"Someone's Watching Over Me" is a song recorded by American singer Hilary Duff for her self-titled third studio album (2004). It was released by Hollywood Records as the second single just in Australia. The song was written by Kara DioGuardi and John Shanks, who also produced the song.

Background and composition

The song was written by DioGuardi and Shanks for the film '' Raise Your Voice'', in which Duff stars. In the movie, which is set at a performing arts summer school, Duff's character, Terri Fletcher, writes the song with her fellow student Jay, played by Oliver James, and performs it at the film's climax in front of the students, staff and parents. The song is dedicated to Terri's late brother, Paul, who supported her dream to become a musician. The song states that in all the challenges Terri needs to overcome in her journey to fulfill her dream, although not physically present, someone is still there watching over her. Musically, "Someone's Watching Over Me" is a moderately paced

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song, moving at a tempo of 78 beats per minute. Written in the key of

E Major E major (or the key of E) is a major scale based on E, consisting of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. Its key signature has four sharps. Its relative minor is C-sharp minor and its parallel minor is E minor. Its enharmonic equivalent, ...

, the song has the sequence of C#m—F#m—B—B/G—G#m—G#/C as its chord progression in the verses, and then moves to E-B-C#m-B-A-B in the chorus. Lyrically, the song speaks about "holding on no matter what happens in life, believing that someone's watching over".

Reception

According to Paul Broucek, executive vice president of music for New Line Cinema, in November 2004, "Someone's Watching Over Me" was one of the studio's possible contenders for an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song at the 77th Academy Awards. The ''

Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald S ...

'' wrote of "Someone's Watching Over Me", which it awarded one

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, "Yeah, that'd be

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. They're single-white-femaling each other when it comes to music, though Duff got in first with the polite Avril-lite

soft rock Soft rock is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in Southern California and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, melodic songs with big, lush productions. S ...

. However, this positivity-laden ballad sucks." '' The Sunday Telegraph'' published a two-star review of the song, editorializing that "The banging migraine kicked in somewhere around the lyrics: "I've seen that ray of light/It's shining on my destiny" ..a brainless, infectious dose of made-to-order teen empowerment pop."

Chart performance

As of July 27, 2014, the song had sold 238,000 digital copies in the United States. Outside US, during the week of the single's radio release in Australia in January, it was the fifth most added song to station playlists. After its release as a single the following month, it peaked at number twenty-two on the ARIA

Singles Chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often in combination. These include rec ...

and remained in the top forty for nine weeks. The single's

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

is a cover of The Who's " My Generation".

Music video

The performance scene on the movie served as the single's video, which premiered on the program ''

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'' on

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Broadband in mid January 2005."Hilary Duff's 'Someone's Watching Over Me' Video"
popdirt.com. January 14, 2005. Retrieved October 27, 2006.

Track listing

;CD single # "Someone's Watching Over Me" – 4:11 # " My Generation" – 2:41

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2004 songs 2005 singles Hilary Duff songs Pop ballads Songs written for films Song recordings produced by John Shanks Songs written by Kara DioGuardi Songs written by John Shanks Hollywood Records singles 2000s ballads Soft rock songs