When a Woman Loves is the fourteenth studio album released by American singer Patti LaBelle. Her sixth ever on the MCA Records label, it was released on October 24, 2000, in the United States.
Background
By 2000, Patti LaBelle had achieved solo success with at least one platinum album and four gold albums. Four of the certified successes were with MCA Records, a company she had been an artist with since 1985. With the guidance of the label and with her husband, Armstead Edwards, LaBelle had finally achieved the solo success that had mostly eluded her since leaving the flashy pop group, Labelle, in 1976. It had been three years since her last album, the platinum-certified Flame, which yielded the modestly popular hit, "When You Talk About Love".
After winning a second Grammy Award for her live album, Live! One Night Only, LaBelle laid low. The marriage of LaBelle and Edwards seemed to be solid but in early 2000, the couple made news by announcing a trial separation after 31 years of marriage. The news shocked fans of the singer, who had told the media that the couple's relationship was built on their opposite differences. Following news of the separation, LaBelle returned to the recording studio to work on her next studio album for MCA Records. Noting the modest success they had with LaBelle's original 1989 version of "If You Asked Me To", LaBelle and the song's writer, Diane Warren agreed to work together on LaBelle's new album.
Recording
When A Woman Loves featured production from not only Warren and friend Denise Rich, who co-wrote several tracks, but also longtime producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, producers of LaBelle's last two hits, "The Right Kinda Lover" and "When You Talk About Love". Upon its release, when critics heard the new tracks, they thought that LaBelle's impending divorce from her husband Edwards was the cause of the sound from the tracks and from the singer's voice, though LaBelle would later deny such stories. Because Edwards had also served as LaBelle's manager for nearly 30 years, Edwards also left his position as manager leaving that position to the couple's son Zuri.
Commercial reception
Upon its October 2000 release, When a Woman Loves failed to make an impact on the Billboard Hot 200 or the R&B albums chart, peaking at No. 63 on the former chart before dropping out of the charts after only ten weeks. The record became LaBelle's second album, since This Christmas (1990), to not be RIAA-certified.
The sole single from When a Woman Loves, "Call Me Gone", likewise failed to chart on the Hot 100, and was given poor radio promotion. Though the title track did receive some airplay, and LaBelle performed the song occasionally during the record's promotion, it was never released officially as a single.
