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Jennifer Rush

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Jennifer Rush
Rush in 1984
Born
Heidi Stern

(1960-09-28) September 28, 1960 (age 64)
New York, New York, U.S.
Alma materJuilliard School Harvard University
Occupations
  • Singer
  • songwriter
Years active1979–present
Known for
Musical career
Genres
Labels
Websitejennifer-rush.com

Jennifer Rush (born Heidi Stern; September 28, 1960)[1] is an American pop and rock singer. She achieved initial success during the mid-1980s with several singles and studio albums, including the million-selling single "The Power of Love", which she co-wrote and released in 1984. Her initial greatest success came in Europe.[2] Her successful singles from that period include "If You're Ever Gonna Lose My Love", "Ring Of Ice", "I Come Undone", "Heart Over Mind", and "Come Give Me Your Hand".

Early life

Rush was born Heidi Stern in the New York City borough of Queens to Barbara and Maurice Stern, both of Jewish descent. She has two older brothers, Robert "Bobby" Stern and Stephen Stern (both professional musicians), and a younger sister. Rush and her brothers lived with their mother until she was a toddler, and then with their father and his second wife on the Upper West Side of the borough of Manhattan. Rush studied violin at the Juilliard School and also took piano lessons, although she did not enjoy these instruments and instead took to playing the guitar in private.[3] When Rush was nine, the Stern family moved to Germany. Jennifer returned to the United States a few years later to live with her mother's family.[4] She also lived for a time in Seattle, Washington, when her father was briefly a professor of voice at the University of Washington.[3]

Career

Rush's debut studio album, titled with her legal name of Heidi Stern, was released locally in Seattle, Washington, in 1979. After meeting singer, songwriter, and producer Gene McDaniels in Seattle, she went to Los Angeles to record demo songs with him. She credits McDaniels as being her first and most influential mentor as a songwriter and a singer. In 1982, following McDaniels's persistence, Rush moved to Wiesbaden, Germany, where her father was an opera singer for a short period of time. She was then advised to change her name which she did legally.

Jennifer was first signed to CBS Songs Publishing Company as a songwriter in Frankfurt, Germany. At that time she was working for almost two years full time in the military in Munich. She has never had vocal training, however is proficient in music theory due to her two years in the children's orchestra as first violinist.

It was the co-written single "The Power of Love", the fifth and last single release from her debut studio album, that became the biggest selling single of 1985 in the United Kingdom,[5] as well as becoming a significant hit in Australia, Ireland, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, and Sweden, and was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records at the time as the best-selling single by a female solo artist in the history of the British music industry. "The Power of Love" held that status until 1992, when it was outsold by Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You".[2]

"The Power of Love" reached number one for several weeks in Australia, South Africa and numerous European countries. Though it reached number one or the top ten in several other countries, Rush's version peaked at number 57 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.[6] After several cover versions by other acts (including Laura Branigan), Celine Dion's version made a US chart impact in 1994, reaching number one in the US, as well as number one in Canada and Australia.

Rush performing in 1987.

Rush remains successful singing in both English and Spanish, where her next two albums reached number one for 14 weeks and 9 weeks respectively. In the UK, three of her albums reached the top 50 in the albums chart.[7] Her third studio album Heart over Mind (1987), featuring compositions by Desmond Child, Michael Bolton, and Diane Warren, and guitar work from Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi, brought her Top 40 success in her home country, with "Flames of Paradise", a duet with Elton John.[6] She also recorded duets with Michael Bolton, Plácido Domingo and Brian May.

Rush co-wrote many of the songs on her albums with her record producers including Desmond Child, Phil Ramone, Michael J. Powell, Christopher Neil, and Diane Warren.

Through the 1990s, Rush released four albums, three with EMI. Between her leaving CBS and signing with EMI - Rush studied micro and macro economics at Harvard University in Boston. At that time she was considering a different career path.

By the late 1990s, Rush had hit the US Hot 100 chart two times; "The Power of Love" reaching number 57 in 1985 and "Flames of Paradise" (a duet with Elton John) reaching number 36 in 1987. She publicly acknowledged that being less known as a singer in the United States, allowed her to raise her daughter in the US with a more stable and somewhat private environment. She could still travel and perform, but also enjoyed the luxury of songwriting with colleagues based on the East Coast and being available to her daughter as a single mother. A series of greatest-hits compilation albums comprising most of her European hit songs followed in the 2000s.

A box set titled Stronghold – The Collector's Hit Box was released in August 2007. This compilation included all of Rush's singles from 1982 to 1991 (with the first record company that signed her), and in their extended versions as available. It also included all the B-sides and other rare or unreleased tracks (among them four James Bond theme songs, recorded live in 1984 and only released in a very limited edition by the Berlin Philharmonic).

In March 2009, she announced on her official website that she had signed a recording contract with Sony Music/Ariola for one album. That album would be Now Is the Hour, released in 2010. This marked a return to the recording label where she had made her international breakthrough in the 1980s and on which she had released the first five studio albums of her career. Now Is the Hour was released on March 5, 2010, in most of Europe, with minimal input from the label and on March 8, 2010, in the UK. The album failed to chart in the US or the UK, but reached number twenty-one on the German Albums charts. By 2010 official charts were becoming non-existent.

Jennifer Rush still performs live in both Spanish and English.

Discography

Main article: Jennifer Rush discography

Studio albums

References

  1. ^ Betts, Graham (2006). Complete UK Hit Singles 1952–2006 (illustrated ed.). Collins. p. 715. ISBN 978-0-00-720077-1.
  2. ^ a b Arena, James (2017). Europe's Stars of '80s Dance Pop: 32 International Music Legends Discuss Their Careers. McFarland. pp. 175–182. ISBN 978-1-4766-3014-4.
  3. ^ a b Arena, James (2015). Stars of 80s Dance Pop – The European Edition. AuthorHouse. ISBN 978-1-4969-6228-7.
  4. ^ Demalon, Tom. "Jennifer Rush". Billboard.com. Archived from the original on August 20, 2014. Retrieved October 15, 2016.
  5. ^ "The Rush Is On!". Billboard. Vol. 98, no. 22. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. May 31, 1986. p. 39. ISSN 0006-2510.
  6. ^ a b Demalon, Tom. "Jennifer Rush Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved July 30, 2022.
  7. ^ "JENNIFER RUSH – full Official Chart History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved July 30, 2022.
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