Artists you know who seemingly had it all but never made it?

[ObsessedBritFan1]

 

[ZUMBA GUY]

21 minutes ago, ObsessedBritFan1 said:

 

Baby, PLAY were my girls. All 4 albums 

[ObsessedBritFan1]

15 minutes ago, ZUMBA GUY said:

Baby, PLAY were my girls. All 4 albums 

And if you had to ask, they all but disappeared into obscurity lol. 

[lustwecantcontrol]

On 2/14/2024 at 9:13 AM, trip to my touch said:

oh and dua lipa. cant name one thing iconic, except from bad dancing

Dua really disappoints me, I had such high hopes for her but I feel like everything she’s done after her debut album all sounds the same and I haven’t been impressed! 
 

 

[PokemonSpears]

There's a lot of Latin artists that just couldn't make it big, at least globally, despite being very popular locally.

I know most of you met Shakira when she made the crossover with Whenever, Wherever, but she started her career in the 90s and there were a lot of artists from that same generation that I thought were gonna follow suit, but in the end they just didn't make it.

Specifically, Fey, which started around the same time as Shakira, and they both belonged to Sony Music. While Shakira was more rock-grunge, with this almost gothic look of pale skin, and black hair, Fey was more kid friendly, very bubblegum pop with a lot of Euro dance influences, choreos, catchy tunes, etc. She held the record of most performances in a very important stadium here in Mexico for several years, she sold toys, clothes, did campaigns for lots of brands (including Fanta lol).

(the only known picture of Shakira and Fey in the 90s)

She released 3 successful albums in 1995, 1996 and 1998, until she burnt out and took a break. Among other things, it didn't help that her husband was her manager, so that ended up screwing up their relationship, but also there was this huge, but very stupid scandal, where it turned out she was older than what her PR team made the public believe (when she started out they said she was 17, but she was 21 instead).

Still, she came back in 2002 with a very edgy album, very Kylie Minogue, much more mature and dark, and it was actually recorded both in Spanish and English. The album was really good, and as Xtina would say, it was probably too ahead of its time for certain people. Particularly, the record label, who didn't want to support it. They wanted her to continue along this bubblegum pop sound, when she was almost 30 years old, in a world post-Britney Spears who was already dancing with snakes, and where most of her peers from the 90s had moved on from the euro dance styles to something more pop-rock in the early 00's, or they were already trying luck with a crossover, like Shakira, Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias did.

In that same sense, artists like Paulina Rubio or Thalia also failed with their crossovers attempts, but at least they kept having success locally during the 00's, while Fey just sort of fell in this limbo. She was released from Sony, and got with EMI I think, they re-released the album, but still didn't work. She then released a new album which was a tribute to an 80s band from Spain, which was moderately successful, but then she went independent and all went downhill from there.

She released two more albums in 2006 and 2009, but she just never had the same impact ever again. 2012 was her last successful era, when she did a live album, under Sony, performing her classic hits in a more acoustic style. But then she went solo again, and ever since, she's just released a few singles sporadically, she keeps performing, but it's like, nothing happens with her. Most of her shows consist of songs from her second album, she neglects a lot of her other records, she rarely revamps the arrangement of her songs, but somehow she's still active.

In my mind I'll always think she should be up there with Shakira like they were in the 90s. In terms of talent or performance capabilities, everyone can argue whether she has what it takes or not, but at the very least she should be as known as Shakira, even if people don't like her lol Like, even here in Mexico probably younger generations don't even know who she is, but they definitely know Shakira, and it's just sad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I said, she's still active somehow. She performs at radio festivals like this

 

and she's also currently touring the US, a very small tour anyways, in Texas and I think she'll perform in California as well. And she looks great at 50.

Edited March 10 by PokemonSpears

[MikeHunt]

Quote

 

Kaci Battaglia

she had minor success as a teen singer in the UK, but never reached great acclaim as an adult artist.

 

[Bboy1988]

Nadine Coyle from Girls Aloud 

[Britneystanley]

Delta goodrem was big in Australia but never made it stateside and I thought she was underrated as a result 

 

I think Rita ora has it all but has just not resonated with GP

 

always thought Anastacia should be bigger than she is 

 

Melanie Fiona - The Bridge is one of the greatest rnb albums imho 

[Isla]

Not me being a Girls Aloud fan and forgetting to mention Nadine Coyle and Nicola Roberts!

Nadine released her debut solo album Insatiable in 2010 independently and exclusively through Tesco supermarkets in the UK. A pretty bad decision on her part. The album flopped and the lead single (the title track) only got to #26 in the UK. As a result no more singles were released from the album. The way the album was released kinda put me off at the time cause my 14 year old self was obsessed with buying my music on iTunes at the time, but a few years later they made the album available digitally/on streaming. It's not a bad album honestly and has some decent songs, but with the way things were handled I'm not surprised it flopped. 

Nadine has continued to release music and has put out one-off singles over the years, she also released a self-titled EP in 2018 under Virgin EMI (which is VERY good imo). It's a shame she never was bigger because she was arguably the strongest singer in Girls Aloud. 

Nicola released her debut solo album Cinderella's Eyes in 2011, and despite being critically acclaimed, it only got to #18 in the UK and its singles didn't perform well either. I overlooked this at the time, but when I finally listened to it, I really enjoyed it and was kicking myself for not checking it out sooner. If you're into quirky, 80s-influenced synthpop I definitely recommend it, Nicola even covered an 80s song for the album too (Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime). She also released a 10th anniversary edition of the album in 2021 through Plastic Pop with a bonus disc of previously unreleased songs and the album's three b-sides (this isn't available on streaming/digitally).

Unfortunately Nicola hasn't released any music since but has found success behind the scenes as a songwriter, she also won the first season of the UK version of The Masked Singer. It's a shame her career didn't take off though. She has an amazing voice and did great pop music. My only issue is she oversang on some of the songs on Cinderella's Eyes.

Edited March 10 by Isla

[Isla]

12 minutes ago, Britneystanley said:

Delta goodrem was big in Australia but never made it stateside and I thought she was underrated as a result 

 

I think Rita ora has it all but has just not resonated with GP

 

always thought Anastacia should be bigger than she is 

 

Melanie Fiona - The Bridge is one of the greatest rnb albums imho 

Delta was pretty big in the UK with her first album. It went top 10 and Born To Try and Lost Without You were hits here. But her second album flopped, she was dating Brian McFadden at the time and something happened that made most of the British public turn on her? Then she never bothered here again. Her third album was going to be released here but it got cancelled.

Rita Ora is still pretty big over here, she released a new album last year which I think did okay? There's always been such long gaps between her albums but she did have two scrapped albums and label issues inbetween her first two released ones. She's also a panellist on The Masked Singer UK and has lots of endorsement deals (she currently has a clothing deal with Primark). So even when she's not doing music she's keeping herself busy on TV and doing her fashion/beauty stuff etc.

Anastacia only really flopped in the US, she was big in the UK, the rest of Europe, Australia etc. I always wonder why she never took off in the US?

I remember they tried to launch Melanie Fiona here in 2009, I remember hearing Give It To Me Right (I think that's what it's called?) a lot but it flopped and I don't know if she still makes music.

[Isla]

1 hour ago, MikeHunt said:

Kaci Battaglia

she had minor success as a teen singer in the UK, but never reached great acclaim as an adult artist.

 

Not you forgetting her best song!

I always found it random she was more successful in the UK! She had a few hits here and appeared on a lot of TV shows here too.

By the time she relaunched as an adult artist I think she was focusing moreso on the US by that point. She's no longer in the music industry anymore. And last I heard she became a born again Christian?

 

[ObsessedBritFan1]

3 hours ago, PokemonSpears said:

There's a lot of Latin artists that just couldn't make it big, at least globally, despite being very popular locally.

I know most of you met Shakira when she made the crossover with Whenever, Wherever, but she started her career in the 90s and there were a lot of artists from that same generation that I thought were gonna follow suit, but in the end they just didn't make it.

Specifically, Fey, which started around the same time as Shakira, and they both belonged to Sony Music. While Shakira was more rock-grunge, with this almost gothic look of pale skin, and black hair, Fey was more kid friendly, very bubblegum pop with a lot of Euro dance influences, choreos, catchy tunes, etc. She held the record of most performances in a very important stadium here in Mexico for several years, she sold toys, clothes, did campaigns for lots of brands (including Fanta lol).

(the only known picture of Shakira and Fey in the 90s)

She released 3 successful albums in 1995, 1996 and 1998, until she burnt out and took a break. Among other things, it didn't help that her husband was her manager, so that ended up screwing up their relationship, but also there was this huge, but very stupid scandal, where it turned out she was older than what her PR team made the public believe (when she started out they said she was 17, but she was 21 instead).

Still, she came back in 2002 with a very edgy album, very Kylie Minogue, much more mature and dark, and it was actually recorded both in Spanish and English. The album was really good, and as Xtina would say, it was probably too ahead of its time for certain people. Particularly, the record label, who didn't want to support it. They wanted her to continue along this bubblegum pop sound, when she was almost 30 years old, in a world post-Britney Spears who was already dancing with snakes, and where most of her peers from the 90s had moved on from the euro dance styles to something more pop-rock in the early 00's, or they were already trying luck with a crossover, like Shakira, Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias did.

In that same sense, artists like Paulina Rubio or Thalia also failed with their crossovers attempts, but at least they kept having success locally during the 00's, while Fey just sort of fell in this limbo. She was released from Sony, and got with EMI I think, they re-released the album, but still didn't work. She then released a new album which was a tribute to an 80s band from Spain, which was moderately successful, but then she went independent and all went downhill from there.

She released two more albums in 2006 and 2009, but she just never had the same impact ever again. 2012 was her last successful era, when she did a live album, under Sony, performing her classic hits in a more acoustic style. But then she went solo again, and ever since, she's just released a few singles sporadically, she keeps performing, but it's like, nothing happens with her. Most of her shows consist of songs from her second album, she neglects a lot of her other records, she rarely revamps the arrangement of her songs, but somehow she's still active.

In my mind I'll always think she should be up there with Shakira like they were in the 90s. In terms of talent or performance capabilities, everyone can argue whether she has what it takes or not, but at the very least she should be as known as Shakira, even if people don't like her lol Like, even here in Mexico probably younger generations don't even know who she is, but they definitely know Shakira, and it's just sad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I said, she's still active somehow. She performs at radio festivals like this

 

and she's also currently touring the US, a very small tour anyways, in Texas and I think she'll perform in California as well. And she looks great at 50.

 I've never heard of her and I checked out these videos, and the only track that stood out to me was Perfect Song mainly cause Paul  beats slaps

[ObsessedBritFan1]

I miss Billie!

and Vitamin C too

 

[PokemonSpears]

2 hours ago, ObsessedBritFan1 said:

 I've never heard of her and I checked out these videos, and the only track that stood out to me was Perfect Song mainly cause Paul  beats slaps

well, I guess it's a cultural thing, and a "you had to be there" situation to really get how popular she was in the 90's here in Mexico and other Latin countries, and how fresh her sound and image were compared to other contemporary artists. Actually I posted her as well on another thread about "your country's Britney". She really was our Britney Spears before Britney was even a thing. Girls dressing up like her and stuff like that.

Had her record label supported her in her journey to grow and mature as an artist, probably she would've achieved greater things, working with better producers and songwriters. If I wasn't a fan of hers since the 90s, probably I wouldn't like her "newer" material either. Going indie really took a toll on her work, not just quality wise, but all these years it's been a string of cancelled tours, cancelled singles, cheap videoclips when we get any, or just years without a proper release (not to mention her last studio album being 15 years ago).

The Paul Oakenfold collaboration was so random, it came out of nowhere in the middle of the pandemic she actually joined him onstage last year during a festival performance

 

[shatteredgayass]

Austin Mahone

[J45x]

Christina Aguilera