Dedicated is the debut album by English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

/R&B

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

 singer Lemar

Lemar

Lemar Obika , professionally known simply as Lemar, is an English recording artist. Obika has had a run of chart success in the UK, Europe and Australia...

.

Making of the album

Sony Music signed Lemar to a five-record deal after his success on the BBC Television

BBC Television

BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...

 program Fame Academy

Fame Academy

Fame Academy is a televised competition to search for and educate new musical talents. The winner received a chance to become a successful music artist. The prize consisted of a £1m recording contract with a major record company, plus the use of a luxury apartment in London and a sports car for one...

in 2002. His first single "Dance With U" was written with Fitzgerald Scott who had previously worked with Keith Sweat

Keith Sweat

Keith Sweat is an American R&B/soul, singer-songwriter, record producer, radio personality and a major contributor to the new jack swing era.-Music career:...

. The second single "50/50" was recorded by the Norwegian Stargate

Stargate

Stargate is a adventure military science fiction franchise, initially conceived by Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin. The first film in the franchise was simply titled Stargate. It was originally released on October 28, 1994, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Carolco, and became a hit, grossing nearly...

 production team. Fingaz who has produced hits by British group Big Brovaz

Big Brovaz

Big Brovaz were an R&B / Hip hop music group from London, England in their seven year career they released two studio albums and eight singles. There were three line up changes with two of the original members leaving half way through shaking up the dynamics of the group...

 also produced a track as the So Solid Crew

So Solid Crew

So Solid Crew is an electronic and urban musical collective from South London, England, whose hits include "Oh No " and "21 Seconds", the latter reaching number one in the UK Singles Chart in August 2001. Another hit, "They Don't Know", reached number three in November 2001 and "Haters" got to...

. Lemar has also recorded of "Let's Stay Together" by Al Green

Al Green

Albert Greene , better known as Al Green, is an American gospel and soul music singer. He reached the peak of his popularity in the 1970s, with hit singles such as "You Oughta Be With Me", "I'm Still In Love With You", "Love and Happiness", and "Let's Stay Together"...

 which was one of his featured songs by Fame Academy.

Chart success

The first single from the album, "Dance With U", reached number 2 on the UK singles charts in early 2003. His first album Dedicated was released late in 2003 with additional singles "50/50" and "Another Day" also achieving chart success in the UK. Following the success of the album, he commenced his first headlining tour of the UK. Dedicated was certified double platinum by the BPI for sales in excess of 600,000 copies.

Track listing

1. "Dedicated (Intro)" (Lemar Obika) - 1:08
2. "Dance (With U)" (Craig Hardy, Obika, Fitzgerald Scott) - 3:08
3. "Fresh" (Abdul Bello, Obika) - 3:25
4. "50/50" (Austan, Hermansen, Mikkel Mille, Obika) - 3:24
5. "Another Day" (Scott, Skyler Sinclair, William Whedbee) - 4:02
6. "Sweet Love" (Karl Daniel, Obika) - 3:35
7. "No Pressure" (Jas Jorgensen, Andy Love, Obika) - 3:38
8. "Body Talk" (Darren Brown, Terry Brown, Giles Craig, Obika) - 3:20
9. "What About Love?" (Obika, Scott) - 3:39
10. "Good Woman" (Brown, Brown, Craig, Obika) - 3:47
11. "Let's Stay Together" (Al Green, Al Jackson, Willie Mitchell) - 3:48
12. "Hot Summer" (Brown, Brown, Craig, Obika) - 3:25
13. "Alright With Our Love" (Nigel Lowis, Obika, Scott) - 4:20
14. "Lullaby" (Ainsley Henderson, Obika) - 3:22
15. "All I Ever Do (My Boo)" (Obika) - 3:20

Charts

Charts (2004)	Peak position
Swiss Albums Chart	54
UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...	16

Personnel

• Jarl Ivar Andersen – multi instruments
• Pete Beachill – trombone
• Joe Belmaati – keyboards, programming
• Dave Bishop – saxophone
• Tim Briley – assistant engineer, mixing assistant
• James Cruz – mastering
• Snake Davis – saxophone
• Joe Fields – engineer
• Fingaz – keyboards, producer
• The 411 – vocals (bckgr)
• Matt Furmidge – assistant engineer
• Carrie Grant – vocal arrangement
• Simon Hale – horn arrangements, string arrangements, horn conductor, string conductor
• Michael Hansen – percussion
• Craig Hardy – producer
• Lawrence Johnson – vocals, choir arrangement
• Marc Lane – engineer
• Vanessa Letocq – production coordination
• The London Session Orchestra – strings
• Andy Love – producer
• Nigel Lowis – producer
• Paul Meehan – arranger, programming, producer
• Roy Merchant – engineer, mixing
• Mikkel SE – multi instruments
• Matz Nilsson – mixing
• Nicole Nodland – photography
• Adam Phillips – guitar
• Nick Raphael – A&R
• Brian Rawling – arranger, producer
• Fitzgerald Scott – vocal arrangement, vocal engineer, vocal producer
• Alan Simpson – guitar
• Alexis Smith – assistant engineer
• Stargate – producer
• Ren Swan – mixing
• John Themis – guitar
• Derek Watkins – trumpet
• Gavyn Wright – orchestra leader
• Jong Uk Yoon – engineer, mixing

External links

• Lemar Online page
• Lemar Top of The Pops Interview