"Stalemate" is a song by the English band

Ben's Brother Ben's Brother are a five-piece English band, headed by founder Jamie Hartman. The band was named after Jamie's big brother Ben, whose shadow he lived in as a teenager. Their album Beta Male Fairytales reached number 14 on the UK album charts a ...

from their second studio album, ''Battling Giants'' (2009). Released as the album's third single on 26 October 2009, the album version of the song features

Joss Stone Joscelyn Eve Stoker (born 11 April 1987), known professionally as Joss Stone, is an English singer, songwriter and actress. She rose to prominence in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album, ''The Soul Sessions'', which made the 2004 Merc ...

, while the single version features

Anastacia Anastacia Lyn Newkirk ( ; born September 17, 1968) is an American singer-songwriter. Her first two studio albums, '' Not That Kind'' (2000) and '' Freak of Nature'' (2001), achieved chart success with the singles " I'm Outta Love", " Not That Ki ...

. "Stalemate" had its official premiere on

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

on 21 September 2009.

Song information

The original version of the song, included on ''Battling Giants'', was a collaboration between Ben's Brother and English singer

. This version appears on Stone's fourth studio album, ''

Colour Me Free! ''Colour Me Free!'' is the fourth studio album by English singer and songwriter Joss Stone, released on 20 October 2009 by Virgin Records. The album was originally scheduled to be released in April 2009. However, Stone's record label, EMI, de ...

''. However, for the single release, American singer

replaced her as

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

did not allow Stone's vocals to be featured on the single. Nevertheless,

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...

later released a greatest hits compilation album in 2011 titled ''

The Best of Joss Stone 2003–2009 ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

'' which included the original version of the song. Anastacia said about the song: "I loved the song from the moment I heard it, and i was thrilled to be asked to add my vocals to it. It's been an amazing opportunity to work with the band. In an interview, Anastacia announced plans to include the version of "Stalemate" with her vocals on her upcoming fifth studio album, meaning chronologically, it will be the first single from it. Jamie Hartman spoke about working with Anastacia: "Anastacia is an amazing singer and a great performer—it was a total pleasure working with her and I'm looking forward to performing with her live!" Ben's Brother and Anastacia performed the song together on ''

This Morning This Morning may refer to: * ''This Morning'' (TV programme), a British daytime television programme * ''This Morning'' (radio program), a Canadian radio show which aired from 1997 to 2002 * ''CBS This Morning'', an American morning show, succes ...

'' on 29 October 2009, and at the O₂ Shepherd's Bush Empire on 2 November 2009. A French-language version of the track was also recorded, also featuring Anastacia, entitled "L"Impasse".

Music video

Hartman said on his blog that the music video for the song would be filmed in London on 22 September 2009. The official video premiered on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

on 14 October 2009. The video does not feature Ben's Brother drummer

Karl Brazil Karl Peter Brazil (born 27 May 1977, Solihull) is an English session drummer. He is best known as the drummer for the British indie rock band Feeder, replacing the band's previous drummer Mark Richardson. He often works with other pop and r ...

, who was touring with

James Blunt James Blunt (born James Hillier Blount, 22 February 1974) is an English singer, songwriter and musician. He is known for his songs "You're Beautiful" and "Goodbye My Lover". As a British Army captain in the aftermath of the Kosovo War, Blunt ...

at the time, and instead features session drummer Tom O. Mitchell.

Track listings

*UK digital download # "Stalemate" (featuring

) (Main Version) – 4:21 # "Stalemate" (featuring Anastacia) (Demo Version) – 4:30 # "Stalemate" (featuring Anastacia) (Music Video) - 3:56 *UK promotional CD single"Stalemate" (UK promotional CD single liner notes).

featuring

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

. 2009. STALEMATECD1. #"Stalemate" (featuring Anastacia) (Radio Edit) – 3:45 #"Stalemate" (featuring

) (Album Version) – 4:21

Charts

Release history

References

{{Anastacia singles 2009 singles 2009 songs Anastacia songs Island Records singles Joss Stone songs Music videos shot in London Songs written by Jamie Hartman