Story of the Song: ‘Dreams’ by Gabrielle

From The Independent archive: Robert Webb on ‘Dreams’ by Gabrielle

In 1993 ‘Dreams’ was the highest UK entry ever for a debut female artist (Getty)

Louise Gabrielle Bobb was, as she put it, a “pop kid”, filling her head with the sounds of Adam and The Ants and Wham!. “Then I’d go into my mum’s record collection and dig out Marvin Gaye, Barry White, Bobby Womack and Dennis Brown,” she recalled. Gabrielle refused to be hampered by a lazy right eyelid, which an eyepatch could easily cover up, and when her mother told her to “go for it and make your dreams come true”, she had the idea for a song. In 1991, she recorded “Dreams”, co-written with Tim Laws and produced by Victor Trim. It included a sample from Tracy Chapman’s low-key hit “Past Car”, and created a buzz on London’s underground R&B scene.

Chapman objected to the use of her song, so “Dreams” was re-recorded without the sample. In June 1993, the single launched the London-born soul diva into the charts at No 1: the highest UK entry ever for a debut female artist. But it wouldn’t be an easy ride at the top. Once “Dreams” was a hit, Trim took her to court over copyright ownership. Then, in 1994, she became pregnant and her dreams began to turn very dark. On the day her son Jordan was born, the baby’s father, Tony Antoniou, walked out on them. If that wasn’t bad enough, a few months later Antoniou was jailed for life for the murder of his stepfather.

The stress left Gabrielle with an obsessive-compulsive disorder and nearly destroyed her career. She bounced back in 2000 with the No 1 hit “Rise”. “Sometimes I feel like I’m on the biggest blag ever and one day people will realise and it will all be over,” she once said about her early success. “Everything was amazing. That is what I always say to people, dreams do come true.”