Cher – Believe

“Believe” – Single by Cher from the album Believe, released in October 19, 1998.

“Believe” is a song by Cher from her twenty-second studio album of the same name (1998). It was released as the album’s lead single on October 19, 1998, by Warner Bros. Records.

Using the pitch correction software Auto-Tune to distort her vocals, Cher goes to #1 in America with “Believe,” opening the floodgates for many more Auto-Tuned hits.

Auto-Tune went on the market in 1997 and quickly became an invaluable tool for producers because it could correct vocal pitch in real time, flattening notes that were too sharp and sharpening the flat ones with minimal effort. But if the software is set to an extreme setting, it creates an interesting distortion effect that preserves some of the singer’s voice while radiating it into a computerized trill. It’s more natural than the vocoder effect heard on songs like “Let’s Groove” by Earth, Wind & Fire and “Mr. Blue Sky” by the Electric Light Orchestra.

Cher’s producers use it on “Believe,” a song painstakingly crafted by several writers and producers for the purpose of giving the 52-year-old singer a comeback hit, which it does, going to #1 in both the UK and US, making her the oldest female solo artist ever to top those tallies.

The song brings Auto-Tune into the open. Listeners have long known that a certain studio magic takes place to enhance vocals, but it’s now clear that most popular singers are getting pitch correction, which can make the difference between a live vocal and studio recording quite striking.

On January 23, 1999, it reached the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number one on the chart on March 13, making Cher the oldest female artist (at the age of 52) to perform this feat. Cher also set the record for the longest gap between number-one singles on the Hot 100; there was a gap of 33 years and 7 months between her singles “I Got You Babe” and “Believe” reaching number one. “Believe” was ranked as the number-one song of 1999 by “Billboard” on both the “Billboard” Hot 100 and Hot Dance Club Play charts and became the biggest single in her entire career. “Believe” became Cher’s 17th and last top ten hit in the US.

In the United Kingdom, “Believe” debuted atop the UK Singles Chart on October 25, 1998 – for the week ending date October 31, 1998 – during a week in which the top five singles were all new entries, a first for the chart. It became Cher’s fourth number one in the UK and remained at the top of the chart for seven consecutive weeks. “Believe” become Britain’s biggest-selling song of 1998, and won its writers three Ivor Novello Awards (for Best Selling UK Single, for Best Song Musically and Lyrically, and for International Hit of the Year) at the 1999 ceremony. On July 30, 2021, “Believe” was certified Quadruple 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 woman on the UK Singles Chart.[35] 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” reached number one.

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Cher - Believe

Cher - Believe (Official Music Video)03:57

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