Do you wanna know by now how much I love you? Coz nothing’s gonna change my love for you! Glenn Medeiros, this is your life!
It’s one of the cheesiest songs of all time, but back in 1987/88, seventeen year old Hawaiian born singer Glenn Medeiros ruled the charts and was for a brief moment, the most successful male artist in the world. So was that it and what’s he doing now?
Glenn Alan Medeiros was born in 1970 of Portuguese origin and began singing at the age of ten on his father’s tour bus on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. He won a local talent competition in 1986 performing “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You”, recorded by singer George Benson for his 1985 album “20/20”. A visiting radio executive heard the performance and went back to the US and by word of mouth, Glenn found himself signed to Amherst Records and in the recording studio to sing the song for real. It was initially released in America in February 1987 (Medeiros was still 16) and achieved a chart peak of No.12.
The song’s international released was staggered over a period of eighteen months while Medeiros was recording his self-titled debut album which was released Stateside in May 1987, but only reaching No.83 there. “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You” was next released in Australia in August that year, this time faring a little better in reaching No.10. It saw release across Asia and Europe during the rest of the year and into early 1988 and this is where the song really took off, either topping the charts or peaking in the top three throughout the whole continent. Its final release was in the UK in June 1988 and it was here that the song would achieve its greatest success, topping the singles chart for four weeks and becoming with sixth biggest seller of the year.
Glenn released “Lonely Won’t Leave Me Alone” and “Watching Over You” in 1987 but these failed to capitalise on the success of his debut. His album was only confined to US shores as well, the rest of the world would get a new album in 1988 “Not Me”, which would contain “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You”, although this was only a moderate hit as were the singles “Long And Lasting Love” (UK No.42) and “Never Get Enough of You”. Medeiros did win a second number one in France in early 1989 with the duet “Un Roman d’amitié” (“Friend You Give Me A Reason”) with French singer Elsa Lunghini.
That same year our Glenn recorded the song “Under Any Moon” with The Jets (what happened to them?!) for the movie ‘The Karate Kid Part 3’ in which he also made a cameo appearance. He would next bother us the following Summer, teaming up with Bobby Brown for the track “She Ain’t Worth It”. In a bizarre reversal of chart positions, the song topped the US singles chart (his first and only number one there) and No.12 in the UK (his second and last top 40 entry to date)! The song was the lead single from his third studio album, confusingly called “Glenn Medeiros”, which reached No.82 in America, one place higher than the other “Glenn Medeiros” had achieved three years earlier! The album featured the singles “All I’m Missing Is You” with Ray Parker Jnr. (US No.32) and “Me − U = Blue” featuring The Stylistics which made No.78.
Although Glenn continued to record into the 1990’s, he was by now not achieving any recognition whatsoever. He married in 1996 and has two children and achieved his long standing career dream of becoming a teacher back home in Hawaii. He won a doctorate in Educational Leadership in 2014 and became principal of an all boys school in Honolulu the following year.
While he may be addressed as ‘Sir’ these days, the rest of the world will still remember him for the mullet, the beach and his damn right cheesyness, which still resonates today in TV commercials and 80’s programmes. There is one thing you CAN be sure of, nothing’s gonna change my love for you!
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