(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Starley Hope was so close to giving up on the music business. The Australian singer/songwriter had left her home in Sydney and travelled across the world to London in search of success. But years of playing in small venues to appreciative but un-influential audiences had taken their toll. Starley was ready to quit and get what she describes as 'a real job.
'People seemed to enjoy my songs, she remarked. 'But they weren't the right people. I didn't have record company A & R men telling me how good I was and trying to sign me to their label. It just felt like I was getting nowhere and had no prospect of the situation ever changing.
Despite her despair and apparent resignation to her unhappy fate, there was still a part of Starley which retained that driving determination to succeed. This emerged one night in her bedroom when she decided to write one last song. It was this which became her smash hit single, Call On Me.
'The song just poured out of me. I think it was my subconscious urging me to keep trying and keep the faith that everything was going to work out okay. I always say it was like I created my own beacon of hope in the realisation that my dreams were not impossible. I could figure it out. I needed to follow my intuition and basically called on myself to make it happen.
Although Call On Me did attract interest from record labels, sales success was by no means immediate. The song made no impact on the charts when it was initially released last July. But a re-release in October, accompanied by a number of remixes, was met with the kind of response which was way beyond Starley's wildest dreams.
'My Spotify listeners went from virtually zero to more than seven million in just a few days. The Spotify people said they had never seen anything like this happen with a brand new artist. The numbers kept rising to more than 13 million monthly listeners.
Online listening translated into international chart success. Call On Me has become hugely popular throughout the world reaching the top ten in numerous countries and hitting the number one spot in Sweden.
'The transformation in my life over the last few months has been unbelievable. I'm travelling all over the world promoting and performing Call On Me.
Of the five remixes released with the original recording, the version of Call On Me created by Australian DJ Ryan Riback has generated by far the most interest.
'He gave it a more uptempo house beat. This is the track that topped the Swedish chart.
One of the other remixes is by Australian electronic dance music duo Odd Mob. Although Starley's life has changed dramatically through her success with Call On Me, she got at least a taste of what was to come last year when her vocals were used on Into You, Odd Mob's EDM cover of Canadian R & B singer Tamia's 1998 hit, So Into You.
'We stayed at number one on the Australian Club Tracks chart for seven weeks. That was a special time for me. Music is my life, my coping mechanism, my joy, my love. I had tangible proof that all the hard work and sacrifice was finally beginning to pay off.
Her success with Call On Me confirmed Starley's belief.
'I think people connect with the raw emotion in the lyrics. Call On Me is basically my soul under a magnifying glass. Combine that with a high energy tropical house beat and the result is a meaningful song which can fill dance floors.
IN BRIEF
Rag ‘N' Bone Man
Rag ‘n' Bone Man has come a long way since being featured in this column last year. The Sussex-based soul singer and songwriter, real name Rory Graham, won the Critics' Choice prize at the recent BRIT Awards and has now stormed straight to number one on the UK chart with his debut album, Human.
The album proved so popular that it outsold the rest of the top ten combined. Human is also the fastest-selling debut album by a male artist during the 2010s. His sales outnumber those of hugely successful artists such as Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith.
Only three debutants have sold more albums in one week during the present decade. One Direction's Up All Night, Rebecca Ferguson's Heaven and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' self-titled LP. All were issued in 2011.
Rag ‘n' Bone Man's first week sales have also surpassed those of the nine previous recipients of the Critics' Choice Award. Only Emeli Sande's Our Version of Events, Jessie J's Who You Are and Sam Smith's In The Lonely Hour came anywhere near the 117,000 sales of Human.
The first winner, Adele, shifted just 73,000 copies of 19 during her debut week in 2008. However, first week sales for her latest album, 25, topped 800,000 last November. Rag ‘n' Bone Man's popularity will have to increase spectacularly before he can approach that kind of number.
The Beatles
The Beatles classic song, Strawberry Fields Forever, recently turned 50 years old. It was released in mid-February, 1967, as a double A-side single with Penny Lane.
Despite being hailed as a defining work of the psychedelic rock genre, Strawberry Fields Forever peaked at number two on the UK chart. This brought to an end the four-year run of every Beatles single taking pole position.
The double A-side debuted at number five when Petula Clark held top spot with This Is My Song. It then spent the next three weeks in second place behind Engelbert Humperdinck's Release Me.
Strawberry Fields Forever was inspired by John Lennon's childhood visits to the wooded garden behind Strawberry Field, a Salvation Army children's home not far from where he lived. The home, which closed in 2005, became a place of pilgrimage for many Beatles fans.
Plans have now been made to revive the historic site. Proposals from the Salvation Army include a training centre for young people with learning disabilities, a haven for spiritual exploration and an exhibition space covering the history of the children's home, the song and John's early life around Strawberry Field.
A website detailing the project can be viewed at www.strawberryfieldliverpool.com/
Donations are welcome but items are also available to buy from the online store. At present, these are limited to a range of T-shirts and coffee mugs.
Al Jarreau
Al Jarreau, who died earlier this month, was the only singer to have won Grammy Awards in the jazz, pop and R & B categories.
Although Al's records were enormously popular in the genre charts, he was never massively successful in the mainstream listings. His biggest hit single was 1981's We're In This Love Together. The song peaked at number 15 on Billboard's Hot 100. It was taken from Al's biggest hit album, Breakin' Away, which reached number nine on the Billboard 200.
Television viewers who may not have been familiar with his body of work will have heard Al performing the theme for the comedy-drama series, Moonlighting. The show, which ran for five seasons during the mid to late 1980s, launched Bruce Willis to stardom. The theme song reached number eight on the UK singles chart giving Al by far his biggest British hit.
The video for We're In This Love Together can be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=otVH5cv9z1A
An audio posting of Moonlighting is at www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZxLXuFfPvM
Al had continued performing during the 2010s despite contracting several serious illnesses. But the toll was finally too great. He announced his retirement just two days before succumbing to respiratory failure. He was 76.
Lana Del Rey
Apart from her 2010 self-titled debut LP, all of Lana Del Rey's albums have proved hugely successful reaching either number one or number two in Britain and America. But her singles have not fared anything like so well. Just three have reached the UK top ten and only one in the US.
Lana, real name Elizabeth Grant, is trying again now with the release of her latest single, Love. The lead song from her forthcoming as-yet-untitled fifth studio album, Lana announced the music video via a posting on her Instagram account. This can be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlGicylOfwA
The video for Love is at www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-NTv0CdFCk
MENAFN2802201700670000ID1095273451
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.