Songoftheday 5/18/22 - Did I ever tell you how you live in me, every waking moment, even in my dreams...

 

 

"I Will Love Again" - Lara Fabian

from the album Lara Fabian (1999)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #32 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 4

 

Today's song comes from singer Lara Fabian, who was born in the suburbs of Brussels, Belgium, and spent her childhood there and in Sicily, where her mother was from. In 1988, Fabian got her first big music career exposure when she represented the neighboring country of Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest, singing "Croire" ("To Trust"), coming in a respectable fourth behind Switzerland, who had Celine Dion (pre-fame). A year later, a song with Luxembourgish singerFranck Olivier (who also represented that country at Eurovision in 1985), "Je Sais" ("I Know"), became a top-40 hit in the French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec.

 

When Lara reached 21 two years later, she moved to Canada, where she began recording for Polydor Records, releasing her self-titled debut album in 1991. While it was modestly locally successful in the province, spinning off a top-40 hit with "Je m'arrêterai pas de t'aimer" ("I Won't Stop Loving You") going to #25 there. In 1994, she followed it up with Carpe Diem, which ended up scoring two Quebecois #1 hits with the big ballads "Tu t'en vas" ("You Are Going") and "Si tu m'aimes" ("If You Love Me"). (Four years later this album would be released in Europe, becoming a top ten hit in France.) 

With that success in her new homeland, Fabian was signed by Polydor for Europe, where she released her third disc Pure in 1997. It was her breakthrough album in Europe, landing four top ten hits in France starting with "Tout" ("Everything")  at #4 and ending in "La Difference" at #10, which dealt with homophobia. Three of those also made the top ten in her birthplace of Belgium, with "Tout" getting to #2. The Pure album hit the top ten in France, Belgium, and Canada. It was followed by a double-disc Live album, which went to #1 in France and Belgium, and scored another top ten hit in France at #8 with "Réquiem pour un fou" ("Requiem For A Fool") with national pop legend Johnny Hallyday. 

 

Lara signed on with Columbia Records to record in English, where she went to America to record her second self-titled album, and first completely in the language, which came out in the fall of 1999. The lead single was an adaptation of the classical piece "Adagio In G Minor", shortened to "Adagio" with lyrics added by Fabian and producer Rick Allison with Dave Pickell.  The rework made the top ten in the French-prevalent Wallonia part of Belgium (#3) and France (#5). But it would be the second release from the set that would give Fabian a much wider international audience, including one in the States.

"I Will Love Again", written Mark Taylor and Paul Barry, and produced by the former with Dave Rawling, sported the same trio team that helmed Cher's big comeback "Believe" as well as Enrique Iglesias' #1 hit "Be With You". The production is very similiar to those two singles, but with Lara's booming voice (think Celine Dion without as many vocal gymnastics) singing about recovering after a broken heart but not giving up, confronting the ex with defiance. It was a big hit on the dancefloor, as well as translating to mainstream radio, becoming her first and by far biggest success in America...

Fabian's "I Will Love Again" became her first and only hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 pop chart, reaching the top-40 in August of 2000. The song spent a half year on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart, peaking in the top ten at #10. The dance remixes of the track, done by the likes of David Morales and the Thunderpuss team, helped it spent a week at #1 on the Dance Club Play chart. Internationally, the single made the top ten in Belgium (#2F/#5W), Poland (#2), Spain (#6), New Zealand (#8), and Hungary (#9), while reaching the top-40 in Switzerland (#14), France (#16), Austria (#16), Iceland (#18), Canada (#19), Germany (#25), Australia (#31), and Sweden (#31). Surprising, the song stalled down at #63 in the UK. The Lara Fabian album, released in November of 1999, rose to #85 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and topped the albums charts in France and Portugal. 

The next release from the record, the uptempo dance-pop of  "I Am Who I Am", was written by Fabian and Rick Allison and the production team of Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken, who were big in the early 1990s with other acts as well as their own Rythm Syndicate. The song went to #19 in Canada but was not released in the States in lieu of the more sedate ballad "Love By Grace", which climbed to #25 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary radio chart. 

After the success of the album, Lara went back to French and Polydor for her next release in 2001, Nue ("Naked"). The set produced three top ten hits in Belgium and two in France, with "Tu Es Mon Autre" ("You Are My Other") with Belgian singer/actress Mauranne going to #2 in the former country and #5 in the latter. She returned to record a second English album for Columbia, A Wonderful Life in 2005. But while in Europe it again was a top ten success due to her popularity, in Canada and the US, where it was intended, it stiffed with radio moving on to different sounds, and it even was shelved in America.  It would be her final studio set on the label. The following year, Fabian returned to French for her 9 album, which had her most recent top ten hit in France and Belgium in 2006 with "Aime" ("Love").

Since then, Lara has released eight more studio albums, with two more in English, mostly under the indie 9 Productions label. Her most recent regular release, Papillon, came out in 2019, hitting #2 on the Belgian albums chart, with the title track making the top-40 in France at #33. In 2020, she self-released the quarantine opus Lockdown Sessions on her website.

(8/10)

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Here's the Morales classic house music edit of the dance remix that helped the song top Billboard's dance chart...

Next up, performing on the Dutch Music Awards show the Edison Awards in 2000...

And lastly, live in concert in Canada...

Up tomorrow: This underwear-obsessed singer isn't whole.