Jennifer Rush

Career

Born in Queens, New York, Jennifer spent her childhood in New York City, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, and in Seattle, Washington with her father, who was then a professor at the University of Washington. Her first album Heidi Stern was released in 1979 locally in Seattle, Washington. After meeting Gene McDaniels in Seattle, Washington, Jennifer flew to LA to record demo songs with Mr. McDaniels. In 1982, following Mr. McDaniels' and her father's persistence Jennifer moved to Wiesbaden, Germany, where her father Maurice Stern, was engaged as an opera singer. As musicians, both her father and Mr. McDaniels were aware Germany had been very welcoming to female singers. Although Jennifer is not of German heritage, she did speak some German, having spent part of her early childhood in Germany.

Jennifer is a prolific songwriter and has co-written many of the songs on her albums, with her producers most notably: Desmond Child, Phil Ramone, Michael Powell, Barry Eastmond, Christopher O'Neil.

Over the next several years she scored hits around Europe with songs "25 Lovers", "Flames of Paradise"(duet with Elton John) "Ring of Ice", "Destiny", "If You're Ever Gonna Lose My Love", "I Come Undone" and "Madonna's Eyes". Jennifer also sung duets with Elton John, Michael Bolton ("Same Heart"), Placido Domingo ("Til I Loved You" and Bryan May (Queen).

Jennifer's mother Barbara, also an aspiring soul singer, met Jennifer's father when they were both students at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Jennifer dedicated her first album release to her mother "In Memory of Barbara", as her mother had passed away from cancer before it's release. Both Jennifer's older brothers are musicians Bobby Stern (a saxophonist) and Stephen Stern (guitarist/singer/songwriter). In 2010, Jennifer revealed that she adopted her artist name "Jennifer" upon the insistence of her first publishing/recording company, CBS Songs, the publishing unit of CBS Germany, with whom she signed her first contracts. At the very beginning of her carrer Jennifer wanted to concentrate only on her songwriting, and not solely on singing. It was the co-written single "The Power of Love" that became the biggest selling single of 1985 in the United Kingdom, (as well as becoming a significant hit in Australia, Ireland, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Portugal, South Africa and Sweden), and was listed in the Guinness Book Of World Records as "the best-selling single by a female solo artist in the history of the British music industry". "The Power of Love" held that status until 1992, when it was outsold by Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You".

"The Power of Love" topped the charts for more than eight weeks in Australia, South Africa and numerous European countries. Number one in several countries, Rush's version reached only number 57 in the United States Billboard Hot 100 chart. After several cover versions by other artists, the Celine Dion version made a U.S. chart impact in 1994.

Rush remains successful singing in both English and Spanish where her next two albums reached number 1 for 14 weeks and 9 weeks respectively. In the UK, however, her chart career saw only a few sporadic bursts of success, but she did manage three top 50 albums. It was Rush's 1987 album Heart over Mind, featuring compositions by Desmond Child and Michael Bolton and Diane Warren and also guitar work from Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi), that finally brought her Top 40 success in her home country, with the Elton John duet "Flames of Paradise". She also recorded duets with Michael Bolton, Placido Domingo and Brian May.

While she continued to achieve platinum and multi-platinum sales of albums and singles in both English and Spanish, recognition as a singer eluded her in her home country. Rush built her success through the 1990s releasing four albums, the last being 1998's Classics (along with new songs, and also re-recording her biggest hits with the Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra). After that she took some time off in New York, dedicating time to her daughter, who was born in 1993. She has recently publicly acknowledged being known as a songwriter and not a singer in New York City allowed her to raise her daughter in what she considered a more stable environment than she was raised. Allowing her to still travel and perform, but the luxury of songwriting with colleagues based on the East Coast and available to her daughter as a single mom. A series of greatest hits compilation albums followed in the new millennium.

She released a boxed set Stronghold – The Collector's Hit Box in August 2007. This compilation included all Rush singles from 1982 to 1991 (with her first record company), and in their "extended versions", as available. It also included all the B-sides and other rare or unreleased tracks (among them four James Bond theme songs, recorded live in 1984 and only released in a very limited edition by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra).

In 2006 she moved to London with her daughter. On March 6, 2009, she announced on her official website that she had signed a worldwide recording contract with Sony Music/Ariola. This meant a return to the recording label where she made her international breakthrough in the 1980s and released the first five studio albums of her career. Now Is the Hour, was released on March 5, 2010 in most of Europe, and on March 8, 2010 in the UK. It was her first album with completely new material in twelve years.

In June - October 2015 Rush was in South Africa doing extensive recording, radio, and TV appearances most notably being a mentor and guest artist on Idols SA October 4, 2015. Her tour of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia started on October 9th, 2015 and was to end November 8th, with 13 sold out shows. Due to the illness of her father she performed the first 2 sold out shows but cancelled the remaining dates and immediately returned to New York City with her daughter on October 15, 2015. Cancelled shows are planned to be rescheduled for either late 2016/early 2017.

Jennifer Rush is scheduled to return to Africa in early 2016.

Singles

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Albums

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DVDs