iheartHazey's 90s EURODANCE PARTY: Wanna go for a rate? - THE END

Sorry Aqua and Corona, but you both have one song that I'd be quite OK seeing sacrificed so that the other one can live at least one elimination longer. But for the Vengaboys, I simply can't decide between them.

 

Guess who's back?












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#15. Amber - This Is Your Night - 8.258

After 5: #16
After 10: #14
After 15: #18
After 20: #14
After 25: #9
After 30: #14
Final: #14

Highest: 11 x 3 (@WowWowWowWow, @idratherjack, @Seventeen Days) 10 x 9 (@iheartpoptarts, @DJHazey, @berserkboi, @LPMA, @Sprockrooster, @phily693, @Remorque, @Cutlery, @ThisIsRogue)

Lowest: 3.5 x 1 (@One Stop Candy Shop) 3.7 x 1 (@Untouchable Ace)

Album: This Is Your Night (1996)

Best Charts: #24 (US), #11 (Australia), #14 (Belgium), #14 (Netherlands), #33 (Iceland), #1 (Israel), #40 (New Zealand), #3 (Spain)

Producers: The Berman Brothers (Real McCoy, Sqeezer, Bed & Breakfast, Qkumba Zoo, She Moves, Caught in the Act, React, The Moffatts)

(Look at me throwing in a ton of 90s boybands just because, mwahahahahaha.)

You guys, the scores are so much higher overall than the last time I was here. Everyone give Hazey a round of applause. Somehow it feels like it's been forever!

So he already gave you the lowdown on Amber in the 'Sexual' reveal. Now you've gone and kicked off 'This Is Your Night', her debut and biggest hit to date. For some reason. Help.

According to Eurokdj, Amber had this to say about it: "When I started out with 'This Is Your Night', the lyrics were too simplistic for me. I didn't realize back then that that would be my market niche, keeping me dumb and stupid."

Ooh.

Other big Amber singles include 'Colour of Love', which I suppose I won't put here because Amber herself wouldn't, and 'One More Night'—I wonder if the title was an intentional throwback or not!

Then there's this from the movie 54, which was legit everywhere in Canada because, you know, Gordon Lightfoot, and I bet it counted as Canadian content for radio purposes or something. The other girls are Jocelyn Enriquez ("A little bit of ecstasy...") and Ultra Nate ("You're free! To do what you want to do!")

But anyway. I'm sure nobody could do this post better than resident Amber stan @WowWowWowWow, so I went to Google and typed in "Amber WowWowWowWow site:popjustice.com" and plagiarized a bunch of stuff. Thank you!

From Ultimate Popjustice:

WowWowWowWow:
Probably a ridiculous choice for my #1, but Amber tops my list because of my longstanding connection to her and to her music, especially this, her first single. I had her album on cassette tape and listened to it so frequently that the tape eventually tangled over onto itself, forcing me to buy the CD version. I remember the excitement of getting an autographed 8x10 of her in the mail (That is how long ago I was a fan of hers—Mail! Physical things to sign!) As her career progressed, and more club hits came, she was very open about her struggles with her producers, her desire to not just be pigeon-holed as a “dance artist,” and the backstage politics of the record industry, particularly as a woman. It was very interesting to me to hear the perspective of someone “in the biz.”

Long before social media allowed for immediate contact with artists, Amber had a message board on her website, where she communicated directly with fans about upcoming releases and the challenges she faced after leaving a major record label and releasing her music on her own. When she was performing at a concert in New York City and I inquired about tickets, Amber put me and a friend on her guest list so that we could enjoy the show for free. I know that, to most of the listening public, she’s a one-hit wonder (two if you count “Sexual,” three at a push if you count her appearance from the 54 movie soundtrack), but for me she has been the artist I have been most excited about and most invested in her success. She hasn’t released new music in a few years, but I still have the classics to come back to when I need them.

From everywhere else:

And there we have it.

This Is Your Night:

@Sprockrooster (10) - WHAT A FUCKING SONG.

@berserkboi (10) - Amazing!

@CasuallyCrazed (8) - Still sounds fresh and euphoric.

@Cutlery (10) - Perfect vocals and the lyrics + melodies flow with them just swiftly

Lots of love for the video...

@sfmartin (8) - I really enjoy the camp video. The song doesn't really try anything new.

@rav4boy (7) - The 90s really did have THE best videos…

@geomixes (8) - Video serving Jane McDonald stumbling into a gay club and having the best night of her life

Another Night:

@phily693 (10) - OMG! This was on the 90s cassette that I shared with my sisters and always thought it was a Real McCoy song and haven’t heard it since we threw that tape out. What a great re-discovery! I still know every word!

@ohnoitisnathan (8) - OK, but a hodge-podge of Real McCoy, Staxx, and nonsensical cliche the-first-thing-you-can-think-of-that-rhymes-will-do lyrics.

@Empty Shoebox (8) - Is this the same backing track as 'Another Night'? Sounds a lot like it.

Maybe, but I need 34857947543 of them.

Not Your Night:

@Ray (5) - She sounds off-tune at the very beginning, and it doesn’t really get better afterwards.

@One Stop Candy Shop (3.5) - It's unremarkable.

Everything Is Gonna Be Alright:​

Or not. But y'all and @idratherjack will get through it together. *sadface*​

@WowWowWowWow (11) - I almost thought about giving the 11 to Sexual just for the kiis, but when a song in a rate is your publicly self-professed #1 song of all time, you gotta be consistent. I already wrote a memoir about Amber in the Ultimate Popjustice thread (https://forum.popjustice.com/threads/ultimate-popjustice.61096/page-38#post-5204814), so I won't repeat myself here. But if I could only bring one song with me to a desert island for the rest of my life, it would probably be this.

@Seventeen Days (11) - It’s hard to put into words just how much I love this song. I used to listen to this and imagine what it was like to go to a club in my sexy 90s clothes and just dance for hours without a care in the world. This song is a quintessential track not just for a Eurodance playlist, but the 90s in general. A top track of the decade.

---

So who wants more 'Another Night' while we're here? Probably a lot of people. I mean, that one's still around, isn't it?

(It's amazing. Now I only need 34857947542 of them.)​

 

Awful cut for us all - especially @WowWowWowWow !! What IS even a 90s EURODANCE rate without Amber in the top 10?? HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN, VOTERS???

 

Hey every—

 

Dear everyone who gave this less than an 8:

 

I am so sorry, i was too harsh.

 

Amber out before the Top 10?!



I really let myself believe she could win *weep*

 

It doesn't help that I didn't discover it until at least 5 years after it came out (because it was never a UK hit), but I've always been rather indifferent to This Is The Night. It's like something off of Real McCoy's follow-up album rather than a Run Away.

It's also weird how that particular style of Eurodance had completely died off in the UK by 1996, yet was just reaching its peak in the States.

 

No Limit didn't make the Hot 100 in the U.S. - Get Ready For This was much bigger.

 

Tribal Dance >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>

>



>>>






>>>>>>>



>>>>>>


> No Limit

 

I have just about composed myself now. This sums up best how I am feeling about This Is Your Night's elimination

 

The best Haddaway single

 

Remember when I said I was having a major debate between two songs for my 11? Well it was between "Sailor Song" and "This Is Your Night", but I decided to give it to "Sailor Song" because I thought Amber would be fine without the extra point. Never in a million years did I think it would only be in the Top 10 for a little while and crash out at #15. Like I said, one of the worst placements I have ever seen in a rate.

 

I am unsure whether these picks for HADDaway's best songs are for the sound itself or the various states of undress he is in.... either way, keep posting!

 

Haha! Genuinely think Fly Away is the best thing he's ever done. Definitely should've been bigger. And The Drive is a really good album too.

 

Perhaps it was Brits that pulled it down. Maybe if I'd known it back in 1996 I'd have more of an attachment to it.

 

I didn't know This Is Your Night until well into the 00s but it was never really in any doubt for my 11. This must be the first time I have done that for a song that wasn't a UK hit but it's just that good, the pinnacle of the Eurodance sound. I genuinely can't believe it didn't make the Top 10!

 

I think it's reductive!

 

Suddenly I worry for its placement if you had seen my original tag and voted! Outside the Top 20 perhaps? *shudders*