"Strawberry Kisses" is a pop song written by Jeff Franzel, Andy Marvel and Marjorie Maye. It was produced by Chong Lim for Australian teen singer, Nikki Webster, and also appears on her first album, Follow Your Heart. It was released as the album's lead single on 11 June 2001 in Australia as a three-track CD single and 27 May2002 in the United Kingdom with an additional track. Webster stated the song is "fresh, really bright and chirpy". It debuted at No.2 on the ARIA Singles Chart and appears at No. 21 on the List of Top 25 singles for 2001 in Australia. She also states "After I first heard the demo, I was singing it that night and I just thought that's a fantastic sign of a good song - something people remember". An updated version featuring Sam Mac, entitled "Strawberry Kisses 2017" was released in Australia on March 16, 2017. All proceeds of the song will be donated to the Australian division of Starlight Children's Foundation.
Music video
The music video for "Strawberry Kisses" was directed by Mark Hartly. The video features Webster entering a space ship and meets up with a computer animated character called Digital Jimmy. Digital Jimmy was created by Hartly, and Webster thought the idea was fantastic and when she saw the basic drawing she fell in love with him. Digital Jimmy presses a button on a remote control, which changes Webster's outfit from a pink dress resembling her 2000 Summer Olympics opening ceremony costume, to pink crop top and pants. Webster then sings in a microphone for the first one minute of the song, starts dancing then as the song finishes she leaves the space ship and goes on another space ship ending the video. Webster stated that the back-up dancers in the video were her friends from her dance class.
Chart performance
The song debuted into the ARIA Singles Chart at number two on 18 June 2001. It stayed at number two for seven non-continuous weeks. After fourteen weeks it dropped out of the top fifty. It left the top one-hundred from number eighty-nine and had spent a total of eighteen weeks in the charts. The single was accredited with a gold record in its second week in the chart. It was accredited with a platinum record for shipment of 70,000 copies, by ARIA at the end of that year. It appears at No. 21 on the List of Top 25 singles for 2001 in Australia. The song was also released in New Zealand where it peaked at number forty and spent only one week on the chart, and United Kingdom where it peaked and debut at number sixty-four and stayed in the chart for that one week.
A Portuguese-language version of the song titled "Beijo Molhado" was performed by the Brazilian girl group Rouge, released as the third and final single the band's debut studio album, self-titled Rouge on. The song was produced by Rick Bonadio and its lyrics were written by Milton Guedes. "Beijo Molhado" is a very bubblegum pop song that talks about a love of summer that was marked, and the protagonist of the song sings about the desire to kiss the loved one again. The song was released early in 2003, replacing "Ragatanga" on the radios.
Background and release
Following the success of "Ragatanga", which was more than 2 months at the top of the charts, Sony Music decided to release the third official single from the album. Since "Ragatanga" was still booming, the record company decided to release a more bubblegum pop and lively song that followed the dance line of "Ragatanga", thus opting for "Beijo Molhado", which was released in early 2003. A Spanish version, entitled "Beso Mojado", was made for the album "Rouge En Español", but the album was not released due to Luciana leaving. Even so, the song was released on the internet.
Composition and lyrics
In the original version of the song, the song is a teen pop, whereas in the Portuguese version, written by Milton Guedes and produced by Rick Bonadio, the song has become a more bubblegum pop, with elements of pop rock. The song talks about a love of summer, that even having already finished, the protagonist can not forget the person loved, desiring thus, its "wet kisses". The song starts with a voice off singing, "Quero tanto, espero tanto, seu beijo molhado," while Karin sings, "demais, oh oh oh, yeah, yeah." The first stanza is also sung by Karin, where it is spoken of an unforgettable summer love. The second stanza is sung by Luciana, where she sings about wanting to find that passion again, since she does not just stay. In the chorus, the girls sing, "Eu quero tanto seu beijo molhado Seus lábios de mel, Que me deixaram louca, Eu vou te dar um beijo molhado Eu sei que vou trazer Você pra mim." After the refrain, Patricia talks about not being able to sleep due to this intense passion. Fantine then sings, saying that even though she does not know if it's love, she wants to see that passion again. At the bridge of the song, Luciana sings again, in addition to doing "ad-libs." During the last two choruses, Aline does ad-libs in the song.
