''Breathless'' is the second studio album by English singer

Shayne Ward Shayne Thomas Ward (born 16 October 1984) is an English singer and actor. He rose to fame as the winner of the second series of ''The X Factor''. His debut single, "That's My Goal", was released in the United Kingdom on 21 December 2005 a ...

. It was released through

Syco Music Syco Music, originally S Records, was a division of Syco Entertainment which operated from 2002 until 2020. The label was founded by British entrepreneur, record executive and media personality Simon Cowell, who was formerly employed at Bertels ...

and

Sony BMG Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout o ...

on 26 November 2007 in the United Kingdom. Ward reteamed with previous collaborators

Rami Yacoub Rami Yacoub (born 17 January 1975), also known by the mononym Rami, is a Palestinian-Swedish record producer and songwriter and former member of the songwriting/production houses Cheiron Studios and Maratone. Yacoub collaborated extensively wi ...

Arnthor Birgisson Arnthor Birgisson (Icelandic: Arnþór Birgisson; born 12 February 1976) is an Icelandic naturalized Swedish songwriter and producer. He moved to Sweden in 1978 (aged two) and has lived in Stockholm since. Information As young Arnþór att ...

and

Savan Kotecha Savan Harish Kotecha (born August 28, 1978) is an American songwriter and record producer from Austin, Texas. Kotecha is of Indian ( Gujarati) descent. He was also the executive music producer of the 2020 film '' Eurovision Song Contest: The S ...

to work on most of the material. Additional producers on the album include

Jonas Jeberg Jonas Jeberg (born January 28, 1975), is a Danish songwriter and music producer residing in Los Angeles. He has written and produced hit songs including Panic! at the Disco's "High Hopes (Panic! at the Disco song), High Hopes", Selena Gomez's "Fe ...

Cutfather Mich Hedin Hansen (born 9 April 1968), known professionally as Cutfather, is a Danish music producer, songwriter, remixer and DJ based in Copenhagen. Cutfather has a studio in Njalsgade, Copenhagen. Career Cutfather is perhaps best known for his ...

, AJ Junior, and

Ryan Tedder Ryan Benjamin Tedder (born June 26, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is best known as the co-founder, frontman, and lead vocalist for the pop rock band OneRepublic, while also serving as a prolific cont ...

. The album earned largely mixed reviews from music critics but was commercially successful, debuting at number one on the

Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA). The charts were previously compiled on behalf of IRMA by Chart-Track, and have been compiled by t ...

, while also reaching number two on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

. Two singles were released from the album, one of which was a double A-side. ''Breathless'' earned a

platinum certification Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

in the United Kingdom and went five times platinum in Ireland.

Background

Ward worked on the album for nearly a year and a half, longer than he had spent on his previous solo album and ''

The X Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for '' Pop Idol'' (2001–200 ...

'' put together. Ward described the album as a more "funky, sexy and different step from him." Producers

, Arnthor Birgisson, and

also worked on the album. The first single from the album, "

If That's OK with You If or IF may refer to: *If (preposition), a preposition used in English conditional sentences * If (subordinator), a subordinator used for English subordinate interrogative clauses Arts and entertainment Film and television * '' If....'', a 196 ...

" / " No U Hang Up", was released to radio on 7 September 2007. The video for "If That's OK With You" were premiered on 18 August 2007. On 14 September, the single was released physically, and the video for "No U Hang Up" was released via

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

and Ward's official YouTube page. The single reached number two in the Britain and number eleven in Ireland. The second and final single from the album was "Breathless", which was released on 19 November 2007. Television promotion included appearances on the fourth series of

on 10 November 2007 and

The Paul O'Grady Show ''The Paul O'Grady Show'' was a British comedy chat show presented by comedian Paul O'Grady, first shown on 11 October 2004. The programme was a teatime chat show consisting of a mixture of celebrity guests, comic stunts, musical performances ...

on 19 November 2007. The single entered the UK Singles Chart at No. 2 on 25 November 2007. During the release of "Breathless", it was announced that Ward was planning a six-month-long British tour to support the album. The tour started in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Scotland on 12 May 2008 and eventually ended in Ireland on 29 December 2008, following extra dates being added. The tour visited cities such as London,

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

, Aberdeen and

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

Critical reception

The album has received mixed reviews from music critics. ''

Times Online ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fo ...

'' gave the album three out of five stars, stating "With chart battles involving producers rather than artists, poor Ward finds himself fighting it out with the big budget likes of

Justin Timberlake Justin Randall Timberlake (born January 31, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, and dancer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Prince of Pop", ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' honored him as the b ...

in the sweet voice stakes." Similarly,

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

editor Sharon Mawer noted that ''Breathless'' was "vastly different" from Ward's debut album and found that much of the "uptempo R&B numbers" were "more akin to

." The

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

gave the album a mixed-to positive review, calling it "an album that sums up the predicament of the reality pop star. Having taken the fast track to the big time, Shayne has no style of his own and is open to the whims of his production team." Nick Levine from ''

Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its initial launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television pro ...

'' felt that "large portions of ''Breathless'', they're crippled by the dry, stale whiff of anonymity." Andy Strickland from

Yahoo! Music UK Yahoo Music was a brand under which Yahoo provided music services including Internet radio, a digital music store, music streaming service, media player software, and original programming. Yahoo Music was sold to Rhapsody in early 2008. Pro ...

wrote that "the overwhelming fact about ##Breathless## is that not one of these songs will be around long enough for next year's ''X Factor'' auditionees to bother learning them. There's nothing here to match the calibre of song that Ward sang to get here in the first place."

Commercial performance

On 2 December 2007, the album reached number one in the

, knocking

Leona Lewis Leona Louise Lewis (born 3 April 1985) is a British singer, songwriter, actress, model, and activist. Born and raised in Islington, Inner London, she later attended the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon. Lewis achieve ...

's '' Spirit'' off the top. It debuted at number two in the

selling 95,801 in its first week, being held off by Lewis On 31 October 2007, an official ''Breathless'' DVD, which included exclusive interviews and five music videos, was released via Woolworths stores in the UK, and by the end of the year, ''Breathless'' had reached 5× Platinum in Ireland. By September 2009, the album had sold over 450,000 copies in the UK.

Track listing

Notes * denotes remix producer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control Shayne Ward albums 2007 albums Albums produced by Rami Yacoub Albums produced by Ryan Tedder Syco Music albums Albums produced by Cutfather