a single mother, I thought about my mother, my cousin Dionne, my sisters-in-law. I thought about people with sicknesses, people who triumph in the face of adversity. The simplicity and strength that came out in my singing made me know how strong that song could be for a lot of people."
One of the most welcome elements of I Look to You is hearing Houston reconnecting with the dance floor and delivering uptempo songs with finesse and joy. Even the album's lone cover-Leon Russell's immortal "A Song For You," which has been recorded by greats from Ray Charles to the Carpenters to Donny Hathaway-begins at its traditional, stately pace but then breaks out into a celebratory, irresistible club beat.
Houston says that she enjoyed bringing that side of her singing out again, but that her heart will always be with the slower, more emotional numbers. "I love the uptempo songs, but I'm a balladeer," she says. "I can take a ballad and it gets in my heart, and I can understand where it's coming from."
Most of all, Whitney Houston believes that she is a link in a chain of vocal tradition, and that I Look to You is one more extension of the sounds she was raised with. "I hope that the gospel tradition in my voice-which is just my soul-that it comes out, and that it is heard and felt by those who come after me."
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