Shoulda been huge: Jordin Sparks’ ‘Battlefield’
By Josh Haggis
No doubt responses of “who” will come thick and fast, but Jordin Sparks initially did quite well for herself when she hit the music scene after winning American Idol‘s sixth season in 2007, aged just 17.
Sparks released the middling US hit Tattoo shortly after winning, before following it up with global smash and drunken karaoke favourite, No Air featuring Chris Brown.
Her career was on the up – and then Battlefield debuted. Produced by OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder, this song sounded like it could become Sparks’ career-defining hit.
Tedder produced both Beyonce’s Halo and Leona Lewis’s Bleeding Love, and went on to find success with Ellie Goulding’s Burn too. In my opinion, Battlefield is better than all three of those songs and could be Tedder’s finest moment. It’s his Sistine Chapel, his Mona Lisa, his Toxic.
It sounds like an ’80s power ballad that’s been brought kicking and screaming into the noughties – and is pissed off about it. It’s aggressively camp, ridiculously dramatic, and the video has SMOKE MACHINES and FIREWORKS. It’s obvious it’s a bit special from the moment the thumping beat begins, but the real magic happens about two minutes in.
As the second chorus ends, another begins, and Sparks screams: “GUESS YOU BETTER GO AND GET YOUR ARMOUR!” (Or as I like to put it, “BEDDAGOANGETCHORARMOOOOOOR”.)
It’s such a devastatingly brilliant pop moment, and it kills me that relatively few people appreciated it. The track missed the top ten on the UK’s Official Singles chart, and only just scraped into the top ten on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Why wasn’t it number one for about 13 weeks? That will remain one of pop’s greatest mysteries, alongside Jessie J’s chart success.
Do yourself a favour and listen to this life-affirming banger below:
[youtube height=”345″ width=”665″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suPlYwJ3YvM[/youtube]
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