You Raise Me Up

"You Raise Me Up"
Song by Secret Garden from the album Once in a Red Moon
Released	26 March 2002
Genre	Inspirational
Length	5:04
Writer	Brendan Graham (lyricist) Rolf Løvland (composer)
Producer	Decca
Once in a Red Moon track listing
Awakening (1) "You Raise Me Up" (2) Silent Wings (3)

"You Raise Me Up" is a popular song in the inspirational mould. The music was written by Secret Garden's Rolf Løvland and the lyrics by Brendan Graham, a veteran songwriter from Ireland. The song has now been covered more than 125 times.

The song was originally written as an instrumental piece and titled "Silent Story." Parts of the melody are based on a traditional Irish tune ("Danny Boy" which in turn was based on the tune from "Londonderry Air"), especially the opening phrase of its chorus. Løvland approached Irish novelist and songwriter Brendan Graham to write the lyrics to his melody after reading Graham's novels. It was originally released on the 2002 Secret Garden album Once in a Red Moon, with the vocals sung by Irish singer Brian Kennedy, and sold well in both Ireland and Norway. Originally, Brian Kennedy was supposed to follow Secret Garden on their Asian tour in 2002, but fell ill, and could not attend. He was replaced by Norwegian singer Jan Werner Danielsen, who also later recorded the song together with Secret Garden, but it was never released.

Covers

British singer Becky Taylor covered the song on her second album Shine (1 July 2003). The song was subsequently recorded by Daniel O'Donnell in 2003 and was a hit throughout Ireland and the UK. Tenor Javier Fontana also recorded the song.

Later in 2003, David Foster decided to produce the song after being introduced to it by Frank Petrone of peermusic, the song's publisher. He chose the up-and-coming Josh Groban to record the song, accompanied by the tenor Craig Von Vennik of the Establishment. It proved very popular in the US, making it to the top of the Billboard adult contemporary chart and remaining there for six weeks. Groban also performed it at Super Bowl XXXVIII, in a special NASA commemoration for the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. A special surprise performance by Groban, for Oprah Winfrey's 50th birthday, gave "You Raise Me Up" massive international prominence, and his recording was nominated for a 2005 Grammy award. Groban performed the song at the first Idol Gives Back Concert with the African Children's Choir.

Brian Kennedy re-released the single after performing it at legendary Northern Irish football player George Best's funeral, the song again climbing the UK Charts to No. 4 in January 2006 (named "George Best — A Tribute"). The song has also been released by Aled Jones, Johnny Coppin, Ronan Tynan, Russell Watson, Javier Fontana, Selah, Celtic Woman, David Tibenovski, Tommy Fleming, Michael Ball, and the Celtic Tenors with Samantha Mumba, this time with an R&B flow to it. Selah's version was nominated for two Dove Awards (Song of the Year and Inspirational Recorded Song of the Year) at the 36th GMA Dove Awards.

"You Raise Me Up" was the debut single from Westlife's fifth studio album, Face To Face. The single peaked at #1 on the UK Singles Chart in 2005, making it the band's 13th Number One. It was the first song to be released following the departure of Brian McFadden from the group. The single sold 540,000 copies in the UK so far.

Åsa Jinder has written lyrics in Swedish, "Rör vid min själ", and that version has been recorded by Sanna Nielsen. The song was also recorded by Daniel Beck, a Mormon musician. The song was used for EFY's 2007 CD Power in Purity. In the first Celtic Woman CD album, Lisa Kelly recorded a solo version. In spring 2009, Paul Byrom of Celtic Thunder, from the same producer of Celtic Woman, has recorded a cover. The song was also covered in Japanese by Korean-American singer Lena Park as the opening theme to the Japanese TV anime series Romeo x Juliet, which premiered in Japan on April 2007. Park also covered an English version of the song, which was featured in episodes 7 and 24 of the English version of the series, released in two sets in both June and August 2009. Paul Potts and Il Divo separately recorded a Spanish version of this song titled Por Ti Seré using Westlife's instrumentation. This loosely translated version appears on Pott's One Chance album and Il Divos' Siempre.

Connie Talbot included "You Raise Me Up" on her re-released album Over the Rainbow (16 June 2008). Talbot also included "You Raise Me Up" as the second track on her two singles "Three Little Birds" (20 June 2008) and "I Will Always Love You" (15 June 2009). Australian duo Generation Gap recorded the song (complete with both verses) for their album, A New Beginning (December 2009). German musical actor Andreas Bieber sang the song as a duet with international star Pia Douwes on his album No Frontiers.

In September 2008, Jewish pop star Yaakov Shwekey covered the song with some minor changes to the lyrics, so as to be acceptable by the orthodox population. A Finnish version of the song was recorded by Kari Tapio titled "Kuin taivaisiin". Japanese seiyuu Ayahi Takagaki covered the song on the Ending Theme single to the anime Occult Academy (21 July 2010). Cantopop singer Mimi Lo recorded a Cantonese version of the song for her compilation album, Very Meaningful (August 2010).

Korean boy band DBSK also covered the song "You Raise Me Up" with famous Korean blind pianist girl Yoo Ye-eun, several videos of which have collectively attracted hundreds of thousands of views worldwide on YouTube.

Donald Braswell II recorded this song on his 2011 album, Unchained.

In November 2011, Sergio Dalma made a version in Catalan for La Marató de TV3

In December 2011, Joo Won covered the song as Hwang Tae-hee in episode 44 of South Korean drama series Ojakgyo Family.

Popularity

In 2004, the song was played more than 500,000 times on American radio. In late 2005, there were over 80 versions available in USA alone, and it has become nominated for Gospel Music Awards four times, including "Song of the Year." This version by Christian group Selah (with both verses included, as originally written) also went to No. 1 on Billboard's Christian charts.

On 21 September 2006, "You Raise Me Up" became the first song to have sold over 20,000 copies of the score on the popular sheet music website musicnotes.com.

Sony Australia has included You Raise Me Up recorded by Australian singer Mark Vincent on the new album "Flood Relief - Artists For The Flood Appeal". The album was recorded to raise much needed funds for the victims of the devastating floods in Queensland and Northern New South Wales.

Westlife version

"You Raise Me Up"
Single by Westlife
from the album Face To Face
Released	October 24, 2005
Format	CD Single
Recorded	Rokstone Studios, London 2004
Genre	Pop
Length	4:01
Label	Sony BMG
Producer	Steve Mac
Westlife singles chronology
"Obvious" (2004) "You Raise Me Up" (2005) "When You Tell Me That You Love Me" (2005)

"You Raise Me Up" was the debut single from Westlife's fifth studio album, Face To Face.This version is considered by many to be the most popular, of all the various versions of the same song. The single peaked at #1 on the UK Singles Chart, making it the band's 13th Number One. It was the first song to be released following the departure of Brian McFadden from the group. The single sold 540,000 copies on UK so far.

The backing track is reused in the Spanish version of this song, Por Ti Sere, performed by Il Divo in their Siempre album and Paul Potts in his One Chance album.

Tracklisting

• United Kingdom

CD1

1. "You Raise Me Up" – 4:00
2. "World Of Our Own" (Acoustic Version) – 3:30

CD2

1. "You Raise Me Up" – 4:00
2. "Flying Without Wings" (Acoustic Version) – 3:30
3. "My Love" (Acoustic Version) – 3:48

• Australia

1. "You Raise Me Up" - 4:00
2. "You Raise Me Up" (Chameleon Remix) - 3:17
3. "You Raise Me Up" (Reactor Remix) - 3:29

Charts

Chart (2005)	Peak position
Australian Singles Chart	3
Austrian Singles Chart	59
Belgium (Ultratip Flanders)	3
Dutch Singles Chart	47
German Singles Chart	11
Irish Singles Chart	1
Norwegian Singles Chart	3
Swedish Singles Chart	7
Swiss Singles Chart	18
UK Singles Chart	1

End of year charts

End of year chart (2005)	Position
Irish Singles Chart	1
UK Singles Chart	9
End of year chart (2006)	Position
Australian Singles Chart	14

Chart successions

Preceded by "Push the Button" by Sugababes	Irish IRMA number one single 27 October 2005 (6 weeks)	Succeeded by "My Humps" by The Black Eyed Peas
Preceded by "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" by Arctic Monkeys	UK number-one single October 30, 2005 (2 weeks)	Succeeded by "Hung Up" by Madonna

Use in popular culture

• Shizuka Arakawa, the 2006 Olympic gold medalist in figure skating, used the piece as an exhibition number for many shows and professional competitions from 2005–2010. Michelle Kwan skated to the song during the 2004 Champion on Ice Tour and other competitions in 2005. Caroline Zhang skated this song in her exhibitions in the 2006–2007 and 2007–2008 skating season. Also Katlynn Mcnab skated this song in 2004 Nationals Showcase.
• In 2004, Australian Idol Top 12 contestant Daniel Belle sang the song for his "Pop" song selection, and it has become one of the most performed songs on similar shows across the world.
• Westlife, together with original composer Secret Garden, performed the song at the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize concert.
• Brian Kennedy sang the song at George Best's funeral on 28 November 2005
• RTE (Ireland's national television station), screened a Roy Esmonde produced documentary titled You Raise Me Up on New Year's Day 2006. First screened a year earlier, this updated edition included the most recent successes for the song, as well as the story of how the song first came to be written by Løvland and Graham.
• On May 8, 2007, the song was played at the historic opening of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
• On April 21, 2009, Celtic Woman performed "You Raise Me Up" on the popular American TV show Dancing with the Stars.
• On August 3, 2009, Rhap Salazar rendered the song at the necrological service of former Philippine President Corazon Aquino
• On December 11, 2009, Westlife performed it again at the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize concert celebrating US President Barack Obama.
• On June 8, 2010, the song was used in a mash-up with Olivia Newton-John's "Magic" on the season 1 finale of Glee.
• On December 2011, this song was adapted into Catalan with the title 'Em Dónes Força' (You give me power), sung by Sergio Dalma and L'Escolania de Montserrat for 'La Marató de TV3', a program of the Catalan autonomic TV channel TV3 whose finality is collect money to help the investigation of an illness and similar. This year, 2011, 'La Marató' was about the transplantation of organs, tissues and cells.

References

Preceded by "Forever and for Always" by Shania Twain "The First Cut Is the Deepest" by Sheryl Crow	Billboard Adult Contemporary number-one single (Josh Groban version) March 13, 2004 – April 3, 2004 April 17, 2004 – April 24, 2004	Succeeded by "The First Cut Is the Deepest" by Sheryl Crow
Preceded by "Push the Button" by the Sugababes	Irish Singles Chart number-one single (Westlife version) 27 October 2005 – 1 December 2005	Succeeded by "My Humps" by The Black Eyed Peas
Preceded by "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" by Arctic Monkeys	UK Singles Chart number-one single (Westlife version) 30 October 2005 – 6 November 2005	Succeeded by "Hung Up" by Madonna