Believe (Cher album)

Believe is the twenty-second studio album by American singer-actress Cher, first released on October 22, 1998 by WEA and distributed in North America by Warner Bros. Records. Following the failure of her previous studio album It's a Man's World, her record company encouraged her to return to the studio to pursue a new musical direction. Recording took place over the summer at the Dreamhouse Studios in London and the Soundworks Studios in New York under the guidance of English producers Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling. The album was dedicated to her ex-husband Sonny Bono, who died earlier that year.

Believe represents a complete musical departure from her previous works, consisting of dance-pop and Eurodance oriented styles, yet it includes a broader range of various musical genres such as techno, house, disco and Latin while its lyrical topics include freedom, individualism and relationships. The album features some of the new technology of the time, like the usage of Auto-tune, which would eventually become known as the "Cher effect". Upon release, the album received mixed reviews from music critics, who commended Cher's vocal performance, while others criticized the high amount of vocoder and its overall production. It won one Grammy for "Best Dance Recording" from a total of three nominations.

Commercially, Believe proved to be extremely successful, peaking at number four on the Billboard 200 and was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipment of four million copies across the United States. The record reached the peak position in Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand and Portugal, and charted within' the top ten in France, Spain, United Kingdom, United States and several other international territories.

Four singles were released from the album. The first single, "Believe", became one of the biggest-selling singles ever by topping the charts in a total of 23 countries and has sold more than 10 million copies. "Strong Enough" was released as the second single from the album; it peaked at numbers 57 and 5 in the US and UK, respectively. "All or Nothing" and "Dov'è l'amore" were released as the third and fourth singles respectively, both becoming moderately successful. In order to support Believe, Cher embarked on her sixth concert tour entitled the Do You Believe? Tour which became one of the highest grossing tour ever for a female artist at that time.

Background
After the poorly received previous record It's a Man's World (1995), head of label Warner Music UK, Rob Dickins, suggested that Cher recorded a dance album so that could appeal to her gay audience. However, Cher said she was not interested in dance music anymore because she thought it was not a genre with "real songs", leaving Dickins with the option of convincing her otherwise. At Warner's London office, Dickins bumped into songwriter Brian Higgins, who was asked to pitch songs for a Cher album. Three days later, a tape with sixteen of Higgins's songs arrived. "I lay on my bed and put the tape on and listened to every song. The ninth song was 'Believe'. I thought: 'Cher could do this chorus, especially the lyrics, with her private life the way it is. She's gone through all these things", Dickins said. When Dickins asked the songwriter to complete "Believe", he comes in with a "terrible" song, and gives the song to other producers.

Cher began working on Believe in the summer of 1998 in London, meeting with producers Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling, who had previously worked with Dickins; additional producers included Todd Terry ("Taxi Taxi") and Junior Vasquez (who had originally worked on "Dov'è L'Amore", but when he sent back his version from New York, it was rejected by Dickens, who decided instead to give the production of the track to Taylor and Rawling as well ). Cher worked also with long-time collaborator Diane Warren (who wrote "Takin' Back My Heart") and covered two songs: "The Power" (Amy Grant) and "Love Is the Groove" (Betsy Cook). Furthermore, she decided to introduce a remix form of her 1988 single "We All Sleep Alone" from her 1987 Cher album.

The "Believe" single was originally written only by Brian Higgins, Matt Gray, Stuart McLennen and Tim Powell, and circulated at Warner Bros. as an unwanted demo for months. Mark Taylor said, "Everyone loved the chorus but not the rest of the song; As we were already writing other songs for Cher, Rob asked us if we could sort it out. Two of our writers, Steve Torch and Paul Barry, got involved and eventually came up with a complete song that Rob and Cher were happy with."

Critical reception
Upon release, the album received mixed responses from international music critics. Allmusic's Michael Gallucci called Believe Cher's "latest playground move" and described Cher "merely moves through the beat factory with one drab vocal range into one endless, and personality-free, thump session" and "determinedly, if not wholeheartedly, clinging to the tail end of it". In his review he gave the album two and a half out of five stars. The major criticism was the strong use of Auto-Tune which changed Cher's voice. Beth Johnson of Entertainment Weekly gave it a B- rating, comparing it to Madonna's Ray of Light (1998). She said "One minute, this dance grab bag is mimicking Ray of Light; the next, paying homage to Donna Summer's disco days — then both at once!" But did say "Believe is erratic (and sometimes cheesy) as hell, but you gotta love how her Cher-ness shines." Music critic Robert Christgau ranked the album as a choice cut, which means that the reviewer believes there is a good track, in this case, "Believe", on an album that is not particularly good.

Commercial performance
The album had debuted at number thirty-nine on the Australian Albums Chart, and eventually peaked at number thirteen there, and was certificated 2x Platinum by Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). The album also peaked at number forty-one, and peaked at number one on the New Zealand Albums Chart and was certificated 2x Platinum by Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ). It had peaked at number two on the Swedish Albums Chart, and was certificated 3x Platinum there. It is also the 73rd Best Selling of All Time in Sweden. It had peaked at number five on the French Albums Chart, and stayed in the charts for forty-seven weeks. The album was certificated Platinum in that country. It peaked at number one in Austria, and stayed in there for thirty-seven weeks. It was certificated 2x Platinum in that country. In the United States, after the release date, the album debuted at #139 on the issue of November 28, 1998 and then reached at number four on May 8, 1999.

Accolades
In 2000, the album received a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Pop Album" and the title track was nominated for "Record of the Year", as well as winning the Grammy Award for "Best Dance Recording". Throughout 1999 and 2000 Cher was nominated for, and won, many other awards for the album, including a Billboard Music Award for "Female Vocalist of the Year".

Track listing

 * Notes
 * "Believe" features writing contribution by Cher who remains uncredited.
 * ”The Power” was originally performed by Amy Grant

Personnel
Adapted from Allmusic.


 * Tracy Ackerman - background vocals
 * Chris Anderson - piano
 * Ryan Art - design
 * Kevyn Aucoin - make-up
 * Paul Barry - composer, background vocals
 * Jeffrey Bernstein - programming
 * Winston Blissett - bass
 * Jon Bon Jovi - composer, producer
 * Johan Brunkvist - keyboards
 * Colleen Callaghan - hair stylist
 * Cher - primary artist
 * Desmond Child - composer, producer
 * Betsy Cook - composer
 * Rob Dickins - executive producer
 * Ada Dyer - background vocals
 * Humberto Gatica - mixing
 * Marc Goodman - engineer
 * Marlon Graves - guitar
 * Matthias Heilbronn - editing, programming
 * Brian Higgins - composer
 * Sylvia Mason-James - background vocals
 * Mark Jordan - composer
 * Bill Klatt - engineer
 * Michael Lavine - photography
 * Eddie Martinez - guitar
 * P. Dennis Mitchell - mixing
 * Adam Phillips - guitar
 * Timothy Powell - composer
 * Brian Rawling - producer
 * Antoinette Roberson - background vocals
 * Tom Salta - keyboards, programming
 * Richie Sambora - composer, producer
 * Tommy Sims - composer
 * Robin Smith - string arrangements
 * Judson Spence - composer
 * Hamish Stewart - background vocals
 * Jeff Taylor - additional production, laughs, production engineer, remixing
 * Mark Taylor - composer, guitar, keyboards, mixing, producer, programming, string arrangements
 * Todd Terry - composer, producer
 * Junior Vasquez - producer
 * Diane Warren - composer
 * Audrey Wheeler - background vocals
 * James Williams - background vocals
 * Bruce Woolley - composer