Strictly Physical (album)

Background

In fall 2006, Senna Guemmour, Bahar Kizil, and Mandy Capristo won the fifth installment of German reality talent show Popstars and formed the trio Monrose. Their debut single "Shame" was an instant number-one success throughout German-speaking Europe, as the fastest selling CD single of 2006 and the biggest-downloaded song since the introduction of the legal digital download charts in Germany in 2004. The band's debut album, Temptation debuted on top of the Austrian, German and Swiss albums charts and was certified platinum by the IFPI for more than 200,000 copies sold within its first two weeks of release. It eventually sold more than 600,000 copies domestically.

In early 2007, the trio qualified for the German national pre-selection of the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, organized and broadcast by the ARD, with their second single "Even Heaven Cries". Although they were considered early favourites by the media, the band eventually finished second. Following this, the band announced their Venus Temptation Tour with twenty dates, beginning at the Hanover Capitol on April 29, 2007. Sponsored by Global Gillette, the concert tour was accompanied by intense media coverage since it failed to produce any sold-out show, and thus four concerts had to be cancelled due to low ticket sales.

Critical response

Strictly Physical received a generally mixed reception from music critics. Musikwoche felt the album distinguished from its previous release by its growth and major production on international standards. The magazine ranked "Hot Summer", "Strictly Physical" and "What You Don't Know" among the best tracks on the album. Julian Stetter from Laut.de called the album a "more mature and individual" but generally "well-snitched" output in comparison with the band's debut album. He praised the song for its experimental production towards electro and contemporary R&B music.

Commercial performance

While the album failed to reprise the huge success of Temptation, missing a number-one peak anywhere, it became another success for the band: It debuted at number 2 on the German Media Control albums chart and reached the top 10 in Austria and Switzerland, shipping more than 90.000 copies in its first week of release. As of January 2008, Strictly Physical has been certified gold by both the Austrian and the German brunch of the IFPI for more than 50,000 and 100,000 sold copies respectively.

The album spawned three singles, however, a fourth was scrapped in favour of production of a new album. The lead single "Hot Summer" became the band's second number-one hit in Austria, Germany and Switzerland and one of the biggest-selling songs of the year on German online music stores, also obtaining success in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and the Benelux states. Its follow-up single "Strictly Physical" became Monrose's first top 10 entry on the Polish Top 50 since their debut release "Shame" (2006), while the ballad "What You Don't Know" became their fifth consecutive top 10 single in Germany, although it failed to reach the top 20 in Switzerland.

Track listing

Cover versions

Spanish singer Soraya Arnelas covered the song "Rebound" on her 4th album Sin Miedo. Korean boyband Super Junior covered "Just Like That" for their third studio album Sorry, Sorry.