Lioness: Hidden Treasures was announced for release on 31 October 2011 via Winehouse's official website.[4] The album is a compilation of recordings from before the release of Winehouse's debut studio album, Frank, in 2002, up to music she was working on in 2011.[5]Island Records co-president Ted Cockle emphasised that Lioness is not in any way the planned follow-up to Winehouse's album Back to Black (2006). Only two songs intended for the planned follow-up had been completed prior to her death.[6]
Producers
Salaam Remi and
Mark Ronson compiled the album with the consent of the Winehouse family. They worked together on listening to thousands of hours of vocals by Winehouse. Remi told NME that the album would not lead to "a Tupac situation", referring to
Tupac Shakur, in whose name seven posthumous studio albums have been released since his death in 1996. He stated, "A lot of people, through the other antics that were going on with her personally, didn't get that she was at the top of what she did. Coming to Miami was her escape from all of that, and her writing process could document her life, whether it was recording the pain or the loneliness or the humour. It makes no sense for these songs to be sitting on a hard drive, withering away."[7]
Two tracks from Lioness: Hidden Treasures were premiered on
BBC Radio 1 and
BBC Radio 1Xtra on 3 November 2011. The Chris Moyles Show aired the first play of "Our Day Will Come", while DJ Twin B broadcast the world premiere of "Like Smoke", which features
Nas.[8] The album cover was shot by Canadian rock singer-songwriter
Bryan Adams in 2007.[9]
Singles
"
Body and Soul", Winehouse's final studio recording and a duet with
Tony Bennett, was released as a single on 14 September 2011, in commemoration of what would have been Winehouse's 28th birthday. It was released as the first single from Lioness: Hidden Treasures and Tony Bennett's Duets II album. Profits from the release of the single were donated to the Amy Winehouse Foundation.[10] "
Our Day Will Come" was released as the second single from the album. The song was added to the BBC Radio 1 playlist on 2 November 2011, entering the C-list.[11] It was also named
BBC Radio 2's "Record of the Week" for the week beginning 5 November.[12]
Lioness: Hidden Treasures received generally mixed to positive reviews from
music critics. At
Metacritic, which assigns a
normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an
average score of 65, based on 28 reviews.[13]Q called it "an admirable tribute if frequently deafened by the echo of its tragic catalyst."[20]Jon Pareles of The New York Times commented that the album "ekes out all it can from the archives" and found it to be "just the scraps of what might have been."[24] Andrew Ryce of Pitchfork wrote in his review, "There's little on Lioness: Hidden Treasures that sounds throwaway, or like it should have never been released; but there's equally little that sounds absolutely essential."[19]AllMusic editor John Bush felt that "only the songwriting and prevalence of covers or 'original versions' reveal that this is a posthumous collection", crediting
Salaam Remi and
Mark Ronson for making the album "strikingly uniform".[14]
Commercial performance
Lioness: Hidden Treasures debuted at number one on the
UK Albums Chart with 194,966 copies sold in its first week, marking the biggest first-week sales of Winehouse's career, as well as the fourth fastest-selling album of 2011.[25][26] It was certified triple platinum by the
British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on 26 June 2020, denoting shipments in excess of 900,000 copies in the United Kingdom.[27] The album debuted at number five on the
Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 114,000 units, making it Winehouse's highest-debuting album in the United States.[28] As of July 2012, it had sold 423,000 copies in the US.[29]
The album topped the charts in Austria, Greece, Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland, while reaching the top five in Canada, New Zealand and several European countries, including Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Sweden.[30][31][32][33]Lioness: Hidden Treasures had sold 2.4 million copies worldwide by the end of 2011,[34] becoming the 11th best-selling album of 2011, as well as the fourth best-selling album by a British artist.[35] The
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) certified the album platinum in late 2011, denoting sales in excess of one million copies in Europe.[36]
Avril Brown, Sean Carney, Jonathan Dinklage, Cornelius Dufallo, Sanguen Eanet, Katherine Fong, Ming Feng Hsin, Karen Karlsrud, Yoon Kwon, Ann Leathers, Matthew Lehmann, Liz Lim Dutton, Katherine Livolsi, Laura McGinnis, Yurika Mok, Lorenza Ponce, Carol Pool, Wen Qian, Catherine Sim, Shirien Taylor Donahue, Entcho Todorov, Una Tone, Yuri Vodovoz, Xiao-Dong Wang, Nancy Wu – violin (track 11)
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
^"Critics". The Observer. London. 4 December 2011. p. 30, The New Review section. Archived from
the original on 29 August 2014. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
^"Czech Albums – Top 100".
ČNS IFPI. Note: On the chart page, select 49.Týden 2011 on the field besides the words "CZ – ALBUMS – TOP 100" to retrieve the correct chart. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
^Триумф нестыдной попсы. Lenta.ru (in Russian). 28 December 2012. Archived from
the original on 31 December 2012. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
^
ab"Top 50 Albumes 2012"(PDF) (in Spanish). Productores de Música de España. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 27 May 2013. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
Lioness: Hidden Treasures was announced for release on 31 October 2011 via Winehouse's official website.[4] The album is a compilation of recordings from before the release of Winehouse's debut studio album, Frank, in 2002, up to music she was working on in 2011.[5]Island Records co-president Ted Cockle emphasised that Lioness is not in any way the planned follow-up to Winehouse's album Back to Black (2006). Only two songs intended for the planned follow-up had been completed prior to her death.[6]
Producers
Salaam Remi and
Mark Ronson compiled the album with the consent of the Winehouse family. They worked together on listening to thousands of hours of vocals by Winehouse. Remi told NME that the album would not lead to "a Tupac situation", referring to
Tupac Shakur, in whose name seven posthumous studio albums have been released since his death in 1996. He stated, "A lot of people, through the other antics that were going on with her personally, didn't get that she was at the top of what she did. Coming to Miami was her escape from all of that, and her writing process could document her life, whether it was recording the pain or the loneliness or the humour. It makes no sense for these songs to be sitting on a hard drive, withering away."[7]
Two tracks from Lioness: Hidden Treasures were premiered on
BBC Radio 1 and
BBC Radio 1Xtra on 3 November 2011. The Chris Moyles Show aired the first play of "Our Day Will Come", while DJ Twin B broadcast the world premiere of "Like Smoke", which features
Nas.[8] The album cover was shot by Canadian rock singer-songwriter
Bryan Adams in 2007.[9]
Singles
"
Body and Soul", Winehouse's final studio recording and a duet with
Tony Bennett, was released as a single on 14 September 2011, in commemoration of what would have been Winehouse's 28th birthday. It was released as the first single from Lioness: Hidden Treasures and Tony Bennett's Duets II album. Profits from the release of the single were donated to the Amy Winehouse Foundation.[10] "
Our Day Will Come" was released as the second single from the album. The song was added to the BBC Radio 1 playlist on 2 November 2011, entering the C-list.[11] It was also named
BBC Radio 2's "Record of the Week" for the week beginning 5 November.[12]
Lioness: Hidden Treasures received generally mixed to positive reviews from
music critics. At
Metacritic, which assigns a
normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an
average score of 65, based on 28 reviews.[13]Q called it "an admirable tribute if frequently deafened by the echo of its tragic catalyst."[20]Jon Pareles of The New York Times commented that the album "ekes out all it can from the archives" and found it to be "just the scraps of what might have been."[24] Andrew Ryce of Pitchfork wrote in his review, "There's little on Lioness: Hidden Treasures that sounds throwaway, or like it should have never been released; but there's equally little that sounds absolutely essential."[19]AllMusic editor John Bush felt that "only the songwriting and prevalence of covers or 'original versions' reveal that this is a posthumous collection", crediting
Salaam Remi and
Mark Ronson for making the album "strikingly uniform".[14]
Commercial performance
Lioness: Hidden Treasures debuted at number one on the
UK Albums Chart with 194,966 copies sold in its first week, marking the biggest first-week sales of Winehouse's career, as well as the fourth fastest-selling album of 2011.[25][26] It was certified triple platinum by the
British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on 26 June 2020, denoting shipments in excess of 900,000 copies in the United Kingdom.[27] The album debuted at number five on the
Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 114,000 units, making it Winehouse's highest-debuting album in the United States.[28] As of July 2012, it had sold 423,000 copies in the US.[29]
The album topped the charts in Austria, Greece, Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland, while reaching the top five in Canada, New Zealand and several European countries, including Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Sweden.[30][31][32][33]Lioness: Hidden Treasures had sold 2.4 million copies worldwide by the end of 2011,[34] becoming the 11th best-selling album of 2011, as well as the fourth best-selling album by a British artist.[35] The
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) certified the album platinum in late 2011, denoting sales in excess of one million copies in Europe.[36]
Avril Brown, Sean Carney, Jonathan Dinklage, Cornelius Dufallo, Sanguen Eanet, Katherine Fong, Ming Feng Hsin, Karen Karlsrud, Yoon Kwon, Ann Leathers, Matthew Lehmann, Liz Lim Dutton, Katherine Livolsi, Laura McGinnis, Yurika Mok, Lorenza Ponce, Carol Pool, Wen Qian, Catherine Sim, Shirien Taylor Donahue, Entcho Todorov, Una Tone, Yuri Vodovoz, Xiao-Dong Wang, Nancy Wu – violin (track 11)
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
^"Critics". The Observer. London. 4 December 2011. p. 30, The New Review section. Archived from
the original on 29 August 2014. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
^"Czech Albums – Top 100".
ČNS IFPI. Note: On the chart page, select 49.Týden 2011 on the field besides the words "CZ – ALBUMS – TOP 100" to retrieve the correct chart. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
^Триумф нестыдной попсы. Lenta.ru (in Russian). 28 December 2012. Archived from
the original on 31 December 2012. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
^
ab"Top 50 Albumes 2012"(PDF) (in Spanish). Productores de Música de España. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 27 May 2013. Retrieved 15 January 2012.