Nicki French is working with one of the songwriters behind Steps’ comeback record ‘Tears on the Dancefloor’ on her new album.
It’s been three years since Nicki released her fourth LP ‘Glitter to the Neon Lights’ and, speaking exclusively to Retro Pop, the singer reveals she’s teamed up with Gordon Pagoda for its follow-up.
Gordon, who co-wrote the track Beautiful Battlefield on Steps’ ‘Tears on the Dancefloor: Crying at the Disco’ Deluxe album, also penned Nicki’s recent single Haunted Heart, with the star hinting the album is “easily two-thirds” complete.
Revealing details of the project, she shares: “I don’t like to have too many covers. So when we get to three, maybe four covers, I say ‘no more’…
“There’s a lot of originals and at the moment. Many of them are written by Gordon Pagoda, who wrote On Your Marks, Get Set, Go Away from the last album… He kept sending us these songs, and in your brain you think, ‘OK, we mustn’t go with just one songwriter’ – but they’re all so good!”
And when probed on reference points for the new tracks, Nicki teases a “Motown sound” and draws comparisons to Stop Before You Get Me Started from her latest album.
“I love the Motown sound,” she smiles. “That that’s something I tried not to say about Gordon’s; every song that he sent that said ‘Motown’ next to it, I was sold. So if you like Stop Before You Get Me Started, you’re gonna like the plans for the new album.”
We caught up with Nicki to celebrate the release of her new Eurovision EP ‘Let’s Play That Song Again Vol 2’, which features new recordings of the UK’s 1983 entry I’m Never Giving Up by Sweet Dreams and Shine by Russia’s 2014 entrants, the Tolmachevy Sisters, plus a Eurovision Mini Mix and Eurovision Mega Mix, featuring classics including ABBA’s Waterloo, Bucks Fizz’s Making Your Mind Up and Cliff Richards’ Congratulations.
The collection also includes two versions of Nicki’s own Eurovision entry Don’t Play That Song Again – a Candlelight Mix courtesy of Pete Ware, plus a new Special Extended Version – with the singer admitting she can’t get enough of its new arrangement.
“It shows the beauty of the actual song. You know, everybody thinks it’s a fluffy little cheesy pop song from the UK,” she says. “But when you make it into a ballad, it just changes it so much and it’s beautiful.
“And you do wonder, ‘Well, if we don’t like that in the first place, would it have done better?’”
In a review of the EP, Retro Pop said ‘Let’s Play That Song Again Vol 2’ “celebrates everything we love about Eurovision: strong vocals, superb production and, most of all, great songs”.
