"Believe" is a song by the American singer Cher from her 22nd studio album, Believe (1998). It was released as the lead single on October 19, 1998, by Warner Bros. Records. After circulating for months, a demo written by Brian Higgins, Matthew Gray, Stuart McLennen and Timothy Powell was submitted to Warner's chairman, Rob Dickins, while he was scouting for songs to include on Cher's new album. Aside from the chorus, Dickins was not impressed by the track so he enlisted two more writers, Steve Torch and Paul Barry, to complete it. Cher contributed some lyrics but did not receive any songwriting credit. Recording took place at Dreamhouse Studio in West London, while production was handled by Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling.

"Believe" is an upbeat dance-pop and electropop song and departed from Cher's previous music. It featured a pioneering use of the audio processing software Auto-Tune to distort her vocals, which was widely imitated and became known as the "Cher effect". The lyrics describe empowerment and self-sufficiency after a painful breakup. "Believe" received positive reviews; critics praised its production and catchiness, with some deeming it a highlight from the album. The song has been listed as one of Cher's most important releases. At the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards, it was nominated for Record of the Year and won Best Dance Recording, the first and only Grammy Award that Cher has won.

"Believe" topped the record charts in over 23 countries and has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide. It is Cher's most successful single, and one of the best-selling singles in music history. "Believe" was the biggest-selling song of 1998 in the United Kingdom, and remains the highest-selling single by a solo female artist there. In the United States, it was Cher's fifth number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and it topped the Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1999. The accompanying music video (directed by Nigel Dick) was nominated for Best Dance Video at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards.

Cher has performed the song on many occasions, including the 1999 Brit Awards, the Sanremo Music Festival, as well as on several talk shows and variety programs (in America and abroad). It has since become a fan favorite, and a staple in the setlist of her concert tours. "Believe" has been covered by numerous artists, and it's also been sung or referenced in several feature films and scripted TV shows. Scholars and academics noted the way in which Cher was able to re-invent herself, and yet stay true to her image, while still being able to release music that was fresh and contemporary amidst the more "teen pop"-based music of the period. They also credited the song for restoring Cher's social popularity and further cementing her position as a pop icon. "Believe" earned Cher a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, and Rolling Stone listed it among the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Background and writing The origins of the song go back to as early as 1991, when the original demo of "Believe", written by singer Mark Scott and songwriter Brian Higgins and co-produced by Nick Van Eede and Kevin MacMichael (both of the band Cutting Crew) was created for Warner Records, to which Van Eede and MacMichael received modest compensation—reportedly just a bottle of whisky—for their contributions. The demo was passed on to several major artists through Higgins and eventually landed with Cher in 1997 which was rearranged with altered lyrics. This rearranged demo of "Believe", now written by Higgins, Matthew Gray, Stuart McLennen and Timothy Powell, circulated at Warner Records for months. Higgins offered the demo to the English indie dance band Saint Etienne, who turned it down. According to the producer Mark Taylor, "everyone loved the chorus" but not the rest. The Warner chairman, Rob Dickins, asked the production house Dreamhouse to work on it; their goal was to make a dance record that would not alienate Cher fans. (updated with Historical Footnote) Two more writers, Steve Torch and Paul Barry, completed a version that Dickins and Cher were happy with.

Cher felt the song was "too whiny" and wanted to "toughen it up a bit". Feeling that "a girl can be sad in one verse, but she can't be sad in two verses", she rewrote the lyrics in the second verse to make the character more assertive: 'I need time to move on, I need love to feel strong / 'Cause I've had time to think it through and maybe I'm too good for you". In 2023, Cher said she regretted not asking for a songwriting credit.

Recording "Believe" was recorded in mid-1998 at the Dreamhouse studio operated by Metro Productions in Kingston upon Thames, London. It was assembled with Cubase on an early Power Macintosh G3, with synthesizers including a Clavia Nord Rack and an Oberheim Matrix 1000. Cher's vocals were recorded on three TASCAM DA-88 digital audio recorders with a Neumann U67 microphone.

Cher's vocals were processed using the pitch correction software Auto-Tune. Auto-Tune was designed to be used subtly to correct sharp or flat notes in vocal performances; however, Taylor used extreme settings to create unnaturally rapid corrections, thereby removing portamento, the natural slide between pitches in singing. Taylor said it was "the most nerve-wracking part of the project", as he was not sure how Cher would react. She insisted the effect remain when Warner wanted it removed. In an attempt to protect their method, the producers initially claimed it was achieved using a vocoder. The manual for Auto-Tune's fifth version describes the zero-speed setting as the "Cher effect".

Composition Critics described "Believe" as Eurodance, Europop, dance, dance-pop and electropop. It was recorded in the key of F major with a tempo of 133 beats per minute. It follows a chord progression of F–C–Gm–B–F–Am7–Gm–Dm, and Cher's vocals span from F3 to C5.

In the verses, Cher's vocals are manipulated heavily with Auto-Tune. The New Yorker said this produced "a controlled version of losing control, hinting at various histrionic stations of the human voice". It was used more sparingly for the chorus, "Do you believe in life after love?", which is performed in a "a full, human-sounding voice".

Critical reception Chuck Taylor from Billboard wrote that "Believe" was Cher's best song in years, writing: "Some songs are so natural, so comfortably sung, that you wonder that somebody didn't think them up decades before. With this, you'll be whirling around the floor, tapping hard on the accelerator to 'Believe,' a simple ode to those feelings that we all search out and cling to. Cher is just a prize here; even her hardy detractors will be fighting the beat on this one."Single reviews. Billboard The critic Robert Christgau highlighted "Believe" as the best song on the album. A reviewer from Entertainment Weekly described it as "poptronica glaze, the soon-to-be club fave" and called Cher's voice "unmistakable". Deborah Wilker from Knight Ridder said that "her electronically altered vocal" was "like nothing she's ever done".

New York Daily News described "Believe" as a "club track so caffeinated, it not only microwaved [Cher's] cold career to scorching-hot but gave dance music its biggest hit since the days of disco". They noted the song's "killer hook and amazing beat.""WHO'D EVER 'BELIEVE' IT? CHER IS A HIT AGAIN AGING DIVA SHOWS SHE CAN TURN BACK TIME WITH DISCO TUNE". New_York_Daily_News. February 1, 1999. Retrieved March 26, 2020. Neil Strauss from The New York Times wrote that "the verses are rich and bittersweet, with the added gimmick of breaking up Cher's voice through an effect that makes her sound robotic. And the choruses are catchy and uplifting, with Cher wailing, 'Do you believe in life after love?' All of it bounces over a bed of 80s-style electronic pop. It is a song with a universal theme—a woman trying to convince herself that she can survive a breakup." Another editor, Jim Sullivan, called it a "hooky, defiant beat-fest".

Later reviews In 2019, Bill Lamb from About.com declared it as a "perfect piece of dance-pop", including it in his list of "Top 10 Pop Songs of 1999". AllMusic editor Joe Viglione called "Believe" a "pop masterpiece, one of the few songs to be able to break through the impenetrable wall of late 1990s fragmented radio to permeate the consciousness of the world at large." Another editor, Michael Gallucci, gave a lukewarm review, writing that the Believe album is an "endless, and personality-free, thump session". Stopera and Galindo from BuzzFeed noted it as "iconic", featuring it in their "The 101 Greatest Dance Songs of the '90s" in 2017. Damon Albarn, frontman of the bands Blur and Gorillaz, called the song "brilliant".

In 2014, Tom Ewing from Freaky Trigger wrote that "Believe" "is a record in the "I Will Survive" mode of embattled romantic defiance – a song to make people who've lost out in love feel like they're the winners." He added that "it's remarkable that it took someone until 1998 to come up with "do you believe in life after love?", and perhaps even more remarkable that it wasn't Jim Steinman, but the genius of the song is how aggressive and righteous Cher makes it sound." Bob Waliszewski of Plugged In said that Cher "musters self-confidence to deal with a failed romance". In 2018, Dave Fawbert from ShortList described "Believe" as a "really great pop song with, as ever, an absolute powerhouse vocal performance from Cher".

Chart performance

"Believe" was released as the lead single from Cher's 22nd studio album, Believe (1998), on October 19, 1998. It peaked at number one in 23 countries. It debuted at number 99 on the US Billboard Hot 100 on December 19, 1998. On January 23, 1999, it reached the top 40 before reaching number one on March 13, making Cher, then aged 52, the oldest solo female artist to achieve this feat, breaking the record set by Tina Turner who was 44 when she reached No. 1 with "What's Love Got to Do With It" in 1984. Cher also set the record for the longest span between number-one singles on the Hot 100: 33 years and 7 months between her first number-one single, "I Got You Babe", and her fifth and last, "Believe". "Believe" was ranked as the number-one song of 1999 by Billboard on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Dance Club Play charts, becoming the biggest single of her entire career. "Believe" became Cher's 17th, and last, top-10 hit in the US.

"Believe" debuted at number one on the UK singles chart on October 25, 1998—for the week ending October 31, 1998—during a week in which the top five singles were all new entries, a first for the chart (not counting the first ever chart). It was Cher's fourth number one in the UK, and remained at the top of the chart for seven consecutive weeks. "Believe" was Britain's biggest-selling song of 1998, and won its writers Ivor Novello Awards for Best Selling UK Single, Best Song Musically and Lyrically, and International Hit of the Year, at the 1999 ceremony. On January 31, 2025, "Believe" was certified five-times platinum in the UK. As of October 2017, it had sold 1,830,000 copies in the UK, making it the biggest-selling song by a female artist on the UK singles chart. At 52 years old, Cher was the oldest female artist to top the UK charts, a record broken by Kate Bush in 2022, who was 63 when "Running Up That Hill" re-entered the charts and reached number one.