She's been semi retired for the past decade and a half or so. Sure she does some short tours, primarily in the US, but her focus is her private and family life. She performs because I guess she enjoys the connection she makes with her audience in a live venue. Last year she couldn't tour so she made the album as a means to sing and perform and get a message out that she conveys in her shows and twitter feed.
I'm sure she wants it to do well, but I don't think at this point in her life she's willing to knock herself out to promote it. She'll do what she wants so long as it doesn't interfere with her main priorities in life at this juncture in her life. Maybe she'll do some promotion [[interviews, or a streaming concert, or some sort of promotional performances pre-recorded somewhere so as not to travel due to pandemic concerns) when it gets closer to date album is officially released. If she goes ahead with her concerts in the UK next year, maybe another push for the album by including a few of the songs in the show. We shall see. But I accept that she's semi retired and she will only do what she wants to do with regards to her singing career.
We must have very different definitions of what 'semi-retired' means, as Diana had been very active on the tour/residency circuit, pre-pandemic. Just in the January 2019 to March 2020 period alone, she did approximately 60 shows. You can check out all of her previous dates below. I would say someone like Barbra Streisand is semi-retired, in the performing sense. However, I agree with everything else you stated.
https://www.setlist.fm/search?query=Diana+Ross
https://www.billboard.com/articles/b...-billboard-200
It appears both new Abba singles are charting, according to Billboard.
They are charting on Billboards global charts and not very high at that and they did not make the Billboard Hot 100 at all.
That's great that you were one of the privileged few to hear all the songs on the album. How did you manage to do that. All I have heard is a few snippets of a few songs on the internet.
Chart positions mean nothing nowadays. And when they did matter, they were manipulated. What matters is that she took the time to record and release one more album for her fans
What matters today and always is that the songs become part of the world’s DNA. They become classics. Her Motown catalog is the perfect example. Most of her subsequent catalog has been quickly forgotten.
As a fan of both Diana and ABBA, I'm surprised to see ABBA brought up here. Like Carlo said above, it's apples to oranges, but some good points made nonetheless. The anticipation around an ABBA reunion has been building for years. The fact that it's being done in this way, basically pioneering another medium in which artists can continue to live well after they're gone, generates the kind of press coverage that I'm not sure Diana is capable of drawing based on a single album release. There's no competing with what is basically a musical resurrection.
I should add, there's this tendency to think of ABBA, particularly in the US, as nothing more and nothing less than lightweight European fluff. However, this kind of ignores just how well they handled and continue to handle their business. Between ABBA Gold in 1992 and all the Mamma Mia! spinoffs in the last 20 years, there's this great promotional infrastructure which has been in place for years, enabling their music to work for them, even while ABBA wasn't active as a group, per se. This goes all the way back to the 70s, when they sought to minimize the dependency many acts have on an endless cycle of touring, using their earnings to build their own state-of-the-art studio, finance videos and make the most of TV specials etc.. so they could spend as much time as possible writing and recording. So, in a way this new ABBAtar venture continues on that same trajectory.
That being said, we should be nicer to Diana, I think. She's one woman, a 77 year old woman whose place in pop culture is secure, and who probably doesn't need to put out a new record. Whether it reaches #1 or #101, the fact that she's doing so should be a cause for celebration, not lament. Unlike some of her peers, she's still alive, active and at this stage in her life and career, still has the creative urge in her.
Last edited by telekin; 10-08-2021 at 12:35 AM. Reason: Typo
And, as a over-50-year fan of Diana's, I might add that world-wide it just may simply be that Abba is more popular.
Back to ABBA. I'm not a devout fan, but I like them well enough to have invested in the purchase of their 1994 4-CD box set, "Thank You For The Music". On that set is a previously-unreleased, UNFINISHED track titled "Just A Notion". That unfinished track is my favorite on the entire box set, and it lasts for only 2 minutes before stopping abruptly, turning into studio patter. What a frustrating shame it was! Flash ahead to 2021 -- ABBA's new "Voyage" album/CD -- their first in 40 years. Imagine my joy when I discovered that 'Just A Notion" is making its debut in its entirety for the first time EVER! When I bought the "Voyage" CD and checked out "Just A Notion", I couldn't believe my ears! ABBA used their original vocals from the unfinished 1978 session and incorporated them into the new version with all new orchestration. The result is a fantastic combination of classic ABBA, 1960s-era Phil Spector, and Motown -- all wrapped into one glorious masterpiece. The song is so happy and upbeat, it's almost ridiculous, yet it's accompanied by the most beautiful and heart-felt chords imaginable. It's a perfect pop song from start to finish, and I can't stop playing it -- over and over and over again. I haven't even bothered playing the rest of the CD yet. When you've got "Just A Notion", who needs the rest?!!!) I'm just surprised that the Phil Spector and Motown fans haven't discovered it. If you're curious enough, here it is [[oh, and, God, I LOVE that piano!):
ABBA - "Just A Notion"
https://youtu.be/vy4bLOYDmsQ
You're right, Gary. Motown, Spector & ABBA in one happy production! This should be the theme song to go with your SDF name. I love ABBA & 1960s Phil Spector almost as much as Motown. Now I will have to buy Voyage [I've already gotten two copies of Thank You].
It is good stuff Gary!
I hope you don't mind I chose a different link than yours....I prefer trying to understand the lyrics on my own and in this case I find it more intriguing if I hear them as singing: just an ocean [as in, ain't no mountain high enough] and plus the dancing ....well you know ...if the world just danced....
puts me to mind a bit of ELO , are you a fan of them??
This is completely untrue - there has been a huge amount of publicity and marketing for the Diana Ross release. It was heavily sponsored on Amazon, with the price being only £5.99 for some time; there has been a massive amount of airplay on the radio for a couple of the tracks from the CD. This has been on both commercial radio stations and BBC Radio 2.
I will acknowledge that I haven't seen any marketing by Diana Ross herself - but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. I rarely watch any television, and most of it will be European not British.
It is of course possible that music journalists were excited about the new ABBA release, and weren't bothered at all with Ross' release, so perhaps in music papers [[don't know if there are any weekly ones printed in the UK) the higher profile of ABBA, made them a natural to be written about.
Journalists have wanted to interview each and every member of ABBA, but maybe the same journalists weren't interested in trying to obtain interviews with Ross. They may have attempted but interviews turned down - I'm certainly not privileged to know.
For me, there was simply no competition. Listening to the tracks from the new CD by Ross, didn't inspire me to go out and buy it - even at £5.99. Whereas the ABBA release 'Voyage' I have really enjoyed, and play it a lot - both in the car and at home. It achieved number one in almost 20 countries, and top 3 in many others - including the USA and Canada. I hadn't expected to enjoy the ABBA release at all - it is after all, 40 years since their last offering.
Huge amount of publicity and marketing is a bit of a stretch. There was bare minimum at best, barely any here in the US. One billboard ad in Times Square and that was it. None of the singles were on the radio, there was no print or digital promotion other than a few things that popped up on Diana's and Motown's social media accounts. That's it. The fact that Diana couldn't even bother to do one or two TV or radio interviews to help promote is a shame. It looks like she doesn't care.
Last edited by bradsupremes; 12-01-2021 at 04:35 PM.
thanks for the heads up Im a big Abba fan,not of their early stuff but from midway thru the career to the end imo they just got better and better..looking forward to hearing the new album have you heard the medley of demos of "like An angel passing thru my room " on The Visitors expanded ? that is brilliant to hear the track in several different stages of development and styles
We have one store left in our city that sells CDS - there are 10 copies of the new Diana CD out front; there are 10 copies of her Christmas CD from last year; there are plenty of Motown packages - both Christmas and Greatest Hits.
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