"Eyes on Me" is a pop

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

performed by Hong Kong singer

Faye Wong Faye Wong ( zh, 王菲; born Xia Lin on 8 August 1969) is a Hong Kong singer-songwriter. Early in her career she briefly used the stage name Shirley Wong. Born in Beijing, she moved to Hong Kong in 1987 and her debut album '' Shirley Wong'' ( ...

as a love

theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (arts), the unifying subject or idea of the type of visual work * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical ...

for the video game '' Final Fantasy VIII''. It was the first ''Final Fantasy'' pop ballad, and the music was composed by

Nobuo Uematsu is a Japanese composer and keyboardist best known for his contributions to the ''Final Fantasy'' video game series by Square Enix. A self-taught musician, he began playing the piano at the age of twelve, with English singer-songwriter Elton ...

with

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

lyrics by Kako Someya.

Composition

"Eyes on Me" was composed by

with

lyrics by Kako Someya. It was the first pop ballad song in the ''Final Fantasy'' series. It was performed by singer Faye Wong. The main theme of '' Final Fantasy VIII'' was used for the song's melody.

Single

The song was released as a

CD single A CD single (sometimes abbreviated to CDS) is a music single in the form of a compact disc. The standard in the Red Book for the term ''CD single'' is an 8 cm (3-inch) CD (or Mini CD). It now refers to any single recorded onto a CD of any si ...

in Japan on February 24, 1999. The B-side was a ballad, "Red Bean" (), composed by Jim Lau with Mandarin lyrics by

Lin Xi Albert Leung (born 7 December 1961, ) is a lyricist and writer based in Hong Kong. Education Leung attended all-boy secondary schools at Chan Sui Ki (La Salle) College and La Salle College. He received a bachelor of arts in translation from th ...

. The Japanese title for it was . It had been included in Faye Wong's 1998 album ''

Sing and Play ''Sing and Play'' () is a 1998 Mandarin album by Beijing-based singer Faye Wong. It includes 10 tracks in Mandarin, with a bonus disc of 3 Cantonese tracks. It was released on 21 October 1998 in Japan.

'', along with a Cantonese version "Repayment" (), and was popular in its own right. Upon the song's release in Japan, it placed number one on the Western music charts for 19 consecutive weeks, and generated lifetime sales of over 500,000 copies, as well, the song charted in the US on the Billboard Hot 100, debuted at 88 and peaked at 67 staying on the chart for 2 weeks. placing it as the best-selling

video game music Video game music (or VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was once limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips. These limitations have led t ...

disc ever released in Japan until the release of "

Hikari may refer to: Places *Hikari Station, a station on Sanyō Main Line in Hikari, Yamaguchi * Hikari, Chiba, a former town in Sousa District, Chiba, Japan *Hikari, Yamaguchi, a city in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan People *Hikari (name), people and ...

" by Utada Hikaru for '' Kingdom Hearts''. In 2000, it was the first song in video game history to win an award at the 14th Annual Japan Gold Disc Awards, where it won "Song of the Year (Western Music)". The song was popular among the video game community in the

Western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.

, and brought Faye Wong to the attention of many who were not previously familiar with her music.The changing musical tastes of China
BBC News, 23 August 2005. Retrieved 10 May 2011. In 2017, Brian Ashcraft from ''Kotaku'' described "Eyes on Me" as one of the most iconic songs of the ''Final Fantasy'' franchise, as well as one of the most commercially successful singles associated with the video game industry. "Eyes on Me" was re-released on a 18 cm vinyl record on November 3, 2017.

Theme song in the game

Near the end of the production of '' Final Fantasy VII'', the developers suggested to use a singer, but abandoned the idea due to a lack of reasoning based on the game's theme and storyline. However, Nobuo Uematsu thought a

would closely relate to the theme and characters of ''Final Fantasy VIII''. This resulted in the game's developers sharing "countless" artists, eventually deciding on Faye Wong, a Chinese vocalist. Uematsu claims "her voice and mood seem to match my image of the song exactly", and that her ethnicity "fits the international image of Final Fantasy". After negotiations were made, "Eyes on Me" was recorded in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

with an

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

.Maeda, Yoshitake (1999). Final Fantasy VIII Original Soundtrack (Limited Edition). DigiCube. ''IGN'' claimed that she was reportedly paid $1 million US dollars for her work. The lyrics, written in imperfect English, unveil the hopes of a night club singer for romance with a member of her audience: :''I kind of liked it your way'' :''How you shyly placed your eyes on me;'' :''Oh, did you ever know :''That I had mine on you?'' Within ''Final Fantasy VIII'', the song is written by Julia Heartilly, a pianist who is a love interest of Laguna Loire. It is heard repeatedly throughout the game in various incarnations as an instrumental piece, including a version entitled ''Julia''. Its full version is heard during a pivotal moment between Squall Leonhart and Rinoa Heartilly—the main protagonists—on board the ''Ragnarok''. An orchestrated version of the theme plays once more during the game's ending.

Other versions

happy hardcore Happy hardcore, also known as 4-beat or happycore, is a subgenre of hardcore dance music or " hard dance". It emerged both from the UK breakbeat hardcore rave scene, and Belgian, German and Dutch hardcore techno scenes in the early 1990 ...

remix was recorded for the 2000 ''

Dancemania ''Dancemania'' is a series of remix compilation albums by i-DANCE. The series deals primarily with dance music, especially Eurodance. Despite many of its tracks being made by various musicians from all over the world and mainly from the European ...

'' compilation '' Speed 4'', and on the ''Dancemania Speed Best 2001'' of the ''Dancemania Speed'' series. There is another dance remix of the song made by Almighty, later included on the Japanese release of Wong's 2000 album ''

Fable Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse (poetry), verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphized, and that illustrat ...

'',

X5, and Dancemania Diamond Complete Edition (Millennium Hits Collection). In 2004, a Japanese version sung by Manami Kiyota titled with lyrics by

Kazushige Nojima is a Japanese video game writer. He is best known for writing several installments of Square Enix's ''Final Fantasy'' franchise—namely ''Final Fantasy VII'' and its spin-offs '' Advent Children'' and '' Crisis Core'', ''Final Fantasy VIII'', an ...

was included on '' Final Fantasy Song Book: Mahoroba''. The original song was also covered by Angela Aki for release on her 2006 single " Kokoro no Senshi", with minor grammatical changes. In an Excite Japan interview, Aki said that her version 'shed light on "Eyes on Me"'. Covers by Kanon and Susan Calloway were also created. The singer MayBee covered a

Korean language Korean ( South Korean: , ''hangugeo''; North Korean: , ''chosŏnmal'') is the native language for about 80 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the official and national language of both North Korea and South Korea (geographic ...

version of the song.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Reception

''Square Enix Music Online'' writer Dave felt "Eyes on Me" was both "overhyped and overcriticized" since it was "ultimately a replica". He called it "enjoyable, fitting, ndbeautiful", though also "unremarkable".

References

External links

"Eyes on Me" lyrics at IGN

at zompist.com (American linguist's site) {{DEFAULTSORT:Eyes On Me (Faye Wong Song) 1999 singles Faye Wong songs Pop ballads Final Fantasy music Final Fantasy VIII Video game theme songs Angela Aki songs English-language Japanese songs 1999 songs Songs with music by Nobuo Uematsu Love themes