A Rose Is Still a Rose

Most critics praised the album, calling it a return to form for Franklin and ranking it alongside her best late career albums. A Rose Is Still a Rose was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, while its title track earned Franklin her fifth nomination in the Best Female R&B Vocal Performance category. Commercially, the album peaked at number 30 on the US Billboard 200, her highest peak since Who's Zoomin' Who? (1985), and reached the top 40 in Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. Franklin's biggest commercial success of the 1990s, A Rose Is Still a Rose was certified gold by the RIAA and would remain her final album to earn a certification in the United States.^[1]

Background[edit]

In 1991, Franklin released her thirty-sixth studio album What You See Is What You Sweat. A moderate commercial success throughout Europe, particularly in Scandinavia, it became a commercial failure in the United States, peaking at number 153 on the US Billboard 200 and dropping off the charts after seven weeks only.^[2] While Franklin remained active the following years, providing songs on film soundtracks such as Malcolm X (1992), Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993) and Waiting to Exhale (1995) and releasing her first compilation album of her Arista Records tenure in 1994, Greatest Hits: 1980–1994, which included two new singles produced by Babyface, no new full-length album was recorded.^[2]


Following a string of ill-fated adult contemporary albums, featuring chief production from Narada Michael Walden, Luther Vandross, and others who had helped in revitalizing her career in the 1980s, Franklin envisioned a complete departure from her previous projects for her eleventh album with Arista.^[3] It was label head Clive Davis who suggested Franklin to align herself with a contingent of contemporary musicians from the R&B and hip hop scene, who would add to Franklin's soulful foundation without radically detracting it and try to re-connect her with a new audience that was embracing neo soul and hip hop soul artists such as Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu and The Fugees.^[3] Davis would become instrumental in consulting producers and songwriters to work with Franklin, including both established and upcoming musicians such as Lauryn Hill, Sean "Puffy" Combs, Dallas Austin, Jermaine Dupri, and Daryl Simmons.^[3]