"I Shall Be There" is a song by Irish

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B*Witched B*Witched are an Irish girl group consisting of twin sisters Edele and Keavy Lynch, Lindsay Armaou and Sinéad O'Carroll. Originally active between 1997 and 2002, they enjoyed success in both Europe and North America between 1998 and 2002 ...

, featuring vocals from South African male choral group

Ladysmith Black Mambazo Ladysmith Black Mambazo are a South African male choral group singing in the local vocal styles of ''isicathamiya'' and ''mbube (genre), mbube''. They became known internationally after singing with American Paul Simon on his 1986 album ''Grace ...

. It was released on 6 December 1999 as the second single from their second studio album, '' Awake and Breathe'' (1999).

Overview

The recording of the song was a collaboration with

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n choir

. B*Witched member

Edele Lynch Edele Claire Christina Edwina Lynch (born 15 December 1979) is an Irish singer, songwriter, and television personality. She is the lead singer of the Irish girl group B*Witched, of which her twin sister, Keavy, is also a member. In 2013, Lynch ...

along with

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explained the pairing: :''"We met them backstage at the Brit Awards

in 1999 ''In 1999'' is a 1912 one-act comedic short play by William C. deMille, originally produced by Jesse L. Lasky, that was popular upon its release. Its gags are based on a future where gender roles are reversed. Production The piece debuted at t ...

, and me and Keavy had been listening to a lot of their stuff, so we asked if they wanted to work with us, and when we came together in the studio it just all kind of fell into place and made for a really interesting experience."''

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

was directed by Katie Bell. It has a very wild 'African' feel to it and featured two different scenes, a jungle scene with the group wearing appropriate clothing, and a

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theme which was darker and had the girls dressed in more conservative and earth-coloured outfits. Both scenes feature CGI animals.

Chart performance

"I Shall Be There" was released on 6 December 1999 and entered the UK Singles Chart at number 13, becoming B*Witched's first single to miss the UK top 10. It spent a total of nine weeks on the chart, five of which were in the top 40. The single was not released in

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Charts

References

{{authority control B*Witched songs 1999 singles Songs written by Ray Hedges Song recordings produced by Ray Hedges Songs written by Martin Brannigan 1999 songs Epic Records singles 1990s in Irish music Music videos directed by Katie Bell