"The Promise of a New Day" is a song by American singer and entertainer

Paula Abdul Paula Julie Abdul (born June 19, 1962) is an American singer, dancer, choreographer, actress, and television personality. She began her career as a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers at the age of 18 and later became the head choreographe ...

, recorded for her second studio album ''Spellbound'' (1991) and services as the album's opening track. The track, written by Abdul, Peter Lord, Sandra St. Victor, and V. Jeffrey Smith and produced by Lord and Smith, was released as the album's second official single in July 1991 in the United States. The song lyrically finds the singer singing optimistically about a relationship, with a vague sub-context of improvement of the world. It was also her first single released under her own label, Captive Records. Despite mixed critical reception, "The Promise of a New Day" became another hit single for Abdul. It hit number one on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in September 1991, becoming Abdul's sixth and final number one song on the chart as of . Internationally, the track proved to be a more minor commercial success, hitting the top 10 in Canada, top 20 in Finland, and top 40 in Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Sweden.

Background

In an interview with

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, when asked how the song came to be, co-writer Peter Lord said, "Paula had an idea for the title and feel for the song and we built it from there."

Critical reception

The song received mixed to positive reviews from music critics. In a review of ''Spellbound'' for the '' New York Times News Service'' republished in ''The Dispatch'',

Simon Reynolds Simon Reynolds (born 19 June 1963) is an English music journalist and author who began his career at ''Melody Maker'' in the mid-1980s. He subsequently worked as a freelancer and published a number of books on music and popular culture. Reynold ...

said that the track "feebly gestures at the social-awareness-by-numbers of

Janet Jackson Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, actress and dancer. She is noted for her innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows. Her sound and choreogr ...

's second album ''Rhythm Nation 1814''." ''Billboard'' gave the track a positive review saying it is a "a lyrically uplifting ditty that percolates with an insinuating,

new jack Jerome Young (January 3, 1963 – May 14, 2021) was an American professional wrestler better known by his ring name New Jack. He was best known for his time with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), where he became notorious for his willingn ...

-ish groove." Dave Sholin of ''

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'' reviewed it favorably saying, "Backed by an intriguing beat, America's most lovable singer/dancer/choreographer provides another new twist to her familiar sound."

Chart performance

"The Promise of a New Day" debuted at number 40 on the US ''

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Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...

chart on the week ending July 20, 1991, claiming the spot of "Hot Shot Debut," meaning the highest new entry. The following week, the single climbed to No. 26, with this week claiming the Greatest Airplay Gainer. The song reached No. 1 on the chart on September 14, 1991, and ended the reign of

Bryan Adams Bryan Guy Adams (born November 5, 1959) is a British and Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, and photographer. He is estimated to have sold between 75 million and more than 100 million album, records and Single (music), si ...

' long-running No. 1 hit, " Everything I Do (I Do It For You)". The following week, it fell to No. 5, and departed the top 40 only four weeks later. It was Abdul's sixth chart-topping single, and her last No. 1 single to date. Its rapid fall from the number one spot was attributed to have been from the implementation of

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by ''Billboard'' in 1991, which provided more accuracy and was more sales-oriented; this affected other titles such as

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's " Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave)". Abdul's declining success as a recording artist was shown in preceding singles, as she would only reach the top 40 four more times.

Music video

The video was directed by Big TV!, a duo made up of Andy Delaney and Monty Whitebloom and of which would be the first of multiple times of Abdul working with them. The live waterfall and tropical footage were filmed on location in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

, but Abdul was unable to attend filming due to prior commitments. Filming and production took place on July 8, 1991, in which Abdul and a number of background dancers filmed on a

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, in which it would be edited in the video through

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. The video would be released on August 17, 1991 on

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as an exclusive, where it was shortly placed on heavy rotation. The video attracted controversy due to the fact that special lenses were used to film the video. This method was in order so that editors could fit in more dancers but unintentionally made Abdul taller and a lot more thinner than what she actually was. The video was later mocked on ''

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'', where it was parodied as "Promise of a Thin Me" and took jabs at Abdul's singing voice and also

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her.

Track listings

* US 7-inch and cassette single : Canadian cassette single : Australian 7-inch single : Japanese mini-CD single # "The Promise of a New Day" (7-inch edit) – 4:13 # "The Promise of a New Day" (West Coast 12-inch) – 5:35 * UK 7-inch and cassette single :A. "The Promise of a New Day" (7-inch edit) – 4:13 :B. "The Promise of a New Day" (West Coast 7-inch edit) – 3:55 * UK and Australian 12-inch single : UK CD single # "The Promise of a New Day" (7-inch edit) – 4:13 # "The Promise of a New Day" (West Coast 12-inch) – 5:35 # "The Promise of a New Day" (extended club version) – 6:50 * UK limited-edition 12-inch single :A1. "The Promise of a New Day" (West Coast 12-inch) – 5:35 :B1. "The Promise of a New Day" (extended club version) – 6:50 :B2. "The Promise of a New Day" (album version) – 4:32

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Promise Of A New Day, The 1991 singles 1991 songs Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Cashbox number-one singles Music videos directed by Big T.V. Paula Abdul songs Songs written by Paula Abdul Songs written by Sandra St. Victor Virgin Records singles