Believe (Cher song)

Writing

A demo of "Believe", written by Brian Higgins, Matthew Gray, Stuart McLennen and Timothy Powell, circulated at Warner Records for months. Higgins offered the demo to the English indie dance band Saint Etienne, who turned it down. According to the producer Mark Taylor, "everyone loved the chorus" but not the rest. The Warner chairman, Rob Dickins, asked the production house Dreamhouse to work on it; their goal was to make a dance record that would not alienate Cher fans. Two more writers, Steve Torch and Paul Barry, completed a version that Dickins and Cher were happy with.

Cher rewrote the lyrics in the second verse to make the character more assertive: 'I need time to move on, I need love to feel strong / 'Cause I've had time to think it through and maybe I'm too good for you". Cher felt the song was "too whiny" and wanted to "toughen it up a bit". She said: "A girl can be sad in one verse, but she can't be sad in two verses." In 2023, she said she regretted not asking for a songwriting credit.

Recording

"Believe" was recorded in mid-1998 at the Dreamhouse studio operated by Metro Productions in Kingston upon Thames, London. It was assembled with Cubase VST on an early Power Macintosh G3, with synthesizers including a Clavia Nord Rack and an Oberheim Matrix 1000. Cher's vocals were recorded on three TASCAM DA-88 digital audio recorders with a Neumann U67 microphone.

Cher's vocals were processed using the pitch correction software Auto-Tune. Auto-Tune was designed to be used subtly to correct sharp or flat notes in vocal performances; however, Taylor used extreme settings to create unnaturally rapid corrections, thereby removing portamento, the natural slide between pitches in singing. Taylor said it was "the most nerve-wracking part of the project", as he was not sure how Cher would react. She insisted the effect remain when Warner wanted it removed. In an attempt to protect their method, the producers initially claimed it was achieved using a vocoder. Before Believe, Auto-Tune use was a closely held secret. The manual accompanying Auto-Tune's fifth-release version describes the zero speed setting as the Cher Effect.

Composition

"Believe" is a Eurodance, europop, dance, dance-pop and electropop song. The track was recorded in the key of F major with a tempo of 133 beats per minute. The song follows a chord progression of F–C–Gm–B–F–Am7–Gm–Dm, and Cher's vocal range spans from F3 to C5.

Critical reception

Upon release, Chuck Taylor from Billboard said that it is "the best darn thing that Cher has recorded in years". He added, "Some songs are so natural, so comfortably sung, that you wonder that somebody didn't think them up decades before. With this, you'll be whirling around the floor, tapping hard on the accelerator to 'Believe,' a simple ode to those feelings that we all search out and cling to. Cher is just a prize here; even her hardy detractors will be fighting the beat on this one." Music critic Robert Christgau highlighted "Believe" as the best song on the album. A reviewer from Entertainment Weekly described the song as "poptronica glaze, the soon-to-be club fave..." and called Cher's voice "unmistakable". Deborah Wilker from Knight Ridder said that "her electronically altered vocal" on "Believe" "is like nothing she's ever done."

New York Daily News described the song as a "club track so caffeinated, it not only microwaved her cold career to scorching-hot but gave dance music its biggest hit since the days of disco." They also noted the song's "killer hook and amazing beat." Neil Strauss from The New York Times wrote that "the verses are rich and bittersweet, with the added gimmick of breaking up Cher's voice through an effect that makes her sound robotic. And the choruses are catchy and uplifting, with Cher wailing, 'Do you believe in life after love?' All of it bounces over a bed of 80s-style electronic pop. It is a song with a universal theme—a woman trying to convince herself that she can survive a breakup". Another editor, Jim Sullivan, called the track a "hooky, defiant, beat-fest of a song".

Retrospective response

In 2019, Bill Lamb from About.com declared it as a "perfect piece of dance-pop", including it in his list of "Top 10 Pop Songs of 1999". AllMusic editor Joe Viglione called "Believe" a "pop masterpiece, one of the few songs to be able to break through the impenetrable wall of late 1990s fragmented radio to permeate the consciousness of the world at large." Another editor, Michael Gallucci, gave a lukewarm review, writing that the Believe album is an "endless, and personality-free, thump session". Stopera and Galindo from BuzzFeed noted it as "iconic", featuring it in their "The 101 Greatest Dance Songs of the '90s" in 2017. Damon Albarn, frontman of the bands Blur and Gorillaz, called the song "brilliant".

In 2014, Tom Ewing from Freaky Trigger wrote that "Believe" "is a record in the "I Will Survive" mode of embattled romantic defiance – a song to make people who've lost out in love feel like they're the winners." He added that "it's remarkable that it took someone until 1998 to come up with "do you believe in life after love?", and perhaps even more remarkable that it wasn't Jim Steinman, but the genius of the song is how aggressive and righteous Cher makes it sound." Bob Waliszewski of Plugged In said that Cher "musters self-confidence to deal with a failed romance". In 2018, Dave Fawbert from ShortList described "Believe" as a "really great pop song with, as ever, an absolute powerhouse vocal performance from Cher".

Chart performance

The song, released as the album's lead single on October 19, 1998, peaked at number one in 23 countries worldwide. It debuted at number 99 on the US Billboard Hot 100 on December 19, 1998. On January 23, 1999, it reached the top 40, and then topped the chart on March 13, making Cher—aged 52 at the time–the oldest solo female artist to achieve this feat, breaking the record set by Tina Turner who was 44 when she reached No. 1 with "What's Love Got to Do With It" in 1984. Cher also set the record for the longest span between number-one singles on the Hot 100: 33 years and 7 months between her first number-one single, "I Got You Babe", and her fifth and last, "Believe". "Believe" was ranked as the number-one song of 1999 by Billboard on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Dance Club Play charts, becoming the biggest single of her entire career. "Believe" became Cher's 17th, and last, top-10 hit in the US.

In the United Kingdom, "Believe" debuted atop the UK Singles Chart on October 25, 1998—for the week ending October 31, 1998—during a week in which the top five singles were all new entries, a first for the chart (not counting the first ever chart). The song became Cher's fourth number one in the UK, and remained at the top of the chart for seven consecutive weeks. "Believe" was Britain's biggest-selling song of 1998, and won its writers three Ivor Novello Awards: Best Selling UK Single, Best Song Musically and Lyrically, and International Hit of the Year, respectively, at the 1999 ceremony. On January 31, 2025, "Believe" was certified 5× platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. As of October 2017, the song has sold 1,830,000 copies in Britain, making it the biggest-selling song by a female artist on the UK Singles Chart. At 52 years old, Cher was the oldest female artist to top the UK charts, a record that has since been broken by Kate Bush, who was 63 when "Running Up That Hill" re-entered the charts and reached number one.

The success of the song not only expanded through each country's singles chart, but also most countries' dance charts. In the United States "Believe" spent 15 weeks on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, five of those weeks at number one, and 22 weeks on the European Hot Dance Charts. "Believe" also set a record in 1999 after spending 21 weeks atop the Billboard Maxi-Singles Sales chart—it was still in the top 10 one year after its entry on the chart. On October 13, 2008, the song was voted number 10 on Australian VH1's Top 10 Number One Pop Songs countdown. "Believe" was nominated for Record of the Year and Best Dance Recording at 42nd Grammy Awards, the latter of which it won. Peter Rauhofer (Club 69) won the Grammy Award in 2000 for Best Remixer of the Year for his remix of Cher's "Believe".

Music video

The music video for "Believe" was directed by Nigel Dick. It features Cher in a nightclub in a double role as both a singer on stage wearing a glowing headdress and a supernatural being in a cage surrounded by many people to whom she is giving advice. The video largely revolves around a woman (played by Katrine De Candole) who is in the club with her friends and sees her ex-boyfriend. Scenes are shown of her clearly disappointed when he walks away from her and then proceeds to dance and make out with another woman in her presence. The version on The Very Best of Cher: The Video Hits Collection is slightly different from the previous version (which is also included on the Mallay Believe Bonus VCD) with additional scenes towards the end that were not in the original video. There are also two "rough" versions of the video as the song was released in Europe before a video was completed. The first is a compilation of scenes from the videos of Cher's previous singles "One by One" and "Walking in Memphis" and the second includes a brief scene of the "Believe" video where Cher sings the chorus while the rest of the video is composed of scenes from "One by One".

The Billboard music critic Chuck Taylor in March 1999 graded the video a "C", praising Cher's appearance but criticizing "an unnecessary subplot about a few kids stalking each other." In Pitchfork, Simon Reynolds wrote that through the combination of cosmetic surgery, makeup and bright lights, "Cher actually looks how Auto-Tune sounds ... Her face and her voice seem to be made out of the same immaterial substance."

Live performances

Cher performed the song during the Do You Believe? tour, the Farewell Tour, Cher at the Colosseum and the Dressed to Kill Tour. While she would lip-sync the entire song on various television programs, she would only lip-sync the synthesized verses when performing on her Believe and Farewell tours, the Colosseum shows and on the 2002 edition of VH1 Divas Live. Since 1999, the song has been the encore to all of Cher's concerts until her 2014 Dressed to Kill Tour, where the encore is the ballad "I Hope You Find It", a second single from her 25th studio album Closer to the Truth. It returned as the encore at her Classic Cher (2017–2020) shows and stayed in that place for the Here We Go Again Tour (2018–2020) as well.

Legacy

VH1 placed "Believe" at number 60 in their list of 100 Greatest Dance Songs in 2000 and at number 74 in their list of 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s in 2007. In 2007, Rolling Stone placed "Believe" at number 10 in their list of the "20 Most Annoying Songs". In 2020, The Guardian ranked "Believe" as the 83rd greatest UK number one. "Believe" was placed at number 337 on the 2021 revised list of Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

In July 2020, a digital publication The Pudding carried out a study on the most widely-known songs from the '90s and songs that are most known by Millennials and the people of Generation Z. "Believe" was the sixth song with the highest recognisability rate. In October 2023, Billboard ranked it among the "500 Best Pop Songs of All Time". In 2024, Esquire and Forbes ranked "Believe" at numbers 32 and 20 in their lists of the 50 best songs of the '90s, respectively.

Accolades

(*) indicates the list is unordered.

Other versions

In May 2012, after successfully auditioning for The X Factor (UK), Ella Henderson, then 16 years old, performed a ballad arrangement of "Believe" after the Bootcamp round, reducing guest judge Nicole Scherzinger to tears. The cover, which was based on Adam Lambert's version performed on American Idol in 2009, was so popular for its slow tempo, emotional interpretation that Henderson released an acoustic performance in 2013 on YouTube and performed it at the National Television Awards on January 23, 2013. Henderson also included a studio version of the cover on a deluxe edition of her debut album Chapter One as part of a pre-order EP called Chapter One Sessions.

In October 2016, the Australian rock band DMA's performed "Believe" for Triple J's Like a Version. It made such an impact on the Australian audience that in the year it was performed, the cover became the highest ranked Like A Version in a Hottest 100 countdown, landing at number 6 in the 2016 edition of the countdown (this was later surpassed by The Wiggles in 2021). In 2020 it was the only Like A Version to feature in the Hottest 100 of the 2010s countdown landing at No. 41. In 2023, it topped the Triple J Hottest 100 of Like a Version countdown.

In December 2018, Lambert performed his ballad version of "Believe" again in honor of Cher during the 41st annual Kennedy Center Honors; the performance was highly acclaimed, with Cher stating that she was "at a loss for words" and was moved to tears. On December 6, 2019, Lambert released a studio version of his version of "Believe", which reached number 23 on the Billboard Digital Song Sales chart on December 21, 2019.

Track listings

• US maxi-CD single

1. "Believe" (album version) – 3:59
2. "Believe" (Phat 'N' Phunky club mix) – 7:42
3. "Believe" (Club 69 Phunk club mix) – 8:55
4. "Believe" (Almighty Definitive mix) – 7:36
5. "Believe" (Xenomania Mad Tim and the Mekon club mix) – 9:15
6. "Believe" (Club 69 Future Anthem mix) – 9:20
7. "Believe" (Grip's Heartbroken mix) – 9:12
8. "Believe" (Club 69 Future Anthem dub) – 7:13
9. "Believe" (Club 69 Phunk dub) – 7:04
10. "Believe" (Phat 'N' Phunky "After Luv" dub) – 6:22

• US 7-inch, CD, and cassette single
• UK cassette single

1. "Believe" (album version) – 3:59
2. "Believe" (Xenomania mix) – 4:20

• UK and European CD1

1. "Believe" – 3:58
2. "Believe" (Almighty Definitive mix) – 7:35
3. "Believe" (Xenomania mix) – 4:20

• UK and European CD2

1. "Believe" – 3:58
2. "Believe" (Grip's Heartbroken mix) – 9:12
3. "Believe" (Club 69 Future mix) – 6:50

• European two-track CD single

1. "Believe" – 3:58
2. "Believe" (Grip's Heartbroken mix) – 9:12

• Australian maxi-CD single

1. "Believe" (Phat 'N' Phunky club mix) – 7:44
2. "Believe" (Xenomania Mad Tim and the Mekon club mix) – 9:16
3. "Believe" (Club 69 Phunk club mix) – 6:50
4. "Believe" (Club 69 Future Anthem mix) – 9:24
5. "Believe" (album version) – 3:58

• Japanese CD single

1. "Believe" – 3:58
2. "Believe" (Almighty Definitive mix) – 7:35
3. "Believe" (Grip's Heartbroken mix) – 9:12

• Japanese remix EP (with "Strong Enough")

1. "Strong Enough" (album version) – 3:44
2. "Strong Enough" (Pumpin' Dolls radio edit) – 3:48
3. "Strong Enough" (Club 69 Future Anthem mix) – 11:00
4. "Strong Enough" (Mark Andrews remix) – 7:55
5. "Believe" (album version) – 3:58
6. "Believe" (Phat 'N' Phunky club mix) – 7:44
7. "Believe" (Almighty Definitive mix) – 7:35
8. "Believe" (Club 69 Phunk club mix) – 8:55

Personnel

Personnel are adapted from the Believe album liner notes and Sound on Sound.

• Cher – vocals
• Mark Taylor – producer, arranger, programming, keyboards
• Brian Rawling – production
• Brian Higgins – composition
• Stuart McLennen – composition
• Paul Barry – composition
• Steven Torch – composition
• Matthew Gray – composition
• Timothy Powell – composition
• Gipsyland – background vocals, guitar
• Robin Smith – arranger
• Adam Phillips – additional guitars
• Ryan Art – designer
• Michael Lavine – cover art photographer
• Rob Dickins – executive production

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications and sales

Release history

Notes

References

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