Believe

Today’s song is dedicated to a special friend, Joan Herald, who celebrates her birthday today! Every time I hear Cher’s Believe I think of Joan as it is one of her many karaoke favourites!

Recorded in 1998 the song went to #1 all over the world. This song was groundbreaking in using the Auto-Tune effect. The recording engineers were experimenting with effects on the lead vocal track and the producer, Mark Taylor, said that “this was the most nerve-wracking part of the project, because I wasn’t sure what Cher would say when she heard what I’d done to her voice”, but that when she heard it she said, “It sounds great.” When her record company requested that the effect be removed, she responded, “Over my dead body!” Of course, following the huge success of Believe, Auto-Tune became very popular and it is often referred to as the “Cher effect”.

First time on the site? Find out more about the 365 Songs project or see all of my March songs here.