Sparks Fly

Sparks Fly is the only studio album by American actress and singer Miranda Cosgrove. It was released on April 27, 2010, by Sony Music. After making her musical debut on the iCarly soundtrack in 2008, Cosgrove began planning her first album with the Columbia label. Musically, Sparks Fly is a pop record that incorporates electropop elements. Contributions to the album's production came from several producers, including Dr. Luke, the Matrix, Espionage, Rock Mafia, Darkchild and Max Martin. Sparks Fly sold 36,000 copies in its first week and peaked at number 8 on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States. "Kissin U" was released as the sole single from the album in March 2010, peaking at number 54 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Sparks Fly received mixed reviews from music critics, with some complimenting Cosgrove's vocal ability and likening it to that of Miley Cyrus, while others were unimpressed with the album and criticized the production and lyrical content, calling it predictable and unoriginal. Cosgrove promoted the album mainly through live performances, including a concert segment on Today as well as the Dancing Crazy Tour in 2011, where she promoted both Sparks Fly and her follow-up extended play High Maintenance. Background and development Cosgrove's musical career first began with her recording the theme song of the Nickelodeon television series iCarly called "Leave It All to Me", on which Cosgrove starred as the title character on the show. The song features her former Drake & Josh castmate Drake Bell, and was written by Michael Corcoran, one of Bell's band members. Following the success of iCarly, Columbia Records released a soundtrack album of the show on June 10, 2008. The soundtrack album included four songs recorded by Cosgrove that were "Leave It All to Me", "Stay My Baby", "About You Now" and "Headphones On". Cosgrove stated, "Before that, I didn't see myself making an album, but when I spent time in the studio doing the theme song and saw how much fun it was, I wanted to go back." In July 2008, Cosgrove officially announced plans for a solo album, stating that the album was "different" from her contributions to the iCarly soundtrack, with her "co-writing and getting really into it," and saying that "[I'm] playing a character on iCarly, but this shows more of myself.