"When You Tell Me That You Love Me"

[TNSUN]

Diana Ross' duet of the song with Westlife was a hit in Europe. Ms.Ross' solo version was also a hit in Europe. Why weren't these songs #1Hits in America?

[Albator]

Diana Ross' duet of the song with Westlife was a hit in Europe. Ms.Ross' solo version was also a hit in Europe. Why weren't these songs #1Hits in America?
No AirPlay and a sirupy arrangement IMO. Great performance

[jobeterob]

Because of her vintage and age and she was becoming a heritage artist and the American market really only values the current crop and you are lucky if your shelf life is longer than 5 years

[sup_fan]

it's a nice song but nothing groundbreaking. frankly it wasn't terribly different from Missing You, Too Shy To Say, Love Me, etc. frankly an artist needs to push their boundaries a bit more than DR seemed interested in doing by the 80s and 90s. at least for the US pop market. you either need to be new/different yourself or you need to constantly doing something new and different. you could MAYBE classify the Ross 83 set as something new and different - they cool, cold 80s euro-pop synth sound.

of course you have to be careful with doing new/different. she definite did try it with Workin' Overtime. in that case it was more about the execution.

by 1991 she had had 0 pop airtime in the US since 1984. she had unfortunately received some public image bruises from Dreamgirl book and Call Her Miss Ross. people don't always want to root for "the bitch", even if that title has been wrongly applied.

[TNSUN]

I don't think it is a syrupy arrangement unless you consider the electric guitar solo as such. I like the production and it should have been a hit in America.