Queen Latifah 'The Dana Owens Album' album

Queen Latifah has aptly titled her first full-length album as a vocalist with her given name.

She explains the genesis of the project, The Dana Owens Album, as follows: “I was looking through my record collection one day and realized there are so many songs that have impacted my life, and that’s when the idea for the new album came about. I wanted to choose songs that have shaped me artistically and affected me emotionally.”

The twelve tracks comprising The Dana Owens Album—half of which are produced by Arif Mardin, the other half by Ron Fair—span a wide stylistic range that includes soul, blues and pop songs from every decade between the 1920s and 1970s. The recording opens with “Baby Get Lost,” a 1949 hit for one of Latifah’s musical heroines, Dinah Washington. Replete with a big band arrangement, the track reveals the extent to which the late jazz singer has influenced Latifah’s own singing. A cover of the 1974 Bill Withers hit “The Same Love that Made Me Laugh” is followed by a Nina Simone-inspired rendition of “I Put a Spell on You,” featuring Herbie Hancock on piano. Latifah takes on Al Green’s bluesy ballad “Simply Beautiful,” in which Green duets with her. She is joined by Dizzy Gillespie cohort James Moody on “Moody’s Mood for Love.” Also included is a Mervyn Warren (Take Six) production of “Lush Life,” as well as songs from the repertoires of Peggy Lee, Cannonball Adderly, Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, José Feliciano and Barbara Lewis.

Already an accomplished television and film actress and an indisputably seminal hip hop artist, Queen Latifah reaffirmed yet another of her talents in the recent film adaptation of Chicago. As Mama Morton, she emerged as a formidable singer, rendering “When You’re Good to Mama” and other songs in a standout performance that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, a Golden Globe nomination, and a SAG Award nomination. Although it is her most recently revealed talent, singing has been one of Latifah’s primary artistic passions since she was a child in Newark, NJ, when she was steeped in her parents’ records. Even on her landmark rap debut All Hail the Queen, she punctuated rhymes with sung verses.

As anticipation for the album grows, AOL will webcast a world premiere of the music August 24 in an exclusive two-song “First Listen” preview. Creative Battery and AEG/LIVE, in conjunction with Vector Recordings, signed a deal with Latifah, her manager Shakim Compere, and their Flavor Unit Records to record and release The Dana Owens Album and to create and release a television special/home video/DVD to follow. The project’s executive producers are Scott Sanders, Jack Rovner, Shakim Compere, Ken Levitan and Randy Phillips. A&R for the album was overseen by Monica Lynch and Joe McEwen.

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Queen Latifah - The Dana Owens Album