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''Believe'' is the twenty-second studio album by American singer-actress Cher, first released on October 22, 1998 by Wea Records and distributed in North America by Warner Bros. Records. Following the failure of her previous studio album ''It's a Man's World'', her record company encouraged her to return to the studio to pursue a new musical direction. Recording took place over the summer at the Dreamhouse Studios in London and the Soundworks Studios in New York under the guidance of English producers Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling. The album was dedicated to her ex-husband Sonny Bono, who died earlier that year. ''Believe'' represents a complete musical departure from her previous works, consisting of dance-pop and Eurodance oriented styles, yet it includes a broader range of various musical genres such as techno, house, disco and Latin while its lyrical topics include freedom, individualism and relationships. The album features some of the new technology of the time, like the usage of Auto-tune, which would eventually become known as the "Cher effect". Upon release, the album received mixed reviews from music critics, who commended Cher's vocal performance, while others criticized the high amount of vocoder and its overall production. It won one Grammy for "Best Dance Recording" from a total of three nominations. Commercially, ''Believe'' proved to be extremely successful, peaking at number four on the ''Billboard'' 200 and was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipment of four million copies across the United States. The record reached the peak position in Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand and Portugal, and charted within' the top ten in France, Spain, United Kingdom, United States and several other international territories. Four singles were released from the album. The first single, "Believe", became one of the biggest-selling singles ever by topping the charts in a total of 23 countries and has sold more than 10 million copies. "Strong Enough" was released as the second single from the album, being less successful than ''Believe'', especially in the U.S. and U.K. peaking at #57 and #5 respectively. "All or Nothing" and "Dov'è l'amore" were released as the third and fourth singles respectively, both becoming moderately successful. In order to support ''Believe'', Cher embarked on her sixth concert tour entitled the Do You Believe? Tour which became one of the highest grossing tour ever for a female artist at that time. ==Background and history== After the poorly received previous record ''It's a Man's World'', Warner talked Cher into recording a dance album.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Cher Records: 1965-2002 )〕 Cher began working on ''Believe'' in the summer of 1998 in London, meeting with producers Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling, who had previously worked with Rob Dickins; additional producers included Todd Terry ("Taxi Taxi") and Junior Vasquez (who had originally worked on "Dov'è L'Amore", but when he sent back his version from New York, it was rejected by Dickens, who decided instead to give the production of the track to Taylor and Rawling as well). Cher worked also with long-time collaborator Diane Warren (who wrote "Takin' Back My Heart") and covered two songs: "The Power" (Amy Grant) and "Love Is the Groove". Furthermore, she decided to introduce a remix form of her 1988 single "We All Sleep Alone" from her 1987 ''Cher'' album. The "Believe" single was originally written only by Brian Higgins, Matt Gray, Stuart McLennen and Tim Powell, and circulated at Warner Bros. as an unwanted demo for months. Mark Taylor said, "Everyone loved the chorus but not the rest of the song; As we were already writing other songs for Cher, Rob asked us if we could sort it out. Two of our writers, Steve Torch and Paul Barry, got involved and eventually came up with a complete song that Rob and Cher were happy with."〔 During early sessions Cher recorded a cover version of "Love Is in the Air" that she previously performed a cappella on the talk show ''The Magic Hour'' in 1997. The song was mixed and produced by Junior Vasquez, but it did not appear on the final cut of the album. Now it is only available on file sharing networks. The album featured a new musical direction for Cher, with use of Auto-Tune, most notably in the title track. The album was influenced by Sonny Bono's death in a skiing accident earlier that year. ''Believe'' is dedicated to him. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Believe (Cher album)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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