I'm not talking about her entire career - I'm talking about this song. It's always been one of my favourites and it used to play on TRL quite a bit. I wouldn't be surprised if it actually retired. But it flopped so bad, peaking at #96 and #27 on the R&B chart.

She was coming off a very successful era - 3 top 2 hits and basically the hottest new artist. And to have a 4th single peak at #96?!

What went wrong? Was it a lack of promotion? Was the public tired of Ciara? Or was it simply just a bad song?

It sucks.

I loved this song a lot and I remember hoping she made a video for it. lol. But it was entirely too campy coming after her first three singles. Plus, everybody was too stuck on "Ciara can't sing".

If she wanted to slow it down, she should have released "Next To You". It would have done way better.

They were'nt tired (yet) since her next era was a success.
It's just a bad single choice especially if you're coming off 3 top 2 hits, why wouldn't you keep up the momentum and release another uptempo like "Hotline"? I bet she would have 4 top 2's.

Yeah.

Basically it wasn't CRUNK and it was a BALLAD from CIARA.

She should never release ballads. Thats all.

So you're saying that once an artist comes out with 'dance' songs, it's impossible for them to succeed with ballads? Every artist has uptempo tracks along with ballads in their discographies - Janet, Rihanna, even Britney.

But for some reason everybody attacks her for releasing a ballad. Why can't this girl release a successful ballad?

Ciara hadn't been perceived as a versatile performer in the Goodies era. "Promise" really broke that barrier for her.

I love this song, but it's one of those 'so-bad-it's-good' kinda things. "CLEA" is just its superior sister.

It never came close to retirement, let alone debut.

I loved this song but yeah, she should have ended the Goodies era with Hotline instead. I don't think this really mattered or hurt her though ... she had like 3 back to back hits after this with Like You, So What & Loose Control which still kept her momentum up.

Because this is the worst song of her career.

.

Who are you?

LMAO. You better get into one the BEST songs of her career.

he won't break my, no he won't break my, he won't break my heaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrttt

I'm not sure I understand - if for some reason 'Promise' was on Goodies, and released instead of 'And I', it would have done much better...?