Grab your synthesizer, pink wig and star earrings – Jem is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. To commemorate four decades of Jem and the Holograms, Hasbro is releasing a new album of Jem and the Holograms songs.
The series – which ran from 1985-1988 and inspired Jon M. Chu’s live action 2015 film Jem and the Holograms – combined music, sci-fi and a storyline that more than like inspired Hannah Montana (Jem is the secret rock star alter ego of Jerrica Benton). The show’s ’80s fashion was truly outrageous (truly, truly, truly outrageous) and its glimmering synth-pop tunes were, as the Jem theme song promised, undeniably “contagious.”
Billboard can reveal that in July, a 40th anniversary album for Jem will come out on vinyl and digital streaming platforms via Hasbro. The project includes six re-recorded tracks from the ‘80s series, held down by the original singing voice of Jem, Britta Phillips.
“Seriously, I was thrilled to be asked to sing these songs again,” Phillips tells Billboard. “I had listened to and sang many Jem songs at Jemcon last year, so they were very fresh in my mind. And I’m so excited for the Jem fans to hear them.”
Those six songs are the Jem theme song, “Only The Beginning,” “Truly Outrageous,” “Like A Dream,” “I Got My Eye On You” and “She’s Got The Power.” You can listen to “Jem and the Holograms Theme (Reimagined)” right now thanks to a glamor and glitter, fashion and fame-filled music video below.
Listening to the reimagined theme song, it’s hard to believe this is Phillips’ voice four decades later – she sounds almost exactly the same as she did on the O.G. series. That’s especially impressive when you spin her post-Jem music, such as her 2016 album Luck or Magic, which found her adopting a more mature, dreamy vocal tone. But it seems that the spirit of Jem was still inside her, ready to return (even without the help of supercomputer Synergy).
“I took a couple of voice lessons before the recording sessions which helped with my confidence in belting those crazy high notes, but luckily the sound of my voice and my vocal range hasn’t changed much. It’s still pretty girlish,” Phillips tells Billboard. “To my surprise, the high notes weren’t difficult. We even kept the songs in the original key except for one track where we dropped down a half step – and that one didn’t have the highest notes. The biggest challenge was singing at such fast tempos (the original tempos), but it was very exciting and nostalgic for me, and I had a blast! And working with these amazing and talented producers (all female!) was inspiring,” she adds, tipping to the female-led team behind this anniversary album.
Of the re-recorded songs, Phillips says “Only the Beginning” – a song that appeared in the series pilot, which aired Oct. 6, 1985 – was “the most emotional one to sing. It brought me back to my beginning and so it felt like a full circle of my life from the very beginning of my musical career to the present.”
Phillips says returning to “She’s Got the Power” was also exciting for her. “It felt much like it did when I first recorded those songs, except now I know those little kids I sang to are all grown up! Makes me a little teary.”
