14 DAY TRIAL // Although Jessica Simpson often said that she was and would continue to be a country singer at heart, it seems that her foray into the genre has come to a rather abrupt end. Sony Nashville label, where she was listed as an artist, has deleted all mention of her on the official website, as her own publicist confirms that she is no longer on that country music label, Us Magazine informs.
Speculation about Simpson being dropped by her label on account of the poor sales of her debut album, “Do You Know,” first started circulating the other day, when celebrity bloggers noted that her name was, surprisingly, missing from both the Columbia Nashville and the Sony Music Nashville website. Just hours later, Jessica’s publicist was confirming the rumors, saying that she was no longer on the label, but admittedly downplaying the situation to make it seem like it was not really a big deal.
“She was on loan to Sony Nashville for her country album. [She] is and has always been an Epic artist. She continues to be on Epic’s label.” Simpson’s publicist told Us Magazine, stressing that the singer would continue with the label that made her a pop star. Nevertheless, several music-oriented and celebrity magazines stress, that does not change the fact that Jessica, who was once extremely enthusiastic about embarking on a career as a country singer, is now without a record label to promote it.
In all fairness, it has been noted, her debut album did debut at the top spot in all the charts, but it ended up performing rather poorly in the following weeks. For the sake of argument, while “Do You Know” moved 172,876 copies as of February, Taylor Swift’s “Fearless” sold 217,000 items in its first day of release alone. Moreover, Jessica’s subsequent tour left something of a bad taste to fans and critics alike, what with most of the attention being on her weight rather than on her singing.
Of course, Jessica did not make things easier for herself either, as several critics have noted in the past. On more than one occasion, she forgot the lyrics to her own songs and fumbled through the performances as if it was her first time up on the stage – and, while fans could easily overlook this, it certainly did not help sales for the album, it has been pointed out.