History - Charts - Videos & Audio
On August 24th, 2008 the famous Sopot Festival took place in Poland. As many other stars of the 80s, Sabrina and Samantha Fox took part in this event and it was on this occasion that they decided to bury the hatchet. Indeed, on the initiative of Sabrina who had enough to hear about rivalry, both met backstage. A revolution, after so many attacks (more or less exaggerated by the media) towards each other which had been hard but also very funny in the 80s. A photo showing them with the lovely Kim Wilde formalized this peace to the surprise of the fans of both sides who – at least many of them- already liked both singers since many years.
After the Sopot Festival, Sabrina announced that a surprise could happen soon. But it took a few months to know more. Indeed, the two singers were busy with their solo careers. Samantha had just published a (great) new EP in Greece, Midnight lover in July 2008 and Sabrina was focused on the release of the album Erase Rewind scheduled for October 3. She thus did a lot of promotion on Italian television from autumn 2008 on to promote her comeback album after a 9 year hiatus.
During the first half of 2009, they assured their respective commitments and it was not until August that the press announced that Sabrina and Samantha were going to record a duet: Call me, a cover version of Blondie's smash-hit, co-written by Giorgio Moroder who had already worked with Sabrina (Like a yo yo, Pirate of love, Shadows of the night, Love is like magic). On August 10th Samantha posted a video on her YouTube channel showing both singers teasing their fans by wondering what they were doing and concluding by "You'll find out soon!" In September, Sabrina and Samantha were interviewed on Italian TV (Verissimo) and spoke about their rivalry (a so-called invention intended to generate publicity) and their duet. This TV program also showed the photo session which would be used for the promotion of the single. Its release was finally planned for 2010.
On March 16th, 2010, Sabrina was a guest on the Italian regional talk show Sklero Telebari. On this occasion, she was interviewed on her duet with Samantha. She said once again that they had never been enemies, otherwise they would never have made this record together. She explained that she went into the studio with Andrea T. Mendoza (the arranger on the album Erase Rewind) with a list of 50 songs. Together, they began working on Call me and the demos pleased Samantha. The first arrangement was perfect and both singers recorded the song but, apparently, separately. However, they met for the shooting of the video which was directed by Mauro Lovisetto who was responsible for Sabrina's video Erase Rewind in 2008. Both clips were actually quite similar. On June 10th, the Corriere.it website announced that the clip would be premiered on Music Box (Sky 703) and on June 14, the video was posted on YouTube and quickly became quite successful.
The next day, Call me was finally released in Italy by the label X-Energy which made the fans very happy by publishing 3 formats of varied contents. The maxi CD featured 8 remixes, half of them being produced by the duet Andrea T. Mendoza / Steven Tibet. The mini album offered 4 remixes (not available on the maxi CD) including two which were produced by Starlet DJ and Sleazesisters who had already remixed Touch me in 2009. This mini album also featured the 2 solo versions that both singers recorded to be able to perform the song whenever they liked (Sabrina learnt this lesson from the Siamo donne experience) as well as "new" tracks in solo: Sabrina proposed In the morning (a ballad cowritten with Mauro Lovisetto who thus was very involved in this release) and a very strange remix of Gringo. Samantha, as for her, offered only one remix of her excellent I give myself to you, taken from her album Angel with an attitude. Finally, the 12" picture-disc proposed 4 remixes including an exclusive remix.
All in all, 18 songs and remixes released in 2010: the original version, 2 solo versions, 12 remixes, 3 "new" songs!
On July 6th the record was finally available on Amazon. The single reached # 4 in the Italian Dance Singles Sales Chart during the first week of July, a success of which both singers were very proud.
During a small concert in Trieste on July 9, Sabrina interpreted her solo version of Call Me.
Apart from this, the promotion of the single seemed to be initially confined to the web until the two singers were finally invited on the set of Il migliori anni (October 22th) to perform an edit version of Call me. The same day, they were on Radio 2 for the program SuperMax which played the song. This issue was even the opportunity to hear (and see on the Internet) Sabrina and Samantha singing Touch me live!
Interested by this duet, the German label ZYX decided to release, for the European market, a maxi CD of 7 remixes (mixing the contents of the Italian maxi CD and mini album) on November 26th, 2010 and then an EP (featuring only the original version, both solo versions and the "news" songs) on January 28th, 2011. Those German (actually pan-European) releases allowed Sabrina and Samantha to promote Call me outside Italy. It was the case in particular in Russia at the end of 2010, in France during the summer of 2011 (concert in Dax 5/08) and especially during the tour RFM party 80 in which participated both singers in 2012 from February till June. This was the occasion to prove how much they loved each other, going as far as kissing each other on the mouth during a concert.
During the promotion for the tour, they also performed a medley featuring Nothing's gonna stop me now, Boys and Call me on French TV on April 4th (Les Stars s'amusent, France 2).
Due to the relative success of the duet, some DJs decided to remix Call me in 2012. 2 remixes were produced by Stefy de Cicco (who had already worked with RIO, Benassis Bros and Florida) while 2 others were commissioned to Christian Vila and Cosme Martin. These new versions were available for downloading in September and Call me 2K12 reached #17 in the Top DJTunes 100 on September 19th. A new maxi one CD was finally published in Italy, a bit late, on December 7th.
The Internet relayed this new release, more confidential than the 2010 version, but Sabrina and Samantha didn't promote it (only on their Facebook page). Invited at the Club Onniteekkii in Seinäjoki (Finland) on October 13th, Sabrina only performed her 2010 solo version of Call me (as well as Erase Rewind and Boys).
If the sales of Call me remain unknown, this duet was a very positive experience for both singers as this song allowed them to do a lot promotion in several countries for the great delight of the fans who welcomed with a lot of humor the official version of their so-called old friendship, a story which by the way varied slightly during the months and interviews.
But this experience should be a parenthesis in the career of two singers strongly attached to their independence.
Charts
COUNTRY |
HIGHEST POSITION |
CHART ENTRY DATE |
CHART HISTORY |
Italy |
4 |
Unknown |
Unknown |
Official Music Video
Call me 2012 - Christian Vila & Cosme Martin Remix (Audio)
Blondie's version (1980)
For their cover version, Sabrina & Sabrina decided to sing some lines taken from Blondie's extended version of Call me:
"Take me out and show me off
And put me on the scene
Dress me in the fashions of the nineteen eighties
You're the man now in between
You know what your words can mean"