Listen to Your Heart
Encyclopedia
"Listen to Your Heart" was the third single issued in the United States
from Swedish
pop duo Roxette
's 1988 album Look Sharp!
It was written by Per Gessle
and Mats M.P. Persson. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100
singles chart on November 4, 1989, their second chart-topper of the year. They rose to #1 the same week the dominant New Kids on the Block
rose to number two with their song "Cover Girl", thus preventing the group from taking the top spot. The song was released in the UK in October 1989 and reached a lowly number 62, but was re-issued in August 1990 as a Double A-Side with "Dangerous" after the success of their previous single "It Must Have Been Love", and reached number six.
Three different versions of the song are available: the original, a slightly modified version that was included on Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus, Ballad hits and Roxette hits and the so-called Us remix which is used in the music video and in Kuschelrock vol.4.
Roxette recorded the video
for "Listen to Your Heart" in the Borgholm Castle
ruin on the Swedish Baltic Sea
island of Öland
.
1 "Listen to Your Heart" / "Dangerous"
's trance-cover of "Listen to Your Heart" became a worldwide club hit after being released as single from the album "Listen to Your Heart". Originally released in Belgium in 2003, the various mixes of the song reached U.S. clubs in late 2004. The song was released in the U.S. in November 2004. By June 2005, the song reached number one on Billboard Hot Dance Airplay chart
and the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100
chart, peaking at number eight in August. The same year, the group also released an acoustic
ballad
version of the song, which also received substantial airplay.
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United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
from Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
pop duo Roxette
Roxette
Roxette are a Swedish pop music duo, consisting of Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle . Formed in 1986, the duo became an international act from the late 1980s, when they released their breakthrough album Look Sharp!...
's 1988 album Look Sharp!
Look Sharp! (Roxette album)
Singles*"Chances"*"The Look"*"Dressed for Success"*"Listen to Your Heart"*"Dangerous"-Charts:-Credits:*Vocals — Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson*Drums — Pelle Alsing*Programming and bass — Anders Herrlin...
It was written by Per Gessle
Per Gessle
Per Håkan Gessle is a Swedish pop singer-songwriter, guitarist, and harmonicist. He is the lead singer of the Swedish pop group Gyllene Tider and formed Roxette with Marie Fredriksson...
and Mats M.P. Persson. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
singles chart on November 4, 1989, their second chart-topper of the year. They rose to #1 the same week the dominant New Kids on the Block
New Kids on the Block
New Kids on the Block are an American boy band from Boston, Massachusetts, assembled in 1984 by producer Maurice Starr. The band currently consists of brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, and Danny Wood.New Kids on the Block enjoyed success in the late 1980s and...
rose to number two with their song "Cover Girl", thus preventing the group from taking the top spot. The song was released in the UK in October 1989 and reached a lowly number 62, but was re-issued in August 1990 as a Double A-Side with "Dangerous" after the success of their previous single "It Must Have Been Love", and reached number six.
Production and video
According to Gessle the song was conceived as :-
"The Big Bad Ballad. This is us trying to recreate that overblown American FM-rock sound to the point where it almost becomes absurd. We really wanted to see how far we could take it."
Three different versions of the song are available: the original, a slightly modified version that was included on Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus, Ballad hits and Roxette hits and the so-called Us remix which is used in the music video and in Kuschelrock vol.4.
Roxette recorded the video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for "Listen to Your Heart" in the Borgholm Castle
Borgholm Castle
Borgholm Castle in Borgholm, Sweden, is today only a ruin of the fortress that was first built in the second half of the 12th century and many times rebuilt in later centuries. It is linked to Halltorps estate, somewhat to the south...
ruin on the Swedish Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
island of Öland
Öland
' is the second largest Swedish island and the smallest of the traditional provinces of Sweden. Öland has an area of 1,342 km² and is located in the Baltic Sea just off the coast of Småland. The island has 25,000 inhabitants, but during Swedish Midsummer it is visited by up to 500,000 people...
.
Accolades
In 2008, the song had reached four million American radio plays. The D.H.T. dance cover is included in the total of plays. The song has been voted The Best Roxette Song ever by readers of fan-site The Daily Roxette.In the media
- The Roxette version of this song was featured on the TV show ReunionReunion (TV series)Reunion is an American television series that aired on FOX in late 2005. The series was intended to chronicle 20 years in the lives of a group of six high school friends from Bedford, New York, with each episode following one year in the lives of the six, beginning with their high school graduation...
in 2005. - "Listen to Your Heart" was used by the dissident political party Civic ForumCivic ForumThe Civic Forum was a political movement in the Czech part of Czechoslovakia, established during the Velvet Revolution in 1989...
in its television advertisements for the 1989 Czechoslovakian electionsVelvet RevolutionThe Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that took place from November 17 – December 29, 1989...
, one of the first elections in Eastern Europe that came with collapse of communismCommunismCommunism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. - The song can be sung in the Xbox 360Xbox 360The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
video game, LipsLips (video game)Lips is a video game for the Xbox 360. Lips was developed by iNiS and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The game features the use of motion sensitive wireless microphones and supports the use of songs already owned through a Zune or iPod. The game was released on November 18, 2008 in North...
. - The song appeared in a 1989 episode of the Brazilian soap opera O Sexo dos Anjos by Globo TV.
- The single was also used in the Cold Case season one episode "Maternal Instincts".
Live versions
At the Wembley Arena gig on their 1991-92 Join The Joyride / The Summer Joyride World Tour, before playing this song as part of the encore, Per said "We can't leave you tonight without playing you this absolutely true story."Track listings
- 7" single
- "Listen to Your Heart" — 5:12
- "(I Could Never) Give You Up" — 3:59
- CD maxi (1989)
- "Listen to Your Heart" (Single Mix)
- "Dressed for Success" (New Radio Mix)
- "(I Could Never) Give You Up"
- "Neverending Love" (Live)
- CD maxi (1990 reissue)
- "Listen to Your Heart" (Swedish Single Version)
- "Dangerous" (LP Version)
- "Listen to Your Heart" (U.S. Remix)
- "Dangerous" (U.S. Club Edit)
Peak positions
| Chart (1989) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart | 10 |
| Austrian Singles Chart | 2 |
| Canadian Singles Chart | 1 |
| German Singles Chart | 7 |
| Irish Singles Chart | 5 |
| Swedish Singles Chart | 3 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 8 |
| UK Singles Chart | 62 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks | 2 |
| Chart (1990) | Peak position |
| UK Singles Chart 1 | 6 |
Certifications
| Country | Certification | Date | Sales certified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | Gold | March 7, 1990 | 15,000 |
| Sweden | Gold | February 6, 1989 | 25,000 |
1 "Listen to Your Heart" / "Dangerous"
D.H.T. cover
In 2005, Belgian dance group D.H.T.DHT (band)
DHT is a Belgian duo, consisting of singer, Edmée Daenen and Flor Theeuwes . They had a hit in the US and in Australia in 2005, with their cover version of "Listen to Your Heart", originally recorded by Roxette. The track reached #7 in the UK Singles Chart in December of that year...
's trance-cover of "Listen to Your Heart" became a worldwide club hit after being released as single from the album "Listen to Your Heart". Originally released in Belgium in 2003, the various mixes of the song reached U.S. clubs in late 2004. The song was released in the U.S. in November 2004. By June 2005, the song reached number one on Billboard Hot Dance Airplay chart
Hot Dance Airplay
Dance/Mix Show Airplay is a monitored electronic dance music radio chart that is featured weekly in Billboard magazine. The chart came about as a result of the small but influential impact of electronic dance music on the radio in the United States and the stations that program it...
and the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart, peaking at number eight in August. The same year, the group also released an acoustic
Acoustic music
Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means...
ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
version of the song, which also received substantial airplay.
Track listings
- CD single
- "Listen to Your Heart" — 4:32
- "My Dream" — 3:55
- CD maxi
- "Listen to Your Heart" (Edmée's unplugged vocal edit) — 3:45
- "Listen to Your Heart" (furious F.EZ radio edit) — 3:11
- "Listen to Your Heart" (uniting nations remix) — 7:11
- "Listen to Your Heart" (furious F.EZ extended mix) — 4:54
- "Listen to Your Heart" (hixxy remix) — 7:11
- "Listen to Your Heart" (Friday night posse remix) — 7:29
- Digital download
- "Listen to Your Heart" — 4:32
Peak positions
| Chart (2005/06) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Singles Chart | 11 |
| Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart Ultratop 50 Ultratop 50 singles, often just Ultratop 50, is the weekly chart of fifty best-selling singles in Flanders, Belgium, and is produced and published by the Ultratop organization. The chart has existed since March 31, 1995... |
15 |
| Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... |
12 |
| Danish Singles Chart | 13 |
| Dutch Singles Chart | 10 |
| French Singles Chart | 7 |
| German Singles Chart | 81 |
| Irish Singles Chart Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured... |
12 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart | 19 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 100 |
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
7 |
| U.S. Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
8 |
| U.S. Pop 100 Pop 100 The Pop 100 was a songs chart that debuted in February 2005 and was released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States until its discontinuation in 2009... |
1 |
| U.S. Adult Contemporary Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States... |
6 |
| U.S. Hot Dance Airplay Hot Dance Airplay Dance/Mix Show Airplay is a monitored electronic dance music radio chart that is featured weekly in Billboard magazine. The chart came about as a result of the small but influential impact of electronic dance music on the radio in the United States and the stations that program it... |
1 |
| U.S. Hot Dance Singles Hot Dance Singles Sales Hot Dance Singles Sales is a chart released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States, established in 1985. It measures the sale of commercially released singles that deal with dance music and remixes... |
3 |
| U.S. Adult Pop Songs Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks Adult Top 40 is a variation on the United States Billboard charts... |
13 |
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Year-end charts
| Chart (2005) | Position |
|---|---|
| Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart | 78 |
| Dutch Top 40 | 37 |
| French Singles Chart | 34 |
Certifications
| Country | Certification | Date | Sales certified |
|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. | Gold | October 5, 2005 | 500,000 |
|}
Chart successions
Other cover versions
- "Habla El Corazón", the SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
version of the song, was released in March 2007 by MexicanMexican peopleMexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....
artist Yuridia, who covered the track for her second album Habla El CorazónHabla El CorazónHabla El Corazón is Mexican singer Yuridia's second album, which was released on December 5 in the United States and October 31 in Latin America.-About the album:...
. The song quickly gained both airplay and digital sales, debuting at #89 in the Mexican Top 100, that week's highest debut. To this date, the song has peaked at #58. On the week of April 28, 2007, "Habla El Corazon" debuted in the U.S. Hot Latin Songs at #50. It is the first time her second single appears on a U.S. chart, as "Maldita Primavera", the second single off of her debut album, only charted in the Mexican Top 100. - Finnish Gothic metalGothic metalGothic metal or goth metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music that combines the aggression of doom metal with the dark melancholy of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy metal music...
band ReflexionReflexion (band)Reflexion is a mix of Gothic Metal, Alternative Metal and Melodic Hard Rock band from Finland.Formed as Enchanted in 1995, but in 1996 they changed their name to Barbarianz, and then to Reflexion in 2000.-Members:* Juha Kylmänen – Vocals...
recorded a cover version of the song as a bonus track on their 2008 EP "Twilight Child", later released as a bonus track on their 2008 album Dead to the Past, Blind for TomorrowDead to the Past, Blind for TomorrowDead to the Past, Blind for Tomorrow is the second studio album by the Finnish band Reflexion. It was recorded at Soundtrack, Tonebox, Grooveland, Wavesound and Perfect Sounds Studios, mixed at Grooveland Studios and mastered at Chartmakers by Svante Forsback.-Track listing:# Non-Stop Glorious Ride...
. - Rapper JuvenileJuvenile (rapper)Terius Gray, better known by his stage name Juvenile, is an American rapper, He is also a former member of hip-hop group the Hot Boys . At the age of 19, he began recording raps, releasing his debut album Being Myself in 1995...
covered the song for his album Cocky & ConfidentCocky & Confident- Chart positions :...
and renamed it "Listen". - In 2009, ScottishScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
power metalPower metalPower metal is a style of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context. The term refers to two different but related styles: the first pioneered and largely practiced in North America with a harder sound similar to speed metal, and a...
band Ascension did a cover and released it as a single. - In 2009, a Philippine singer named Sarah GeronimoSarah GerónimoSarah Asher Tua Geronimo is a Filipino recording artist, actress and dancer. Geronimo started her career appearing in children's variety shows such as Pen-pen de Sarapen, Ang TV and NEXT...
did a cover version of this song for her album Music and Me.
- In 2010, LebaneseLebanonLebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
-GermanGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
singer Fady MaaloufFady MaaloufFady Maalouf is a Lebanese-German pop singer. He is known as runner up of the fifth season of Deutschland sucht den Superstar, the German version of Pop Idol.-Early life:...
did a cover in his album Into the LightInto the Light (Fady Maalouf album)Into the Light is the second album of Lebanese-German singer Fady Maalouf. He was a contestant in 2008 of Deutschland sucht den Superstar, the German version of Pop Idol after which he had released his debut album Blessed...