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Jennifer Rush is a New
York, American based
Pop/Rock and Adult Contemporary singer, best known for the million-selling single "The Power of Love"
(1985).
Born Heidi Stern, September
28, 1960, in Queens, New York,
she spent her childhood in both New York and Germany. She recorded her first album Heidi Stern in 1979, but it did not get much
attention. In 1982, she moved back to Wiesbaden, Germany, with her father, Maurice Stern, an opera singer, trying to establish a career as a singer.
Over the next several years she scored hits around Europe with the songs like "25 Lovers", "Flames of
paradise", "Ring of Ice", "Destiny", "If You're Ever Gonna Lose My Love" and "I
Come Undone".
Her single "The Power Of Love" was the biggest hit of 1985 in the UK, and was listed in the
Guinness Book Of Records as "the best
selling single by a female solo artist in the history of the British music
industry". It held that status until 1992, when it was outsold by Whitney Houston's "I Will Always
Love You". "The Power of Love" also topped the charts in Australia, South
Africa and numerous European countries.
Number one
in several countries, Rush's version reached only number 57 in the United States Billboard Hot 100 chart. Later that year, the
adult contemporary duo
Air Supply changed the
pronouns in the chorus for their own version, but fared no better on the same
chart.
Two years later, gutsy pop-rock vocalist Laura Branigan, best-known for dance-pop successes with "Gloria" and "Self Control" would take her
cover version of "The
Power Of Love" into the U.S. Top
40. After several more cover versions, Celine Dion made a U.S. chart topper with the same song in 1994. One version, by Michael Crawford,
necessitated a lyric-change from "I am your lady and you are my man", to "You
are my lady and I am your man", with limited success.
It was Rush's 1987 album Heart Over Mind, featuring compositions by Desmond Child and Michael Bolton and guitar work from Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi), that finally brought her Top 40 success in her home country, with the Elton John duet "Flames Of
Paradise".
She also scored European hits with duets with Michael Bolton and Plácido Domingo.
While her career continued to result in Platinum and multi-Platinum sales of
her albums and singles in both English and Spanish, she was ignored by the
masses in her home country, initially because her record label in the U.S. did
not understand how to best market her music. A secondary dilemma was her
massively powerful voice combined with the bombastic music production of her
songs which was seemingly too 'European' for the U.S. listener.
Jennifer continued her success through the 90s in Europe (especially in
Germany), releasing four highly-acclaimed albums, the last being 1998's
"Classics" (along with new songs, re-recording her biggest hits with the
Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra). After that she took a well-deserved "time
off" in New York City, dedicating her time to her daughter. A series of "best
of" collections followed in the new millennium.
Jennifer surprised her fans with a new box set—"Stronghold, The Collector's
Hit Box"—in August 2007. This compilation includes all Jennifer Rush singles
from 1982 to 1991 (with her first record company), and in their "extended
versions" where they exist. Furthermore it includes all b-sides and other rare
or unreleased tracks (among them four James Bond theme songs with the RIAS
orchestra in Berlin—recorded in 1984). Another highlight of the new compilation
is the new DJ Dave Kurtis 2007 remix of "I Come Undone".
In 2006 both she and her daughter moved to London in the UK where Jennifer
has been continuing working on a new album.
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