“Believe”
Single by Cher from the album Believe
Released	October 18, 1998 (UK) October 19, 1998 (France) November 3, 1998 (U.S) April 20, 1999 (Canada) May 25, 1999 (Japan)
Format	CD single CD maxi-single 12" single 7" single
Recorded	1998
Genre	Electronica/Dance
Length	3:59
Label	Warner Bros. Records / Wea
Writer(s)	Brian Higgins Stuart McLennen Paul Barry Steven Torch Matthew Gray Timothy Powell
Producer	Mark Taylor Brian Rawling
Cher singles chronology
"Paradise Is Here" (1996) "Believe" (1998) "Strong Enough" (1999)
Cher European chronology
"The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)" (1996)	"Believe" (1998)	"Strong Enough" (1999)

"Believe" is a Grammy Award winning global number one, Multi-Platinum Dance Song which served as the world-wide lead single for American singer Cher's twenty-third studio album Believe. It is noted for its use of a peculiar sound effect on the singer's vocals, which is referred to as the Cher effect today.

The song is featured on the Karaoke Revolution video game.

Song information

"Believe" was written by a number of writers including Paul Barry, Matt Gray, Brian Higgins, Stuart McLellan, Timothy Powell, and Steven Torch. The song, released and recorded in 1998, peaked at number one in 23 countries worldwide ^[1]. In the second week of March, 1999, it reached number one in the Billboard Hot 100, making Cher the oldest female artist (at the age of 52)^[2] to perform this feat. It also was ranked as the number-one song of 1999 by Billboard, and became the biggest single in her entire career. "Believe" also spent seven weeks at number one ^[3] in the UK singles chart and is still the best selling single by a female artist in the UK. ^[4]

In March 2007, the United World Chart ranked "Believe" as the sixteenth most successful song in music history. The same chart lists "Believe" as third most successful song released by a solo female musician behind Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" and Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On; ^[5], the biggest selling single ever for Warner Bros. Records and the biggest selling dance song ever having sold over 10 million copies worldwide. ^[6] It was also the song with most weeks in the top ten, it stayed in the top ten for 28 weeks.

The success of the song not only expanded through each country's singles chart, but also most country's dance charts. In the United States "Believe" spent 23 weeks on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play chart and 22 weeks on the European Hot Dance Charts. "Believe" also set a record in 1999 after spending 21 weeks in the top spot of the Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales chart, it was still in the top ten even one year after its entry on the chart. ^[7].

"Believe" was given the featured closing number spot for over 100 performances on Cher's 1999-2000 Do You Believe? Tour and then again the closing spot for over 300 performances on Cher's epic 2002-2005 Living Proof: The Farewell Tour. The song ranked #74 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s.

Production and the "Cher effect"

An interesting note about the recording of the song revolved around the highly-recognizable Auto-tune effect ("Cher effect") utilized in the verses and chorus. Producer Mark Taylor added the effect to Cher's vocal simply as a lark, and in interviews at the time, he claimed to be testing out his recently purchased the 'DigiTech Talker'. However, it later emerged that the effect was not created by a vocoder, but by utilizing extreme (and then unheard) settings on auto-tune.^[8] When Cher heard the results, she demanded that the effect remain in the song, and her original vocal be erased, much to the chagrin of her record company, who wanted it removed; upon their suggestion, Cher's response to the record label was "over my dead body!"^{citation needed} The vocal effect is caused by a pitch correction speed that is "set too fast for the audio that it is processing." ^[8]

World use and popularity

A cover version of this song was used in the Nintendo DS game Elite Beat Agents in the first bonus level.

Indie rock bands Macha and Bedhead recorded a cover of the song on their 2000 joint EP Macha Loved Bedhead.

Music video

Original

Cher in the music video for "Believe".

The international music video for "Believe", directed by Nigel Dick, features Cher in a nightclub surrounded by many people to whom she is giving advice. The video includes a woman who is broken hearted and feels that she can't go on when she sees her ex-boyfriend with a new spouse.

Remix videos

Three official remix videos exist for this song. Two of the remix videos were created by Dan-O-Rama in 1999. Both follow different concepts from the original unmixed video. Instead of showing the significance of the lyrics the videos mostly show Cher with different colored backgrounds and people dancing. The two remixes used for these videos were the Almighty Definitive Mix and the Club 69 Phunk Club Mix. The third video entitled Wayne G. Remix was released by Warner Bros. and the concept is similar to the Club 69 Phunk Club Mix video.

Live performances

Cher has performed this song several times between its release and the end of her Farewell Tour. Footage of the majority of the performances has been released. While she would lip-synch the entire song on various television programs, she would only lip-synch the verses when performing on her Believe and Farewell tours and on the 2002 edition of VH1 Divas Live

Since 1999, the song has been the encore to all of Cher's concerts.

Formats and track listings

Charts

Certifications

• ARIA: Australia IFPI: Austria IFPI: Germany SNEP: France NVPI: Netherlands Norway IFPI: Sweden IFPI: Switzerland RIAA: U.S. Media Traffic: World

Achievements

References

1. ^ "Believe" #1 in 23 countries
2. ^ Record-Breakers and Trivia - everyHit.com
3. ^ Everyhit.com - List of UK Number 1's 1990's
4. ^ Top 100 singles of all time in the UK
5. ^ 19th most successful song in history
6. ^ [1]
7. ^ "Believe" Dance Singles Sales record
8. ^ ^{a b} Sillitoe, Sue & Bell, Matt. "Recording Cher's 'Believe'". Sound On Sound. soundonsound.com. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
9. ^ "Believe", in various Singles Charts Lescharts.com (Retrieved June 20, 2008)