|
| |
Greatest Hits '' (CD #1)
|
| |
compilation
|
| |
"Dreamlover"
|
| |
9
|
| |
"Hero"
|
| |
10
|
| |
"Without You"
|
| |
11
|
"" is a
Pop song written and produced by American singer
Mariah Carey and
Walter Afanasieff , and recorded for Carey's fourth album, ''
Music Box '' (1993). Its protagonist declares that even though we may feel discouraged or down at times, in reality we are "heroes" if we look inside ourselves and see our own inner strength; in time, this will help us "find the way". It was released as the album's second
Single in the fourth quarter of 1993 (see
1993 In Music ) and became a worldwide commercial success. "Hero" is considered one of Carey's
Signature Song s, and she regularly performs it when invited to charity events and closes most concerts with it. The song was nominated for the 1995
Grammy Award for "
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance ", losing to
Sheryl Crow 's "
All I Wanna Do ".
"Hero" was not originally intended to have been recorded by Carey. She and Afanasieff had been asked by producers of the
Dustin Hoffman film ''
Hero '' (1992) to write a song for its soundtrack to be recorded by
Gloria Estefan . During the studio recording of "Hero",
Sony /
Columbia executive
Tommy Mottola (who had, by then, become Carey's husband) heard the track and encouraged Carey to save it for herself. Carey was initially reluctant, as she had written the lyrics of the song for someone else and made them, in her words, "schmaltzy".
"Hero" was the subject of one of the most infamous copyright ,
2001 ).
"Hero" became Carey's eighth number-one single on the U.S
''Billboard'' Hot 100 , and it was her first
Christmas Number-one on the chart. It reached number one in its tenth week and spent four weeks at the top, from
December 19 1993 to
January 15 1994 . It replaced "
Again " by
Janet Jackson , and was replaced by
Bryan Adams ,
Rod Stewart and
Sting 's "
All For Love ". It remained in the top forty for twenty-five weeks, with fourteen of those spent in the top ten. It received heavy radio airplay and was certified
Platinum by the
RIAA . It was one of the year's biggest hits, being ranked fifth on the Hot 100 1994 year-end chart. It sold 3,000,000 copies worldwide.
"Hero" became a major hit outside the U.S., reaching the top ten in the
UK (where it peaked higher than "
Dreamlover ", the previous single from ''Music Box'') and
Australia . It became Carey's first number-one in
Brazil since her debut single, "
Vision Of Love " (1990), and was a radio hit there. It was more successful across
Continental Europe than "Dreamlover" by reaching the top ten in most markets, but it performed moderately in
Canada compared to Carey's previous singles.
As one of Carey's
Signature Song s, "Hero" is known for being one of the most frequently performed songs at her concerts next to "Vision of Love".
The single's
Video , directed by
Larry Jordan , is derived from Carey's 1993 concert at Proctor Theatre, which became a television special and was later released on the home video ''
Here Is Mariah Carey '' (1994). The live performance of the song at Proctor Theatre was officially released. Carey also re-recorded the track in Spanish from a translation by
Jorge Luis Piloto , and the Spanish language version was included as a
B-side on various Carey singles released outside the U.S. between 1994 and 1997. Parts of "Hero" were incorporated into Carey's charity single "
Never Too Far/Hero Medley " (2001).
One of Carey's most widely seen performances of "Hero" was at the 2005 London
Live 8 concert, during which she sang the song with the African Children's Choir. Later that year a cover of the song by
Operatic Pop vocal group
Il Divo was released on their album ''
Ancora ''.
"Hero" is included on ''
Voices From The FIFA World Cup '', an album comprising songs featured in the
2006 FIFA World Cup .
| |
HeroSampleogg
|
| |
"Hero"
|
| |
Produced by Mariah Carey and Walter Afanasieff
|
|
| |
"wikitable"
|
|
