"Safe" is a song by Irish pop group
Westlife
Westlife is an Irish pop vocal group formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1998. The group currently consists of members Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne. Brian McFadden was a member, until he left in 2004. The group temporarily di ...
from their tenth studio album ''
Gravity
In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...
'' (2010) and this
pop rock
Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre with an emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than rock music. Originating in the late 1950s as an alternative to normal rock and roll, earl ...
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 ...
was released on 14 November 2010 as the album's lead and only single in the United Kingdom. It was written by
John Shanks
John Matthew Shanks (born December 18, 1964) is an American songwriter, record producer and guitarist.
Early life and education
John Matthew Shanks was born in New York City. Shanks moved to Los Angeles when he was 17 years old. He was in a ban ...
and James Grundler, and the single version was produced by Shanks,
Richard "Biff" Stannard, and Ash Howes. This song is the group's last physical single under the tutelage of
Simon Cowell
Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality, entrepreneur and record executive. He is the creator of '' The X Factor'' and ''Got Talent'' franchises which have been sold around the world. He has judged on ...
, having left Syco and Cowell in March 2011. "Safe" debuted at number four in Ireland. It charted at number ten in the UK, becoming their twenty-forth and last top ten single, meaning that they had one top ten hit in three different decades. The song was featured in the 2011 movie
Dolphin Tale
''Dolphin Tale'' is a 2011 American 3D family drama film directed by Charles Martin Smith, from a screenplay by Karen Janszen and Noam Dromi and a book of the same name. It stars Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd, Nathan Gamble, Kris Kristofferson, ...
starring
Ashley Judd
Ashley Judd (born Ashley Tyler Ciminella; April 19, 1968) is an American actress. She grew up in a family of performing artists: she is the daughter of the late country music singer Naomi Judd and the half-sister of country music singer Wynonna ...
and
Morgan Freeman.
Background
The decision to release 'Safe' as the first and only single from the group's new album came from executive producer
Simon Cowell
Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality, entrepreneur and record executive. He is the creator of '' The X Factor'' and ''Got Talent'' franchises which have been sold around the world. He has judged on ...
. The track was written by album producer
John Shanks
John Matthew Shanks (born December 18, 1964) is an American songwriter, record producer and guitarist.
Early life and education
John Matthew Shanks was born in New York City. Shanks moved to Los Angeles when he was 17 years old. He was in a ban ...
and James Grundler, frontman of American rock group
Golden State.
The single was first performed live on BBC Radio 2 Weekend Wogan Show.
It was composed in the traditional
verse–chorus form
Verse–chorus form is a musical form going back to the 1840s, in such songs as " Oh! Susanna", " The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze", and many others. It became passé in the early 1900s, with advent of the AABA (with verse) form in the T ...
in
D major
D major (or the key of D) is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor.
The D major scale is:
:
Ch ...
, with Filan and Feehily's vocal ranging from the chords of
D4 to
A5.
Release
The single's b-side, a cover version of "
Please Stay", was recorded in 2009, and was promised to be included on the next single released following "
What About Now". It is their first original lead song and single released off a new album since their 2002 single "
Unbreakable
Unbreakable may refer to:
* '' Unbreakable: My Story, My Way'', a book written by Jenni Rivera
* Unbreakable (horse) (1935–1962), a Thoroughbred racehorse and sire
Film and television
* ''Unbreakable'' (film series), a trilogy directed by M ...
".
Soundtrack
The song was featured in the end credits of the 2011 American film
Dolphin Tale
''Dolphin Tale'' is a 2011 American 3D family drama film directed by Charles Martin Smith, from a screenplay by Karen Janszen and Noam Dromi and a book of the same name. It stars Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd, Nathan Gamble, Kris Kristofferson, ...
. On 11 October 2011, the soundtrack album was released.
Other versions
The song was also featured on the debut season of US X Factor. When a part of studio version of "Safe" was played on the reality television show X Factor, two different versions were played on different episodes. The first version was the version that was released as a single and included on the album while the second unreleased version was that it included the lyric "unlock the door" in the middle part of the song between the second verse chorus and the bridge.
Critical reception
The single received general positive reviews from fans and critics.
Promotion
Premiere week
A 30-second snippet of the song was first heard on September 19, on the final audition show of
ITV1
ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for t ...
talent competition
The X Factor
''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for '' Pop Idol'' (2001–2003 ...
. On September 26 and October 2, the song received a 60-second preview with different parts, becoming the theme for the Boys' Boot Camp results, once again on X Factor. On October 3, a 40-second official snippet was posted on the band's website.
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
.co.uk was the first to have the pre-order link of the single on October 4. On October 5, the full version was released on their official
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
site. On October 6, the official lyrics were released.
They sent the single to UK and Irish radio stations on 4 October. The single debuted on B-List of
BBC Radio 2 on the week commencing 2010 October 16. They had a radio tour confirmed first on
Real Radio
Real Radio was a network of five regional radio stations broadcasting to North East England, North West England, Scotland, Wales and Yorkshire. Each station broadcast a mix of local and networked programming. On Tuesday 6 May 2014, the statio ...
Scotland, Northwest. On 22 October 2010, they announced their UK regional radio tour with schedule of complete date, time, and venue. HR3 radio station first confirmed the airplay of the single on Germany on 16 October 2010. They performed this single in The Dome 56, Germany on 26 November 2010 and broadcast on RTL II Germany on 4, 18 December 2010 but was later cancelled. Afterwards, they are opt to promote on international market as they had meetings about it. They had interviews with
RTHK
Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the public broadcasting service in Hong Kong. GOW, the predecessor to RTHK, was established in 1928 as the first broadcasting service in Hong Kong. As a government department under the Commerce and Econo ...
Radio 2 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 ...
, Kawanku Magazine and Tabloid Nova in
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
, Daily Joong-ang in
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
, and
Sayidaty
''Sayidaty'' (Arabic سيدتي ''Sayyidatī'', meaning ''My Lady'' in English) is a weekly Arabic and a monthly English women's magazine published in both Riyadh and Beirut and distributed throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and Am ...
in Middle East on 5 November 2010. At the same day, Nicky tweeted he will do a lot of phone call interviews on other countries not mentioned above such as
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
,
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
,
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
, Sweden, Switzerland, and South Africa. After the radio tour comes the promo tour in television shows. One of it was their performance live on X Factor on 14 November 2010 that coincides the promotion of ''Gravity'' and the face-off with other boybands,
Take That
Take That are an English pop group formed in Manchester in 1990. The group currently consists of Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen. The original line-up also featured Jason Orange and Robbie Williams. Barlow is the group's lead singer ...
and
JLS
JLS (an initialism of Jack the Lad Swing) are an English boyband, which consists of members Aston Merrygold, Oritsé Williams, Marvin Humes, and JB Gill, originally formed by Williams. They initially signed to Tracklacers production company ...
. ''(See
Schedule)''
Tours performed at
*
Gravity Tour (2011)
*
Greatest Hits Tour (2012)
*
The Wild Dreams Tour (2022) (At Hop Farm and Colchester shows - later dropped from setlist, replaced with a medley of
Unbreakable
Unbreakable may refer to:
* '' Unbreakable: My Story, My Way'', a book written by Jenni Rivera
* Unbreakable (horse) (1935–1962), a Thoroughbred racehorse and sire
Film and television
* ''Unbreakable'' (film series), a trilogy directed by M ...
,
Queen of My Heart and
I'm Already There
''I'm Already There'' is the fifth studio album released by American country music band Lonestar. Released in 2001 on BNA Records (see 2001 in country music), the album was certified platinum by the RIAA for sales of one million copies.
Serving ...
)
Track listing
# "Safe" (Single Mix) – 3:52
# "
Please Stay" – 3:45
Credits and personnel
*John Shanks – songwriter, producer, guitar, bass
*James Grundler – songwriter
*
Richard "Biff" Stannard – additional production and mixing
*Ash Howes – additional production and mixing
*
Lars Fox
Grotus, stylized as G̈r̈oẗus̈, was an industrial rock band from San Francisco, active from 1989 to 1996. Their unique sound incorporated sampled ethnic instruments, two drummers, two bassists, and featured angry but humorous lyrics.
Biogr ...
– Pro Tools editing
*Helen Atkinson – assistant engineer
*Nicolas Essig – assistant engineer
*Jeff Rothschild – recording and drums
*Charles Judge – keyboards
*
Jamie Muhoberac Benjamin Edward "Jamie" Muhoberac is an American session keyboardist with numerous credits. He is best known for his work with Seal and Was (Not Was).
Biography
Muhoberac has worked with acts including The All-American Rejects, Fleetwood Mac, B ...
– keyboards
*John Shanks – keyboards
*Seton Daunt – additional guitar
*Wil Malone – strings arrangement
*Richard Woodcraft – strings recording
*Shari Sutcliffe – musician contractor and production coordination
Source:
Charts
Safe peaked #40 on UK Radio airplay, and #34 on UK TV Airplay Chart or Digital Subscription Plays Chart.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Safe (song)
Westlife songs
2010 singles
Pop ballads
Songs written by John Shanks
Song recordings produced by John Shanks
2010 songs
Syco Music singles
Song recordings produced by Richard Stannard (songwriter)
Sony Music singles
RCA Records singles
Sony BMG singles