Paris

Paris is the debut studio album by American media personality and singer Paris Hilton. It was released on August 14, 2006, by Warner Bros. Records. The entire album was posted on AOL Music, becoming available for online stream eight days before the scheduled physical copy release date.

Upon its release, Paris received mixed reviews from music critics, but saw commercial success, peaking at number six on the US Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 77,000 copies.^[1] As of October 2013, the album has sold 198,000 copies in the United States and over 600,000 copies worldwide.

Background

Hilton first announced plans to record an album in 2003 during the production of her reality television series The Simple Life. She began early collaborations with Romeo Antonio. Together they recorded six songs, including a midtempo ballad with the working title "Loneliness" In 2004, she met with the producer Robb Boldt. In collaboration with JC Chasez, she started recording new demos. Around that time, she was pitched the song "Screwed", written by Kara DioGuardi and Greg Wells. She began talking about the song in many interviews, saying it would be the first single from the album. In June 2004, Hilton established her own record label, Heiress Records, on which she was planning to release the album. That same summer, Haylie Duff said in an interview that "Screwed" was actually intended to be recorded by her and would be the first single from her debut album, which was later cancelled. It was followed by a legal battle for the song. In August 2004, a low fidelity leak of Hilton's recording of the song circulated onto the Internet from an Orlando radio station airing, which complicated the legal battle. After meeting with the producer Rob Cavallo, Hilton recorded a new version of the song and was planning to shoot a music video with David LaChapelle. Not long afterwards, Duff was dropped by Hollywood Records which allowed Hilton to claim the song as hers.

Around the same time, Lil Jon agreed to produce some tracks for Hilton. He sent over four tracks for her to consider. She picked a song called "That's Hot" but later commented: "It's really like hip-hop though, so I told him to tone it down a little. It's hot, but it's more like for Lil' Kim, and I told him to make it more like me." However, Hilton was unable to get in the studio with him since she was working on the film Pledge This! in Miami. Other reports were made about a possible collaboration with The Black Eyed Peas. Hilton continued her work with Cavallo, who was initially set to serve as a producer for the entire record. Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Go's was also invited to work with her and Cavallo. Wiedlin spoke on her work with Hilton: "I think her voice is sounding good. The first time she sang she was super nervous and she just didn't really have experience singing. And one of the main things I did was kind of guide her through the vocals. And as she is getting more and more comfortable in the studio, she is just getting better and better. I think people are going to be really surprised when they hear the record. It's going to be good." Hilton later confirmed a cover version of Blondie's "Heart of Glass" would appear on the album.

In the summer of 2005, Hilton met with the producer Scott Storch in Miami and was invited to his recording studio. After recording the song "Turn It Up", she decided to change the musical direction of the album and make more hip hop and R&B-influenced songs. After months of collaboration with Storch, with contributions from Fernando Garibay, Dr. Luke, J.R. Rotem, and Greg Wells, Paris was finally complete and ready for release.

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Turn It Up"	Paris Hilton Scott Storch Penelope Magnet Jeff Bowden	Storch	3:12
2.	"Fightin' Over Me" (featuring Fat Joe and Jadakiss)	Hilton Storch Magnet Joseph Cartagena Jason Phillips Alonzo Jackson Taura Jackson	Storch	4:01
3.	"Stars Are Blind"	Fernando Garibay Sheppard Solomon Ralph McCarthy	Garibay	3:56
4.	"I Want You"	J. R. Rotem Kara DioGuardi Evan Bogart Barry Gibb	Rotem	3:12
5.	"Jealousy"	Hilton Storch DioGuardi	Storch	3:40
6.	"Heartbeat"	Storch Billy Steinberg Josh Alexander	Storch	3:43
7.	"Nothing in This World"	Lukasz Gottwald Solomon	Dr. Luke	3:10
8.	"Screwed"	DioGuardi Greg Wells	Wells DioGuardi Rob Cavallo	3:41
9.	"Not Leaving Without You"	Hilton DioGuardi Wells	Wells DioGuardi	3:35
10.	"Turn You On"	Hilton Storch A. Jackson T. Jackson Courtney Triggs	Storch	3:06
11.	"Do Ya Think I'm Sexy"	Rod Stewart Carmine Appice Duane Hitchings	Storch	4:34
Total length:				39:50

Digital deluxe edition bonus tracks
No.	Title	Length
12.	"Stars Are Blind" (The Scumfrog's Extreme Makeover Edit)	4:57
13.	"Turn It Up" (Paul Oakenfold Remix Edit)	4:59
14.	"Turn You On" (Claude Le Gache Le Club Edit)	3:38
Total length:		53:24

Limited edition bonus DVD
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Music Special featuring Making of the Album, Behind the Scenes, and Interviews with Record Producers"	20:21
2.	"Jealousy - In the Studio"	3:25
Total length:		23:46

Additional notes

• "I Want You" contains a sample of "Grease" performed by Frankie Valli.
• " Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" is a cover version of "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" performed by Rod Stewart.

Personnel

Performers

Production

Charts

References

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