One of the greatest vocalists of all time. Did she just....fade away after "Life" and "Fire" or something? (both of which are amazing songs to this day.... - and "Feel So High" as well.)

These couple of notes on Wikipedia: In 2002, she did short courses in photography and ceramics at the Camberwell College of Arts. In 2007, Des'ree sued Beyoncé for covering "I'm Kissing You" without her permission.

I miss her and I miss Kina as well. She was a member of Brownstone who released one self-titled solo record. She had a minor hit with "Girl From the Gutter". I always described her album as a black Alanis Morisette. They both need to come back.

EmmaMcG said:

Her last album peaked at 178 in the UK album chart and didn't even sell enough to chart in the US. Because of that, she was dropped from her label. A few years later, her song "Life" won a poll for worst lyrics of all time. Critical and commercial failure + awards for worst lyrics = too big a risk for any major label. Apparently she was writing new material in 2015 but I wouldn't hold my breath for it. Chances are, no record label will ever see her as a viable option again. She supposedly has a net worth of about 4 million dollars so I reckon she'll happily retire on that.

Wow! Did you just reel that off of the top of your head or something??

Life? Worst lyrics? I used to LOVE that song, *including* the lyrics - "life indeed can be fun/if you really want to/sometimes livin out your dreams ain't as easy as it seems/I wanna fly around the world/in a beautiful balloon".... Great Stuff!

Oh, my GOD! Saw the thread and was curious about how bad the "Life" lyrics are and MAN...you'd think Madonna was a CO-writer! LOL! (I really do love Madonna's music!) Her lyrics are equally as full of "Life" tho.

[Edited 12/4/18 20:07pm]

Bey is under Sony too. That may have soured Des'ree's rapport with CEO Lucian Grainge.

TrivialPursuit said:

In 2007, Des'ree sued Beyoncé for covering "I'm Kissing You" without her permission.

Funnily enough, I was wondering about what happened to her, a couple of weeks back. Took a look on Spotify and saw she hadn't released anything since the early Noughties. It'd be interesting to hear what her music - and lyrics! - would be like now. I liked songs like Feel So High and You Gotta Be, but I confess the banality of Life and the New-Age-yness of some of her other songs (e.g. that one about star signs) did put me off her, back in the day.

I did come across an exceptional performance with Stevie Wonder from British TV in 1995 (not the date in the title). I still play the b-side Innocent and Naive from time to time, too.

Cinny said:

Bey is under Sony too. That may have soured Des'ree's rapport with CEO Lucian Grainge.

TrivialPursuit said:

In 2007, Des'ree sued Beyoncé for covering "I'm Kissing You" without her permission.

I think that probably makes for a good story, but that sort of thing is just a simple licensing or rights clearance issue, not a CEO sourcing a record company's roster for another artist. (Let's not even get into Beyonce stealing shit left and right anyway.) Could've been, but it's not probable, I believe. I do think, that on a larger scale, your players are right. Bigger artists, the flashier ones, get the attention more and artists that are seen as smaller or less-bankable like Des'ree get dropped, put on a shelf, or whatever. Companies punish artists for not kissing enough ass, which is stupid, but it happens.

All that said, I don't even see Des'ree on social media. She needs to come back and sang.

NorthC said:

I absolutely agree with that worst lyrics award for Life.

Ha ha, she is so rad but yeah those lyrics are awful

.

You Gotta Be will forever be a timeless classic, though! <3

.

the same thing that happened to Tony Rich,Angie Stone,Alicia Keys and many others....the records stopped selling and she became irrelevent.These days,it's hard to have longevity in the music business.

SoulAlive said:

the same thing that happened to Tony Rich,Angie Stone,Alicia Keys and many others....the records stopped selling and she became irrelevent.These days,it's hard to have longevity in the music business.

But Angie Stone and I believe Alicia Keys still release CDs with some regularity. Not sure about Alicia but Angie has 9 full length albums as a solo artist and most of them have charted well on the R&B side. Her last one in 2016 was her first not to chart.

kitbradley said:

SoulAlive said:

the same thing that happened to Tony Rich,Angie Stone,Alicia Keys and many others....the records stopped selling and she became irrelevent.These days,it's hard to have longevity in the music business.

But Angie Stone and I believe Alicia Keys still release CDs with some regularity. Not sure about Alicia but Angie has 9 full length albums as a solo artist and most of them have charted well on the R&B side. Her last one in 2016 was her first not to chart.

Unfortunately these days releasing albums frequently doesn't equal relevancy. I feel like Angie is more interesting as an artist than Alicia, though. SoulAlive is right about longevity. People can do independent, and all that, but sometimes it just doesn't mean anything. Another good example is someone like Macy Gray, who strikes little deals with indie labels and releases quality product, then promotes it. Her latest Ruby has gotten great reviews from fans and critics. Yet someone like Angie could release a quality album, and people wonder where she's at - no one hears about it. It's a fickle damn business, more than ever. It's hard to find really good stuff. You have to wade through the Rihannas and Drakes of the scene to find the Angies and Macys and Maxwells.

TrivialPursuit said:

Cinny said:

Bey is under Sony too. That may have soured Des'ree's rapport with CEO Lucian Grainge.

I think that probably makes for a good story, but that sort of thing is just a simple licensing or rights clearance issue, not a CEO sourcing a record company's roster for another artist. (Let's not even get into Beyonce stealing shit left and right anyway.) Could've been, but it's not probable, I believe. I do think, that on a larger scale, your players are right. Bigger artists, the flashier ones, get the attention more and artists that are seen as smaller or less-bankable like Des'ree get dropped, put on a shelf, or whatever. Companies punish artists for not kissing enough ass, which is stupid, but it happens.

All that said, I don't even see Des'ree on social media. She needs to come back and sang.

I keep reading about artists being held under contract so they can't go to another label to release albums but keep getting passed over by who they are signed to.

I think Des'ree story is simpler actually. Had a hit, had a flop, got dropped (two decades ago while the labels were still plentiful).

All I know is that she makes pots now and Life inspired one of my all time favourite Twitter accounts:

https://twitter.com/thene...es?lang=en

[Edited 12/18/18 11:39am]

Ellie said:

All I know is that she makes pots now and Life inspired one of my all time favourite Twitter accounts:

https://twitter.com/thene...es?lang=en

[Edited 12/18/18 11:39am]

Omg this is awesome

TrivialPursuit said:

These couple of notes on Wikipedia: In 2002, she did short courses in photography and ceramics at the Camberwell College of Arts. In 2007, Des'ree sued Beyoncé for covering "I'm Kissing You" without her permission.

I miss her and I miss Kina as well. She was a member of Brownstone who released one self-titled solo record. She had a minor hit with "Girl From the Gutter". I always described her album as a black Alanis Morisette. They both need to come back.

Kina's album was amazing. I love her as well.

Her song Silent Hero has recently turned into my calm song, it's nice. It's from the Clockers Soundtrack, love that movie, used a few times in the film (1nce when the main character is getting his ass whupped ).

Good for her making physical stuff, if that's what she is doing.

If she ever wants to do public music again, someone should inform her that it is easier than ever in the internet age. She doesn't need a slimy record company or slimy State Mafia social media. Just a few words in the right channels will be enough to get her fans on-board.

She collaborated with Sananda Maitreya on Delicate (back when he used to make listenable music). He could show her the ropes if she wants to sell independently.