Looking for a Hit? Call Beyoncé!
Not that Lady Gaga needed the help, but her “Telephone” single and video got a nice boost from the presence of Beyoncé.
Now Alicia Keys, whose latest album, The Element of Freedom, has enjoyed brisk U.S. sales (more than one million) since its release in December but no major U.S. hit singles, is banking on Beyoncé to reverse her chart fortunes. “Put It in a Love Song,” her new duet with Beyoncé, is the stuff that hits are made of.
The track sounds more like a Beyoncé song than an Alicia Keys one. If I didn’t know better (and I sort of don’t), I’d say that Keys wrote it for Beyoncé and at the last minute decided to keep it for herself and invite Beyoncé to record it as a duet. It’s got that unmistakable “Single Ladies” swing, but for a singer-songwriter like Keys who has built a career on stately R&B love songs, it’s a two-step in the right direction.
Will the video be as iconic as “Single Ladies” or as overrated as “Telephone”? (The one posted below is fan made.) I can’t wait to find out.
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[...] Alicia Keys, whose current album, The Element of Freedom, has only gone platinum, can’t seem to produce a solo single that rises above No. 27 on the Hot 100. Jennifer Lopez doesn’t even register anymore. Ditto Hilary Duff. Beyoncé’s hitmaking reputation seems to be safe and secure, and Pink and Kelly Clarkson should continue to sell respectably, if more modestly. I’m not so sure about Avril Lavigne, whose Alice In Wonderland single, “Alice,” topped out at No. 71. And if Britney Spears were to return tomorrow with a new album, where would she fit in? [...]