Releases and Promotion
In the later half of 1995, preparations were made to release The Bridge, including the creation of several music videos. Director Richard Heslop filmed videos for "Beautiful Life" and "Never Gonna Say I'm Sorry", which were filmed within months of each other, as evidenced by the Christmas decorations seen in the back of the laundromat in the latter video. The band was filmed entirely in a studio and computer graphics were added to give the band the appearance of being outdoors.
Two videos were also filmed for "Lucky Love", and these were actually filmed outdoors. However, the American record company, Arista Records, was unhappy with all four of these videos. According to VH1, the bubbles digitally added to the "Beautiful Life" video were digitally removed at the record company's insistence. An entirely new, "sexier", video was filmed for "Lucky Love".
In September 1995, "Beautiful Life" was released in North and South America and Japan, while simultaneously "Lucky Love" was released across Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. The full album was released later that month. The band appeared in Canada and Mexico, and performed in several Latin America countries.
"Lucky Love" was a commercial success across Europe, and was later released in North and South America (in April, 1996). While "Lucky Love" was released there, "Beautiful Life" charted in Europe.
"Never Gonna Say I'm sorry" was released in the U.S. in August, 1996, but was largely ignored because it was given no promotion, and the band was busy performing concerts elsewhere. "Just 'N' Image" was heard on several radio stations in the U.S., but no further single releases were forthcoming. Promotional releases of "My Déjà Vu" appeared in France and Scandinavia that year.
Ace of Base appeared at several concerts around the world during 1996, including their second-largest performance ever at Viña del Mar, Chile, where the band performed in front of 20,000 fans. They also appeared in South-East Asia, where by some fan accounts, they performed poorly.
At one point, lead singer Linn flew home. The band appeared the following year in April at the World Music Awards, where they accepted the award for Best Selling Scandinavian Artists of 1996. There, Jenny performed a solo, lip-synced rendition of "Ravine".
During 1997, three of the band members (Jonas, Jenny, and Ulf) prepared material for their next album. This was to become Flowers, the band's third album. In 1998, Polydor released a limited-release promotional CD "Angel Eyes". This was the very last Bridge release, and it was packaged with the South-East Asia version of Flowers.
The full version of "The Bridge" (including "You and I") was released in the US via iTunes in 2007.
Read more about this topic: The Bridge (Ace of Base album)
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