Norah Jones Low-Key After Nominations
LOS ANGELES – Norah Jones’ debut album picked up eight Grammy nominations, sold more than 6 million copies around the world and has been No. 1 in the U.S. for the last two weeks √≥ but it’s not thanks to self-promotion or publicity-seeking by the 23-year-old singer.
In an age of pop divas, Jones avoids flashy videos, doesn’t pose for pinup photos to get better play in music magazines, prefers quiet neighborhood restaurants to celebrity hotspots and travels without an entourage.
“The record industry has gotten so into image that image becomes more important than the singer,” she told the Los Angeles Times for an article published Sunday. “I don’t know if there are any less good singers than ever, but most don’t use their voices in ways that feel honest. Everyone just seems to go for the fast buck.”
When her soulful, melancholy album, “Come Away With Me,” reached the 1 million sales mark, Jones asked Bruce Lundvall, the head of jazz label Blue Note Records, if he could stop selling it.
“I know it was naive, but I was starting to panic,” she said.
About the same time, Jones said, executives at Virgin Records took over radio promotion of the album and startled her with a remix of ‘Don’t Know Why.’
“I have no problem with techno music and remixes, but this one was horrible. They had drum machines on it and it was going, ‘Don’t know why … why … why.’ It was the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard.”
Lundvall supported Jones’ decision to nix the remix.
Now her success is pushing record executives, always on the lookout for the next big thing, to search for singers again, not just hit formulas.
“One of my colleagues told me that Norah was so far from what his bosses were looking for last year that he would have been fired if he had signed her,” said Arif Mardin, who was nominated for the producer of the year Grammy for his work on Jones’ album. “Now, his bosses are saying, ‘Go out and find me a Norah Jones.’ ”
Categories