Claire Richards has teamed up with Erasure star Andy Bell for a cover of ABBA’s ‘Summer Night City’, which is taken from her upcoming second solo album ‘Euphoria’ due for release on 25th August 2023.
‘Summer Night City’ follows on from Richards’ take on Celine Dion’s ‘I Surrender’, and it was premiered yesterday on Zoe Ball’s BBC 2 Radio Breakfast Show. The collaboration with Bell is a full-circle moment for Richards after the two singers became friends while competing on ITV’s ‘Popstar to Operastar’.
Richards says, “While it’s always scary to tackle ABBA, we chose to include ‘’Summer Night City’ on the album because it’s not an obvious choice but it’s an absolute banger. The idea of inviting Andy Bell to duet on this song is truly a full circle moment for me 12 years after becoming friends while competing on Popstar to Operastar. Both Steps and Erasure have so many connections to ABBA. It felt like a perfect match but probably not one people would expect. I’m delighted to have Andy be part of this record”.
‘Euphoria’ sees Richards covering the stars that have inspired her such as Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Karen Carpenter, Cher, Donna Summer and Olivia Newton-John. Working with collaborator Steve Anderson, the set is a mostly uptempo collection of covers that Richards has put her own stamp o.
Richards will be playing around the UK at some of the biggest Pride festivals, including Manchester and Brighton (with her Steps bandmates). She also recently headlined Liverpool’s Eurovision Village in May performing right before the grand final, and closed her set with the album’s title track Euphoria, arguably the greatest Eurovision song of all time.
