A-side "Teardrops" Genre Pop | Released October 19, 2007 Length 3:48 | |
Format CD single, digital single Recorded January 2007, Sound Studio N (Cologne, Germany) | ||
"Amaze Me" is a song performed by all-female German pop group No Angels. It was written by British songwriters Steve Mac and Karen Poole, and produced by Boogieman and Roland Spremberg for the band's comeback album, their fourth full-length studio album Destiny (2007). Musically, the song is a pulasting hymn-like pop ballad. Lyrically, "Amaze Me" is an ode to love. Still amazed by her lover, the female protagonist sings that she feels happy their relationship has lasted through good and bad times over the years.
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Released to positive reviews by music critics, the song was released as the album's third single as a double A-single along with the Womack & Womack cover "Teardrops" on October 19, 2007 in German-speaking Europe. The song reached number 25 on the German Singles Chart, but failed to enter the national charts elsewhere, eventually becoming one of the group's lowest-charting singles. Slightly more successful than its predecessor "Maybe" however, it managed to reach the composite Billboard Eurochart Hot 100 Singles chart.
Background
In mid-2006, No Angels member Lucy Diakovska approached her former bandmates to arrange a first meeting with all original band members for years following their disbandment in December 2003. While Vanessa Petruo refused to re-join the band in favour of an independent solo career in music and film, all other members of the original line-up agreed upon Diakovska's request to reunite for a musical comeback, and the band eventually took action to prepare their next album in secrecy from public. Requested by the No Angels's A&R manager Niklas Hafemann, "Amaze Me" was one of several exclusively-penned tracks for the band's comeback album Destiny. Penned by English songwriters Karen Poole and Steve Mac, it was co-produced by Boogieman and Roland Spremberg for the album. Mixing was handled by the former, while Spremberg provided all instruments, including the guitar, keyboards, and a bass. Engineering was overseen by Nico Schuette.
"Amaze Me" was one of the first tracks to be recorded by the group and among a total of seven candidates considered for the album's lead single. Although it lost in favour of "Goodbye to Yesterday," the band members have described the ballad as one of their personal favourites on the album. "We instantly fell in love with the song, because it has a very special atmosphere. It's carrying off, no matter where you are," Nadja Benaissa told RTL Television, with Lucy Diakovska adding: "Each of us could easily build a relation [to it]. It's about a feeling, [that] everyone knows: You're absolutely amazed by someone, who is mesmerizing you with his charme and acts." Jessica Wahls called the song "soul- and heart-touching", stating: "But it's not a slow song, it is pulsating."
Release and reception
The quartet premiered the song during a special concert in the Radio Energy studios in Munich, Germany on March 5, 2007. On March 29, a thirty-seconds preview of the song was made available on Musicload, and by April 6, 2007 a one-and-a-half-minute clip had leaked onto the internet via pop24, the band's label's promotional website. Released on various editions, a dance music-influenced remix of the song, also produced by Boogieman, appeared on both the "Amaze Me" edition of the CD single and the digital single.
Music video
The music video for "Amaze Me" was directed by Marcus Sternberg and filmed between August 20 and 22 2007 in a film studio in Berlin, Germany. Shot over twenty-two hours back-to-back with the video for "Teardrops," the final clip worldpremiered on September 21 at the end of German music network VIVA's show Neu. However, it was not added to the network's current playlist until September 29, 2007.
The group has declared the filming of the "mammoth shoot" as "extremely exhausting," referring to its extraordinary length and a delay of several hours, caused by various technical defects. Lucy Diakovska has described the plotless clip as a "white, elegant, melancholic but positive [and ...] very simple video, riddled with many nice details and ideas." Inspired by a concept developed by all four members and based on Sternberg's treatment, the music video was eventually conceived as a stylistic counterpart to "Teardrops."
Covers
Credits and personnel
Credits taken from Destiny liner notes.