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''The Standards'' is the thirteenth studio album by Cuban-American recording artist Gloria Estefan. It was released on September 10, 2013 on Sony Masterworks. The album features a selection of covers of traditional pop standards from the Great American Songbook. The album was nominated in the category of Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for the 56th Grammy Awards.


Background

Estefan initially released the covers album '' Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me'' in 1994. It was a commercial success, giving Estefan two international hits, " Turn The Beat Around" and " Everlasting Love". However, in 1993, Estefan recorded a duet with
Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...
for his smash album '' Duets'', in which she replaced her traditional dance-pop sound for a more mature and soft sound, covering the ballad " Come Rain Or Come Shine". Estefan herself commented she grew up listening to songs of Sinatra,
Johnny Mathis John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer. Starting his 69-year career with singles of standard (music), standard music, Mathis is one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century and became highly popular as ...
, Henry Mancini and other famous crooners, including Latinos, citing this as an explanation as to why she was thrilled to release an album filled with traditional songs known from the Great American Songbook. Estefan stated several times in interviews that her favorite song of all time was Carlos Gardel's most famous song, " El Día Que Me Quieras", which was translated into English for this album. This track was intended to be released as the lead single, but was later replaced by "How Long This Has Been Going On?". Estefan previously performed the song, with its original Spanish lyrics, as the closing number to her 2009 concert in
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
during the 90 Millas World Tour.


Recording

A total of 50 songs were chosen to be recorded for the album, but only 16 songs that made the final cut. The track list was decided by Estefan and Shelly Berg, the front leader and Dean of Music at the
University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...
's Frost School of Music. Before Estefan, Berg had previously collaborated with other famous musicians, such as Patti Austin, Elliott Smith and Arturo Sandoval. The album was recorded with musicians experienced in this genre, with the work of an entire orchestra being receuited. Some of the session musicians included on the album featured artists like
Laura Pausini Laura Pausini (; born 16 May 1974) is an Italian Pop music, pop singer. She rose to fame in 1993, winning the newcomer artists' section of the Sanremo Music Festival 1993, 43rd Sanremo Music Festival with the song "La solitudine", which becam ...
, Joshua Bell and Dave Koz. Estefan tried to approach these standards with fresh ideas. For " They Can't Take That Away From Me", they attempted to combine Afro-Cuban music with waltz music, replicating Estefan's traditional style. For Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim's classic " Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar", Estefan composed English lyrics for the first-ever English version, titled, "It's You I’ll Always Love"; she also translated the song into Spanish and French. She also composed Spanish lyrics for Charlie Chaplin's " Smile", on which she sings with
Laura Pausini Laura Pausini (; born 16 May 1974) is an Italian Pop music, pop singer. She rose to fame in 1993, winning the newcomer artists' section of the Sanremo Music Festival 1993, 43rd Sanremo Music Festival with the song "La solitudine", which becam ...
in both the Spanish and Italian versions. The recording of this song was principally inspired by the
Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...
and
Natalie Cole Natalie Maria Cole (February 6, 1950 – December 31, 2015) was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She was the daughter of singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole. She rose to prominence in the mid-1970s, with the release of her debut ...
version.


Promotion

Estefan started the promotion for ''The Standards'' era by announcing a one-night-only concert at the
Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...
, performing her new songs as well as some of her older hits in a different way.
Oprah Winfrey Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) is an American television presenter, talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show' ...
also made news, when she and Estefan were spotted in Vero Beach at Gloria's favorite shopping stores while Winfrey was interviewing her about future projects. A week later, was announced that Estefan will take part of Miami's UM Frost Festival, which is dated for October 1 at the Gusman Concert Hal l. In the last week of July 2013, Estefan announced more promotional stops for her album in Europe and Brazil. She started at two stops in Brazil for the 25th anniversary of Só Pra Contrariar at their special concerts in
São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...
and Porto allegre on for August 4 and 9 2013. She also headlined the People en Español festival August 31 in
San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...
. At the same time, it was announced that Estefan would be the headliner of the international concert Night of the Proms, with eight dates scheduled for November 2013 at
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and Rotterdam Ahoy. She appeared on '' CBS This Morning Saturday'' the week of the album's U.S. release and performed the song " Good Morning Heartache" in front of original author of the song
Ervin Drake Ervin Drake (born Ervin Maurice Druckman; April 3, 1919 – January 15, 2015) was an American songwriter whose works include such American Songbook standards as " I Believe" and " It Was a Very Good Year". He wrote in a variety of styles and his ...
. Estefan also made a mini-tour to South America and went to some talk-shows such as Fátima Bernardes in Brazil where she performed "Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar", then she went to Buenos Aires to perform "El Día Que Me Quieras" and " Mi Tierra" at Susana Giménez talk show, there she stated that Gardel Institute gave her permission of making a transition to English-language of "El Día Que Me Quieras," and also told Giménez, it was Emilio's and her wedding song. She told they were working on the musical and looking for bilingual artists to the biographical performances of their lives. Estefan was also on the August 2013 AARP Magazine cover and Ocean Drive, on this latest, she had a photoshoot with some iconic and glamorous images. A day before the American release, Estefan appeared promoting the album on different interview shows such as Larry Flick, with Perez Hilton as part of the SiriusXM's ''Town Hall ''program, with Ismael Cala at CALACNN.


Singles

On July 8, 2013 it was announced via Amazon.com that the lead single for the album, would be " How Long Has This Been Going On?" and that will be released at the same site on July 9, 2013 as single download. That same date, the album pre-order was made available at the same store and iTunes Store.


Track listing


Charts


Release history


References


External links


GloriaEstefan.com > Album
{{DEFAULTSORT:Standards 2013 albums Gloria Estefan albums Albums produced by Emilio Estefan Traditional pop albums