ARTIGLET: What On Earth Has Gone Wrong With Ciara's Career?

ARTIGLET: What On Earth Has Gone Wrong With Ciara's Career?

In the wake of the recent news that the latest offering from former hitmaker Ciara, Basic Instinct, is set to debut with first week sales of a ridiculously low 35K; we felt it was about time we wrote another mini article.

For someone who rocked the music scene with one of the biggest hits of 2004/2005, Goodies, it is almost unbelievable the depths to which Ciara's career has recently sunk. Goodies  - the eponymous album - sold over 5 million copies worldwide (three million in the US) and was well received by critics. The follow up - The Evolution - was certified platinum in the US after only five weeks of release, and went on to sell over three million copies worldwide.

2009 was the year it all started to go wrong. With the release of the much-delayed Fantasy Ride, Ciara's sales begun to plummet. Indeed, despite its general critical acclaim, worldwide hit Love, Sex & Magic, and debut at #3, FR still went on to sell less than 200K to date.

Thankfully, Ciara seemed to know when to cut her losses, and after the subsequent flopping of the album's next release Work, she went back to the drawing board. With the announcement that Ciara was returning to the urban sound that had once made her so popular, we were excited to hear what she would come out with and sure this would mean a return to form.

In the second quarter of this year, Ride - the first single off Ciara's fourth album Basic Instinct - was released to general public acclaim. It went on to be a top five hit on Billboard's R&B/Hip Hop chart and spawned a raunchy video. Which was where the trouble started. BET controversially banned the visual to the consternation of Ciara's fans and others' general confusion.

Here - as we said at the time - is when she should have undertaken an extensive promo schedule; hitting the studios of the likes of Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Ellen Degeneres and The Daily Show and giving her opinion on BET's actions. The fact that she missed such an opportunity for shameless (and much needed) promotion - and especially that she didn't have any major performances of Ride (a song that could have been the hit necessary to revitalise her flagging career); that was Mistake #1.

Then the real idiocy started; the foreseen pushback. Basic Instinct was originally set for release in August - the height of summer when people want thumping basslines to blast from their carspeakers (hence the success of Rihanna's incredible Rudeboy). It would have been the perfect time for Ciara to release BI, especially after the mild success of Ride, and promote the hell out of both. But, instead, she chose to push the album's release back to December. This is when we knew for SURE that this project was doomed; and we said so at the time. This was also Mistake #2.

Following that ridiculous news, came the constant leaks of (as we'd later find out) the majority of the album and the half-arsed release of two other singles; Speechless and Gimme Dat. But this wasn't even the worst part.

Rather than doing a Keri Hilson (who clearly learnt from the poor sales of her debut In A Perfect World, which only shipped about 700K worldwide) and getting her promo on, Ciara chose to shop, walk the streets, party and show every sign of doing little to no work whatsoever. And, even as the release of Basic Instinct drew ever closer, Ciara seemed not to care one whit for performing, doing interviews or even going on a citywide radio tour (let alone a nationwide one). In essence, one could readily assume that she just didn't give a rat's arse whether BI flopped harder than Kelis' Fleshtone. That was Mistake #3.

This - and the prior events - lead us to the same conclusion we'd drawn of other, lesser, artists; that some just don't care about their careers in general. While artists like Britney Spears, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé  (and even a pregnant Mariah Carey) stay on their grind, promoting the hell out of whatever they're currently selling; others choose to party and hit clubs rather than do some actual work. The very least promo Ciara should have been doing is that the Queen B prior to her I Am... World Tour ABC special and dvd release. The very least. And considering the flop of Fantasy Ride, Ci should have been working even harder. She should have been taking this seriously.

She should have followed the example of hitmaker Rihanna, who hit every show, photo opportunity and interview this side of Alaska; promoting the Hell out of LOUD. Ciara should have seen that, as Rih had even then only managed to debut with just over 200K (and this was with two number one hits to back it up), BI had very little chance of selling more than 100K at this point. It had no hit singles, practically no promo and a considerably smaller fanbase.

Taking all this into consideration, the only thing that surprises us is that BI is managing even to shift that many copies first week. What disappoints us is that we've been rooting for Ciara for years; she is one of the most dynamic performers of our time and arguably deserves to be on par with Rihanna (who debuted a few months after her in the summer of 2005). However, due to the fact that she would clearly rather act like a socialite, partying rather than working, and the mismanagement of this entire failed era; it is difficult (and saddening) to contemplate just where Ciara's career is now headed.



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