The Power (FanGirls song)

The Power is the debut single of the Canadian girl group FanGirls. Written by, Kåre Berrefjord, JE-Boy and Romeo Mayer, the song was produced by Berrefjord, JE-Boy and Kurt Evang-Aasvold. It became an international hit, and was one of the most successful singles of 1998. It topped the charts in the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Australia, and was the first of a string of number ones for the girl group on the Billboard Hot 100.

Background
The group released their first studio album, We're Gonna Meet Ya, exclusively in Europe and Canada in September 1997, for which "The Power" was the lead single. The album's first two singles, "Always Perfect for You" and a cover of Starshine's "Love In Your Heart", both became top ten hits in the Nordic countries, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, while another, "(Say "Hi!" To Me) Before You Leave" was released in Russia, the Netherlands and Italy.

During the production of the group's second European/Canadian album, Out to Party, an American exchange student from named Joshua Bernacki returned from  and urged his local Top 40 station WBZZ (now ) in  to play the song. It quickly became popular, and the station began distributing the track to their sister radio operations. (of which FanGirls' European label,, controlled the European operations of) had previously rejected the group as unsuitable for the American market, and FanGirls did not have a recording contract there. "The Power" had already entered the top twenty of the Billboard Hot 100 before they had begun official promotion. It would go on to peak at number one eight weeks later.

Composition
Kåre Berrefjord and JE-Boy originally wrote the song while Berrefjord was learning to program a. JE-Boy jokingly titled the instrumental first draft "Martins-lyder" (Martin's Noises), after (who's ' signature sound involved heavy usage of the Korg Trinity). Berrefjord claimed that the glam metal-inspired guitar, bass and drum additions were inspired by the song "Bang", the  song "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and the  song "Cherry Pie".

The lyrics were penned by Berrefjord, Romeo Mayer and member. Leah Amanda Shiller's rap verse consists of guide lyrics penned by Mayer, with Mayer explaining in the liner notes of their 2006 compilation album The Best of FanGirls that they were "rhyming words that vaguely sounded like a rap that were scribbled down quickly and nonsensically so Leah could have something to practice on before we got the chance to get a real rapper to write something better for her. And then we got lucky... we just used our practice lyrics because she thought they were good enough."

The verses are sung by Kylie Davenport and Sammy Vue, with rapping and interjections by Shiller and Aneisha Prime. The backing vocals are primarily sung by Shiller, Vue, Prime, Courtney De Nittis, and Cynthia Rolland.

Recording
In order to achieve a "glam metal sound", Berrefjord instructed the session guitarists and bassist to use headphone amplifiers as pre-amps.

Shiller, Vue, Prime, De Nittis and Rolland recorded much of their backing vocals as a "gang vocal" using a single microphone, in an attempt to closely imitate the background vocals on the glam metal albums they were given as reference material.

Background
The music video was directed by and filmed at  in,  from July 14-17, 1997. Greenhalgh was contacted by to direct a project featuring a group that was described as "an arena rock-fueled counterpart to the ". While initially unaware of FanGirls' existence, he decided to take on the project after hearing a demo tape featuring some of their songs.

The video's "party" aesthetic was partially inspired by the video for 's "The Invisible Man". A then-16-year old Samantha Perfetti, then attending, played a girl holding a party that the FanGirls crash. The video features FanGirls' backing band of Leni Larceny (guitar), Rick "Banana Boat" Cohan (bass), Meg Pendelton (keyboards), and Max Arbour (drums, percussion). The video premiered outside the United States in September 1997 on and.

Personnel
The FANGiRLS with
 * Kylie Davenport - lead vocals
 * Sammy Vue - lead vocals
 * Leah Amanda Shiller - rapping, backing vocals
 * Aneisha Prime - rapping, backing vocals
 * Courtney De Nittis - backing vocals
 * Cynthia Rolland - backing vocals
 * Jake Conway - lead guitar
 * Holger Østerberg - rhythm guitar
 * Rasmus Eskeland - bass guitar
 * Ralph Koht, Felix Tellefsen, Ludvig Froseth - keyboards
 * Martin Mjøs - drums

Staff

 * Engineering - Irnes Skoglund, Carl Skoglund, Jonas Foss, Karel Rommedahl, Øyvind Esmark
 * Vocal Tracks Recorded at - Metalworks, (ON)
 * Basic Track Recorded at - Heart Beat Studios,
 * Mastering - Morten Lund
 * Mastered at - Masterhuset, Oslo
 * Cover Photography - Henriette Berg-Thomassen
 * Cover Design - Lysverket, Oslo
 * Management - Barry Berlin (Second Beat Records (Canada) Inc.) and Ric Rykener (Rykener Promotion Inc.)