Louise has shared the performance video of Eternal’s classic hit Crazy from her Shepherd’s Bush Empire gig, featuring a surprise guest appearance from Kéllé Bryan.
Sharing the stage for the first time in 28 years, the duo – who appeared in the group alongside sisters Easther and Vernie Bennett – joined forces on a powerhouse rendition of their 1994 Top 20 hit.
It was one of a number of highlights from the career-spanning gig, which saw Louise perform tracks from the group’s catalogue and her hugely-successful solo career, while also joining forces with ’90s legend Michelle Gayle for a rendition of her hit Sweetness.
Check out the video below.
On ‘Greatest Hits’, Louise celebrates both of her pop careers and has reworked Eternal hits Just A Step From Heaven, Stay and So Good as part of a set of ‘reimagined’ recordings, alongside classics from her solo catalogue like In Walked Love, Naked, 2 Faced and Arms Around the World.
Reflecting on life as a pop star then versus now, she tells RETROPOP’s July 2023 cover feature: “If I’m honest, I wish I could do now what I did then, because I never over-thought anything and it all seemed like a great idea. I was just having a great time; I was making music, there was a lot of love and support for it, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m down with that’.
“The music industry has changed a lot and now everybody has something to say and we all have to bare all so everybody can have an opinion and say it directly to you in one format or another.
“Back then, it was like you were in your own little world because nothing bad ever got through to you! It was so much easier for pop stars back then because there was no negativity being fed back to you and you could immerse yourself in this bubble of excitement and fun and love for what you do.”
Throughout the nineties, Louise established herself as a British pop institution, delivering a run of 12 UK Top 10 smashes, scooping two BRIT nominations for British Female Solo Artist, and earning Platinum status with her first two albums, ‘Naked’ (1996) and ‘Woman In Me’ (1997). But the sales are only part of the story and when it comes to career milestones, there are too many to choose from.
“There’s moments that I look back on and think, ‘Wow, I wish I’d stopped and pinched myself for a moment and really realised what a big deal this is’. Like singing at the first Apartheid concert in South Africa in front of 150,000 people – there’s not many people in the world that have done that,” she beams.
“I must have been 22 and now I look back and think, ‘That was part of history’. And it’s not that I didn’t enjoy it and appreciate it then, but I look back and I think, knowing what I know now, I might have really taken those memories in even more.
“But I can still remember certain banners in the crowd; there are visions that I’ll never forget. So I am super proud to look back over all of that and think, ‘Wow, I was lucky’.”
REVIEW: Louise – Greatest Hits
