Eternal’s debut album Always & Forever sold 1.2 million copies in the UK achieving 4 x PLATINUM status, voted Best Group at the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party, 4 Brit Award Nominations and broke records by becoming the first album by a UK girl band to sell a million copies. In 1997 it was recorded that Always & Forever had sold more than 4 million copies world wide.
According to the Guinness World Records’ British Hit Singles (15th edition) Louise was the first British female to have a string of hits as a band member and a solo artist, and she was rated in the top 500 British acts of all time. She has 3 platinum-selling albums Naked (1996), Woman in Me (1997) and Elbow Beach (2000), and has sold over 5 million records in the UK, and 15 million records worldwide.
Her last album Heavy Love (2020) entered into the UK Top 40 at No.11, Official Independent Album Chart No.2, & Official Physical Album Chart No.3, showing the industry that she is still relevant and can still sell records 20 years after her initial success.
This Greatest Hits album celebrates 30 years in the business by not only containing all the singles, but Louise has also re-recorded 9 of them, including 3 of her hits with Eternal. She has worked with The Godfather of Pop: Steve Anderson who regularly works with Kylie, Steps and Westlife. He has sprinkled his magic throughout each track, managing to capture the essence of the originals, whilst bringing them up-to-date. This marvellous package also includes 5 brand new tracks. Super Magic did the business on Radio 2 at the end of last year, resulting in Louise being invited to perform a set at the coveted Piano Room. Current single High Hopes is enjoying much praise across her social media channels. Right Now & Feel feel very current, delivering the high class pop her fans have come to expect as she delivers the strongest material in her career. A cover of Janet Jackson’s Together Again finishes things off on an emotional high as tribute to her late friend, Caroline Flack.
To top all of this off there was a massive celebration with her devoted fans at London’s O2 Shepherds Bush Empire in a one off special event hosted by long time collaborator and former Smash Hits editor Kate Thornton. The evening included lots of insight into her career as Louise chatted with Kate and answered questions posed by the audience. The set list included a fan ‘take over’ with performances of the Best That You Bring (a deep dive cut from her debut solo album) and the long awaited revival of New York Moon: a fan favourite from her second solo album, of which the singer is not a fan, but she gave the gays what they wanted! I was in the audience for this incredible show which blew us all away when friend and singer Michelle Gayle joined the stage to sing her biggest hit Sweetness together with Louise. The event went next level when former Eternal bandmate Kelle Bryan joined Louise on stage to sing fan favourite Crazy, resulting in fan hysteria from the crowd, almost blowing the roof off!
This show was incredibly emotional for me, as a fan since the very beginning of her career. My personal highlight was an incredible mash-up of her solo hit One Kiss From Heaven with one of my all time favourite songs: That’s The Way Love Goes by Janet Jackson. This show has to be the best that she has ever brought to her fans, with a set list compilating 22 tracks from her career. One of the best things about being a fan of hers is meeting the other devoted fans who like me hold her in their hearts with many fond memories. At every show, signing or stage door we all gather and catch up with friends I have made as part of this community. I actually ended up being sat next to the very first fan I met back in the day in the audience of a promotional appearance at GAY. This contributed to the whole evening feeling like everything had come full circle as we sang and danced together just as we did over 20 years ago.
Louise is is also currently starring in Grease at The Dominion in London’s West End, and she’s bloody fabulous in it!
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