Saturday, 9 September 2017

703 Hello Rozalla - Faith ( In The Power of Love )




Chart  entered :  27  April  1991

Chart  peak  :  65  ( 11  on  re-release  later  in  the  year )

Number  of  hits  : 11

We  move  from  Iceland  to  Zambia  where  Rozalla  Miller  was  born  in  1964. She  started  singing  from  an  early  age, appearing  on  a  children's  TV  show. She  relocated  to  Zimbabwe  in  her  teens.  She  made  a  number  of  records  there  including  a  single  "Party  Nights"  in  1985  and  an  album  "Spirit  of  Africa" in  1988  which  have  never  been  released  here .In  1988  she  moved  to  London  and  teamed  up  with  the  production  duo  Band  of  Gypsies.

Her  first  single  with  them  was  "Born  To  Luv  Ya"  in  1990  on  the  Puls-8  label.  Written  by  the  duo  it  rests  on  a  not  unattractive  Orbital-like  keyboard  line  with  Rozalla's  soaring  vocal   over  the  top.  The  lyrics  are  fluff  and  it  hammers  its  one  hook  to  death  but  the  sax  break  is  nice  and  it's  not  a  bad  commercial  house  track.

"Faith  ( In  The  Power  of  Love ) "  was  the  follow-up  single. It  has  a  more  generic  piano-based  sound  with  a  similar  one  line  hook. The  verses  have  a  bit  more  substance ,telling  a  Rocky-like  story  of  transcending  humble  beginnings  but  they  also  reveal  that  Rozalla's  voice, like  Cher's,  is  something  of  a  blunt  instrument  with  clumsy  phrasing  when  she  isn't  letting  rip. Again  there's  a  well-deployed  sax  which  makes  the  record  more  attractive.  The  song  was  re-released  after  her  ( very  similar )   breakthrough  hit  "Everybody's  Free"   and  reached  number  11.  


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