Did we have a crush on Jennifer Paige after all? It didn’t last if we did. And where is she now?
by Mark Keen
Jennifer Paige (born in 1973) is probably best known to most people for her great debut single in 1998, the breezy “Crush”. There are some other gems in her discography and whilst her career has never reached the same peaks, I still love the line “it’s just a little crush, not like I faint every time we touch”. Jennifer has recently made a critically acclaimed return to form.
“Crush” hit the top ten across the world including the US and the UK, and no doubt even greater things were expected of Jennifer, but it was not to be. The debut album “Jennifer Paige” did nevertheless include a couple of other decent singles, including “Always You” and “Sober”, a favourite of mine (when I don’t have a vodka and lemonade in my hand).
It would be another couple of years before Jennifer would return, although unfortunately she failed to make any impact on the charts, but Italy was kinder to her. Perhaps performing for the Pope helped? The release of the album in the US in the week of the 9/11 attacks seemed to kill its chances of success. One of the singles off her second album “Positively Somewhere” was a particular gem. Check out “Stranded”.
A further single was released from the album with little success, “These days”. A premature greatest hits would appear in 2003 clumsily entitled “Flowers: The Jennifer Paige Hits Collection” and this was a parting of the ways with her record label. An album with an indie record label would follow in 2008 entitled “Best Kept Secret’, but it remained just that. Perhaps the titles of the singles summed up how Jennifer felt: “Wasted” written by Chesney Hawkes and “Underestimated”. Jennifer also experienced some terrible tragedies losing both parents in the matter of months.
A rerelease of the album would follow with the inclusion of a duet with Nick ‘Backstreet Boys’ Carter entitled “Beautiful Lie” which was a top 20 hit in Germany. Jennifer went on to work as a duo named Palermo and Paige releasing a couple of EPS in 2012 and 2013. A Christmas album would also appear in 2012 entitled “Holiday”.
Finally as a result of a Kickstarter fundraising campaign her most recent album “Sunflower” was finally released in 2017 with Billboard did recognise it as one of the best pop albums of 2017, granted this was in May 2017 half way through the year, but still a worthwhile bit of attention. Billboard described it as ‘absolutely fantastic’ so maybe we need to check it out.
Keep in touch with Jennifer through her WEBSITE and her FACEBOOK page
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