Ester Dean Premieres New Single “I Can’t Make You Love Me”
Singer-songwriter Ester Dean has been on her grind for a minute in launching a solo career, despite already being wildly successful as the writer behind half of the biggest hits of the last several years — think Rihanna‘s “Where Have You Been,” Katy Perry‘s “Firework” and Nicki Minaj‘s “Super Bass.” After trying her hand at appealingly sleazy urban pop with “Bam Bam,” Dean is going in a new direction by putting a stomping dance spin on Bonnie Raitt‘s oft-covered “I Can’t Make You Love Me.”
“Turn down the lights, turn down the bed / Turn down these voices inside my head,” Dean sings over chilly synths that evoke Calvin Harris & Rihanna’s “We Found Love.” Dean’s version is more a creative interpolation of Raitt’s classic than a straight-up cover, although she borrows the chorus directly, but Dean’s powerful, raspy vocals are well-suited for a dance track like this. Give it an eight-minute house remix and watch it fly to the top of the club charts.
Whether the song will make the final tracklist of Dean’s upcoming LP Stories Never Told is anyone’s guess, since Dean’s sound so far has been fairly eclectic, but it’s still a promising cut from the multi-talented songbird.
Listen to the song below:
