The Standards

The Standards
Studio album by Gloria Estefan
Released September 10, 2013 (2013-09-10)
Genre Traditional pop, swing
Label Crescent Moon, Sony Masterworks
Producer Emilio Estefan
Gloria Estefan chronology
Miss Little Havana
(2011)		 The Standards
(2013)		 Gloria Estefan: The Dutch Collection (2013)

The Standards is a studio album by Cuban-American recording artist Gloria Estefan. The singer's first English-language album since 2011's Miss Little Havana, and her twenty-seventh overall, it was released on September 10, 2013 on Sony Masterworks.[1] The album features a selection of covers of traditional pop standards from the Great American Songbook.

The album was nominated in the category of Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for the 56th Grammy Awards.[2]

Background

Releasing a covers album before where Estefan included her favorite tunes from all time, 1994 Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me was a commercial success which gave Gloria two big hits around the world, "Turn The Beat Around" and "Everlasting Love". However, a project was in the making since Estefan recorded in 1993 a duet with Frank Sinatra at his smash album Duets where Gloria changed her traditional dance-pop song for a more mature and soft sound in the cover of the ballad, "Come Rain Or Come Shine".

Estefan herself commented she grew up listening to songs of Sinatra, Johnny Mathis, Henry Mancini and other famous crooners, including Latinos, the reason for why she was thrilled to release an album fill with traditional songs known from the great American songbook. Gloria cited many times in some interviews, that her favorite song from all time was Carlos Gardel's most famous song, "El Día Que Me Quieras", which was written in an English-language translation, to be released as the lead single from the album, changed later in favor of "How Long This Has Been Going On?". Estefan previously performed the song, with its original Spanish lyrics, as the closing number to her 2009 concert in Buenos Aires during the 90 Millas World Tour.

Recording

"This album brings everything full circle for me! The songs were chosen by my heart and what I feel. I wanted to do an album without an extraneous note, with an economy of music so it would be just enough to express the emotion of the song."

—Gloria Estefan talking about her comeback in music after Miss Little Havana[3]

A total of 50 songs were chosen to be recorded for the album, recording only 16 songs that made it to the last cut, these songs were chosen by Estefan herself and Shelly Berg, the front leader and Dean of Music at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music, which worked with some greatest names in music such as Patti Austin, Elliott Smith and Arturo Sandoval, all before Estefan.

These songs were recorded completely with talented musicians dedicated to music of this genre, most of it, a complete work of an orchestra was used for the recording process. Some of the collaborations included on the album will feature artists like: Laura Pausini, Joshua Bell and Dave Koz.

Estefan tried to approach these standards with fresh ideas. First with "They Can't Take That Away From Me", they did an almost "Afro-Cuban feel meets the waltz," giving Estefan a sound known to her tunes. For Antonio Carlos Jobim's Brazilian classic "Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar" Estefan composed English lyrics for the first-ever English version, "It's You I’ll Always Love" and composed Spanish lyrics as well as French-lyric. She also composed Spanish lyrics for Charlie Chaplin's "Smile" on which she sings with Laura Pausini in both the Spanish and Italian language. The recording of this song was principally inspired by the Michael Jackson and Natalie Cole version.

Promotion

Gloria has started the promotion for The Standards era, announcing a one-night-only concert at the Royal Albert Hall, performing her new songs as well as some of her older hits in a style unique and very special way.[4]

"It’s always been a dream of mine to perform at the Royal Albert Hall because of its incredible history and elegance, to be able to perform songs from my new album, The Standards and my hits with a new twist, takes my excitement for this concert to an entirely new level."

—Gloria Estefan talking about her comeback concert at the Royal Albert Hall[5]

Oprah Winfrey also made news, when she and Estefan were spotted in Vero Beach at Gloria's favorite shopping stores while Winfrey was interviewing her about future projects.[6] A week later, was announced that Estefan will take part of Miami's UM Frost Festival, which is dated for October 1 at the Gusman Concert Hall.[7]

In the last week of July 2013, Gloria announced more promotional stops for her album in Europe and Brazil. She started at two stops in Brazil for the 25th anniversary of Só Pra Contrariar at their special concerts in São Paulo and Porto allegre on for August 4 and 9 2013.[8] She also headlined the People en Español festival August 31 in San Antonio, Texas. At the same time, it was announced that Gloria would be the headliner of the international concert Night of the Proms, with eight dates scheduled for November 2013 at Antwerp and Ahoy Rotterdam.[9]

Gloria also made a mini-tour to South America and went to some talk-shows such as Fátima Bernardes in Brazil where she performed "Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar", then she went to Buenos Aires to perform "El Día Que Me Quieras" and "Mi Tierra" at Susana Giménez talk show,[10] there she stated that Gardel Institute gave her permission of making a transition to English-language of "El Día Que Me Quieras," and also told Giménez, it was Emilio's and her wedding song. She told they were working on the musical and looking for bilingual artists to the biographical performances of their lives. Estefan was also on the August 2013 AARP Magazine cover and Ocean Drive, on this latest, she had a photoshoot with some iconic and glamorous images.[11][12]

A day before the American release, Estefan appeared promoting the album on different interview shows such as Larry Flick, with Perez Hilton as part of the SiriusXM's Town Hall program,[13] with Ismael Cala at CALACNN.[14]

Singles

In July 8, 2013 it was announced via Amazon.com that the lead single for the album, would be "How Long Has This Been Going On?" and that will be released at the same site in July 9, 2013 as single download. That same date, the album pre-order was made available at the same store and iTunes Store.

Commercial performance

With the pre-order services on some major music-order services, The Standards was able to be one of the most "pre-ordered" albums at Amazon.com, becoming only a week before being released the #1 most waited album on the Vocal and Broadway & Vocalists categories. When it was released, the album went on to the top the charts of the Amazon.com service at the overall albums, Pop and remained at the same positions on Vocal and Broadway & Vocalists.[15]

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[16]
Miami HeraldMixed[17]
The Plain DealerA[18]
Q News (Australian magazine)Mixed[19]
entertainmentfocus.com [20]

Track listing

Charts

Charts (2013) Peak
position
Netherlands Albums Chart[21] 72
Spanish Albums Chart[22] 13
UK Albums Top 75[23] 66
Billboard 200[24] 20

Release history

Region Date Format
U.S.[25] September 10, 2013 CD & Digital
Europe September 9, 2013 CD & Digital
Europe September 30, 2013 Vinyl
U.K. September 14, 2013 CD & Digital
Spain October 22, 2013 CD (Special Edition)

References

  1. ↑ "The Standards release". GloriaEstefan.com. May 14, 2013. Retrieved May 16, 2013.
  2. ↑ "Albany Press Releases".
  3. ↑ "Gloria Estefan The Standards release". gloriaestefan.com. 2013-05-15. Retrieved 2013-05-19.
  4. ↑ Gloria Estefan Announces Royal Albert Date
  5. ↑ "Gloria Estefan To perform at the Royal Albert Hall". hauteliving.com. 2013-07-05. Retrieved 2013-07-07.
  6. ↑ "Oprah Winfrey goes shopping for Gloria Estefan in Vero Beach". Digitaljournal.com. 2013-06-08. Retrieved 2013-09-13.
  7. ↑ "Gloria Estefan to sing 'The Standards' at UM/Frost Festival Miami - People". MiamiHerald.com. 2013-07-15. Retrieved 2013-09-13.
  8. ↑ "home". Gloria Estefan. 2013-07-29. Retrieved 2013-09-13.
  9. ↑ "Night of the Proms | Klassiek ontmoet pop". Notp.com. Retrieved 2013-09-13.
  10. ↑ "Violetta y Gloria Estefan, las próximas invitadas de Susana Giménez | Violetta". Ratingcero.com. Retrieved 2013-09-13.
  11. ↑ "Latin Sensation Gloria Estefan Embraces The Rhythm Of Life & Love After 50 In The August/September Issue Of AARP The Magazine". MarketWatch. Retrieved 2013-09-13.
  12. ↑ Debbie Emery (2013-08-22). "Gloria Estefan is 55 and fabulous in red for sexy Ocean Drive cover shoot | Mail Online". London: Dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-09-13.
  13. ↑ Radio, Sirius XM (2013-09-09). "NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2013: Gloria Estefan Answers Fan Questions During Q&A Session for SiriusXM's "Town Hall" Series | PRNewswire | Rock Hill Herald Online". Heraldonline.com. Retrieved 2013-09-13.
  14. ↑ "¡Feliz Cumpleaños Ismael Cala! | Venezuela al Día". Venezuelaaldia.com. Retrieved 2013-09-13.
  15. ↑ "View as a webpage".
  16. ↑ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, "Gloria Estefan, The Standards" (review), All Music.
  17. ↑ http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/10/3616054/review-estefans-the-standards.html
  18. ↑ Chuck Yarborough, "Gloria Estefan puts her vocal gift on display with 'The Standards' (CD Review)", Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 30, 2013.
  19. ↑ http://qnews.com.au/article/review-gloria-estefan-%E2%80%93-standards
  20. ↑ "Gloria Estefan – The Standards album review", Entertainment Focus, October 17, 2013.
  21. ↑ "Dutch Albums Top 100 - Music Charts".
  22. ↑ http://www.promusicae.org/files/listassemanales/albumes/top%20100%20albumes%20(publicar)_w44.2013.pdf
  23. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on May 21, 2012. Retrieved September 15, 2012.
  24. ↑ "Gloria Estefan", Billboard 200.
  25. ↑ "Gloria Estefan talks career & new album". Billboard. 2013-04-25. Retrieved 2013-05-15.
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