Gabrielle was told by her former manager ‘Rise’ would never be a hit.
The song ultimately became a number one in the UK, but the R&B star would have never guessed it would have been so successful because she received no encouragement from her team at the time.
Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz, she said: "I remember the ‘Rise’ coming out and my manager said it wasn’t going to be a hit.
"I am not with him anymore. ‘Rise’ came out and it was this huge success.
"The fact my manager said it wasn’t going to be a hit, you can never predict it."
The 48-year-old singer – who releases her first album in 11 years, ‘Under My Skin’, on August 17 – celebrates 25 years of her other number one song ‘Dreams’ in June.
Gabrielle was actually on a "downer" when it was going to be released because it had been leaked and her friend told her there was no point putting it out again.
She recalled: "When it came out I had no idea. I do recall at the time being a bit down because we had the white label version that had been put out without my consent.
"One of my friends, when I let her know it was going to come out officially, she was like ‘why are you putting it out again, everyone’s heard it.’
"I was feeling on such a downer, I had no concept of how big this song was."
Luckily, she did, but it took some work as Gabrielle had to amend it because she didn’t receive permission to sample ‘Fast Car’ by Tracey Chapman.
She said: "It’s 25 years old in June and I can’t believe that.
"I recorded that song in 1991, but I wrote it first as a poem from a book I had and then I turned it into a song to Tracey Chapman’s ‘Fast Car’, but we had to redo it because we couldn’t use it."
Gabrielle was told Rise wouldn’t become a hit
