Videos

Alesha Dixon 'To Love Again'

• 16th Oct 2009

‘To Love Again’ – the sensational new single from Alesha Dixon – combines two great powerhouses of British Pop: debutante solo artist Dixon (whose debut The Alesha Show is already certified Platinum and has produced hits including ‘Breathe Slow’ and ‘The Boy Does Nothing’); and Gary Barlow – the UK’s King of Pop, with multi-million selling albums ‘The Circus’ and ‘Beautiful World’ for Take That and sold out stadium tours under his belt in recent years.

Alesha says:

It's no secret that I've been a fan of Gary’s work for many years. It was a complete honour to write with him and John Shanks. They are a fantastic partnership and I was excited to see them at work. For me 'To Love Again' was the perfect song to write with Gary.

It is a personal song to me with an emotional connection. Somehow he was able to tap into this and draw it out of me. It's a vulnerable song with the message of hope! This has been a dream come true, more than they'll ever know!

Gary Barlow says:

I’d met Alesha a few times over the years but really got to know her well when we climbed Mount Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief earlier this year. Her laugh was audible from any part of that mountain for the whole 7 days we were there!

We kept in contact, and when I was in LA this Summer, Alesha emailed suggesting we write together. I knew all her recent songs as they’re never off the radio so I was very excited to see what we could come up with.

We hooked up with John Shanks too. I’ve made the last 2 Take That records with him and thought he’d be perfect for Alesha.

We all sat around the piano and “To Love Again” was created throughout that afternoon. I think it’s fair to say we all played our part in the song’s composition. It felt like the lyrics were coming from a familiar place with Alesha as she wrote them very quickly and they seemed very real…I didn’t really know Alesha was such a good song writer.

Later that night we recorded the song. It was clear this would take a big vocal performance. I hadn’t heard anything like it on Alesha’s record. She went in the vocal booth and killed it! It was a joy to watch. Take after take she really nailed it!

I'm so proud to have been a part of this.

Being so busy nowadays with Take That I have to really love something to get involved. The whole experience was brilliant and more important than anything else, we had fun. I saw why Alesha is so successful as she has a contagious personality, a natural musical talent to not only perform but also create and most importantly she’s a top lass! I hope we can do this again someday.

‘To Love Again’ was written and recorded in LA’s legendary Henson Studios. Originally built by Charlie Chaplin and steeped in film history, the studios later housed the recording of 1980s smash ‘We Are The World’ featuring Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder and Bob Dylan. Written by Alesha, Gary and Grammy Award-winning producer John Shanks; produced by Barlow and Shanks; with Gary playing piano – ‘To Love Again’ is a breathtaking piece of world-class pop, which shows Alesha in fine fettle, and is set to be one of the biggest records this year.

Shanks has not only the last two Take That LPs to his name, but some 56 Million album sales in total and a staggering 40 Number 1 singles (Take That, Fleetwood Mac, Miley Cyrus, James Morrison Pink, Alanis Morissette).
It has been a phenomenal year for Alesha who has made a huge impact on the UK charts and beyond. Since releasing the worldwide smash ‘The Boy Does Nothing’ (Number 1 across much of Europe and currently sitting Top 10 in Australia), Alesha has clocked up hit after hit sending ‘The Alesha Show’ Platinum – thereby making Alesha one of a tiny handful of debut artists to break the Platinum sales threshold in the last year, and one of 2009’s biggest sellers.

Alesha is the subject of a special music-focussed documentary hosted by Fearne Cotton (due for broadcast on ITV2 in October), and whilst in LA, Fearne was lucky enough to be in the studio with Alesha and Gary and capture the moment ‘To Love Again’ was born.

‘To Love Again’ leads an enhanced edition of Alesha’s album ‘The Alesha Show – The Encore’, released on November 23rd. The album comes boosted with an additional three songs – Alesha says of the expanded album:

‘Having written several more songs since we released The Alesha Show, I felt my fans would want the chance to hear the new material.. so I've added three new songs to the album. I'm really happy with them and wanted to make ‘The Encore’ edition a great Christmas gift! I really hope people will be delighted with the result!’

Following a summer of acclaimed festival appearances, Alesha continues her reign on the UK this year with her own headline tour in October and November selling out fast.

‘To Love Again’ is released through Asylum Records digitally on 16th November will be featured on the new version of ‘The Alesha Show – The Encore’ out on 23rd November.