PROUD
Heather Small
Album: Proud 2000(c)
Title Track

Proud to say a Masterful Work!:

Small spent a full year producing PROUD. Working with different writers - 
including Eric Clapton collaborator, Simon Climie from the Eighties duo 
Climie Fisher - she set out to blend her main musical influences with 
intensely personal lyrics.

Every once in awhile there emerges an artist who conjours up the question, 
"Why aren't they international superstars? Why isn't the WORLD listening 
to this?" Heather Small is that and more. I have danced and laughed and 
enjoyed her work with M People for many years but there is something about 
this solo work that catapults her, her voice, her message to a much 
greater level. Maybe it was right time, right song but the title track 
just came across like a wrecking ball into my day to day existence and 
shouted, "What have you done today to make you feel proud?" It became an 
anthem that provoked personal action (yes, a song can do that) and for 
that I am deeply grateful. (Heather, if you sneak on here and read these - 
thanks!) The entire album is first rate with conscious-raising lyrics and 
sophisticated rhythms and melodies that deserve a tremendous audience. 
Maybe that is the paradox. If they (the artist) did have the world wide 
acclaim maybe it would water down or diminish the drive for excellence 
that is so apparent here.