Industry misogyny led to Evanescence making “Bring Me To Life” a collab
Evanescence have released a number of hits throughout their career including “Bring Me To Life” featuring Paul McCoy.
Now, Amy Lee has revealed just how their collaboration with McCoy came to be and the reason may surprise you.
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Over the years, Lee has expressed her thoughts on the double standards and sexism female musicians face in rock music. Back in August, she penned an emotional post about how females are often overlooked and have to fight harder for success in the genre.
Now, Lee is further sharing her own experiences as a woman in rock music. In an interview with the Forty Five, Lee reveals that she dealt with misogyny at the very start of Evanescence.
At the time, their label felt that Lee as the frontwoman of Evanescence wouldn’t be relatable enough to audiences. In particular, the label felt that their first single “Bring Me To Life” needed a male vocalist to make the band more “familiar” to the genre’s demographic. Lee, at first, rejected the label’s suggestion.
“The fact that it was a woman and a piano that started the track was just too much,” Lee says. “I had to think we were being dropped for that because I said no.”
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Eventually, Evanescence agreed to introduce a guest vocalist – McCoy – on the track. The decision, however, was incredibly hard for Lee.
“We came to the compromise that we only had to do it on one song and it could be a guest vocalist,” she continues. “That was really hard for me because I had to start out with our first song feeling like I made a sacrifice on my art.”
Despite the industry misogyny that led to the changes with “Bring Me To Life,” Lee still thinks warmly of the song. In fact, the Fallen track is still one of the band’s most popular to date. It is Evanescence’s most-streamed song on Spotify with over 414 million plays.
“If that song, like that, was the only thing people ever heard of us on a mainstream level and then we went away, I would be not happy,” Lee says. “I would be very disappointed in my career. Because I would have felt really misunderstood and like I should have stood up for myself in the first place. Luckily I did stand up for myself, but I would have wished that I’d tried harder. We did survive it, thank god.”
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Over the past few months, Evanescence have been offering glimpses into their new album The Bitter Truth. Back in August, they released “Use My Voice” which features vocals from the Pretty Reckless‘ Taylor Momsen, Halestorm‘s Lzzy Hale, violinist Lindsey Stirling and Within Temptation‘s Sharon den Adel.
“Use My Voice” follows up “Wasted On You” and “The Game Is Over” which debuted earlier this year.
Evanescence’s “Bring Me To Life” video is available to watch below.
Do you think “Bring Me To Life” would’ve been better without a collab? Let us know in the comments below.
