"Wherever You Are" is a song written by Paul Mealor and performed by the Military Wives Choir, sung by ladies from Chivenor and Plymouth under the direction of

Gareth Malone Gareth Edmund Malone (born 9 November 1975) is an English choirmaster and broadcaster, self-described as an " animateur, presenter and populariser of choral singing". He is best known for his television appearances in programmes such as '' The ...

. It is a spin-off of the BBC Two television series '' The Choir: Military Wives''. It was released on 19 December 2011 following a campaign to make it the 2011 UK Christmas number one. The song entered the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

at number 1, claiming the Christmas number 1 – selling more than 556,000 copies in the week, more than the rest of the Top 12 combined. The song also claimed the status of the biggest first week sales since " A Moment Like This" by

Leona Lewis Leona Louise Lewis (born 3 April 1985) is a British singer, songwriter, actress and activist. Born and raised in the London Borough of Islington, she attended the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon. Lewis achieved nationa ...

sold over 571,000 copies in its first week in 2006. The song was included on their debut studio album '' In My Dreams''. "Wherever You Are" was nominated for Best British Single in the

2012 BRIT Awards Brit Awards 2012 was held on 21 February 2012. This was the 32nd edition of the British Phonographic Industry's annual Brit Awards. The awards ceremony was held at The O2 Arena in London for the second time. The ceremony was presented by James ...

, but the award was won by

One Direction One Direction, often shortened to 1D, are an English-Irish pop boy band formed in London in 2010. The group are composed of Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and previously Zayn Malik until his departure from the g ...

for their single "

What Makes You Beautiful "What Makes You Beautiful" is the debut single by English-Irish boy band One Direction. It served as their debut single and lead single from their debut studio album, '' Up All Night'' (2011). Written by Savan Kotecha and producer Rami Yacoub, ...

Background

The Military Wives was formed in 2011 by

for the BBC Two television series '' The Choir: Military Wives''. The programme documented Malone's visits to Chivenor Barracks first and then a few months later to

Royal Citadel, Plymouth The Royal Citadel in Plymouth, Devon, England, was built in the late 1660s to the design of Sir Bernard de Gomme. It is at the eastern end of Plymouth Hoe overlooking Plymouth Sound, and encompasses the site of the earlier fort that had been bu ...

– both in Devon, in which he formed two choirs of wives and partners of British military personnel deployed on active service in the Afghanistan War. In forming the choirs, Malone aimed to raise the women's morale and raise their profile in the public perception. The cover art features the emblem of a

Remembrance poppy A remembrance poppy is an artificial flower worn in some countries to commemorate their military personnel who died in war. Remembrance poppies are produced by veterans' associations, who exchange the poppies for charitable donations used to g ...

on a green background and the logos of the charities benefiting from the sales. It was released in the UK as a single by Decca Records on 19 December 2011, with proceeds going to the

Royal British Legion The Royal British Legion (RBL), formerly the British Legion, is a British charity providing financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the British Armed Forces, their families and dependants, as well as all others in ...

and

SSAFA Forces Help SSAFA – the Armed Forces charity, the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association, is a UK charity that provides lifelong support to serving men and women and veterans from the British Armed Forces and their families or dependents. Anyo ...

2011 UK Christmas number one campaign

The song competed against rival Christmas campaigns to re-release

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

's "

Smells Like Teen Spirit "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana. It is the opening track and lead single from the band's second album, ''Nevermind'' (1991), released on DGC Records. The unexpected success of the song propelled ''Neve ...

", unsigned

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 ...

blogger

Alex Day Alex Richard George Day (born 8 April 1989) is an English musician, vlogger and writer. Day has released seven studio albums, two EPs, and had three UK Top 40 hits.Holiday, RyanYouTube and Chart Sensation Alex Day the Future of Music? ''Forbes ...

, who released multiple remixes of a song called " Forever Yours" and ''

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 ...

'' winners Little Mix, who released a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

Damien Rice Damien George Rice (born 7 December 1973) is an Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He began his career as a member of the 1990s rock group Juniper, who were signed to Polygram Records in 1997. The band enjoyed moderate success ...

's "

Cannonball A round shot (also called solid shot or simply ball) is a solid spherical projectile without explosive charge, launched from a gun. Its diameter is slightly less than the bore of the barrel from which it is shot. A round shot fired from a lar ...

". There was also a campaign supported by

Chris Moyles Christopher David Moyles (born 22 February 1974) is an English radio and television presenter, author and presenter of '' The Chris Moyles Show'' on Radio X. Previously he has presented '' The Chris Moyles Show'' on BBC Radio 1 from 2004 to ...

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

to get

Lou Monte Lou Monte (born Louis Scaglione; April 2, 1917 – June 12, 1989) was an Italian American singer best known for a number of best-selling, Italian-themed novelty records which he recorded for both RCA Victor and Reprise Records in the late 1950 ...

's 1960 recording of " Dominick the Donkey" to Christmas number 1 and this song was number 2 in the iTunes and Amazon charts throughout the majority of the Christmas week behind the Military Wives. Chris Moyles' support of this rival song for Christmas number 1 was controversial because the BBC appeared to be supporting "Wherever You Are" to be Christmas number 1 as BBC Radio 2 added the song to their A-list and Chris Evans was a major supporter of the record and the choir.

Campaign for US number one

On 29 December 2011 Piers Morgan campaigned on Twitter for the Military Wives Choir to reach number one in the US. He urged his 1.6 million followers to invest in the collective's charity track 'Wherever You Are' following its stateside release on Boxing Day. He tweeted "Just heard the Military Wives single gets released in the US today,", posting a link to the official video. "Watch this my American friends, then go buy it...Good luck ladies, hope you get a No1 in America." The Sun reported that the former Britain's Got Talent judge invited the choir to perform on his US show Piers Morgan Tonight.

Writing and recording

The text of "Wherever You Are" is a love poem compiled from letters written between the women and their absent husbands and partners. It was set to music by composer Paul Mealor, who is noted for his composition of a choral work sung at the

Royal Wedding ''Royal Wedding'' is a 1951 American musical comedy film directed by Stanley Donen, and starring Fred Astaire and Jane Powell, with music by Burton Lane and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. Set in 1947 London at the time of the wedding of Princess ...

in 2011.

Live performances

The first public performance of the piece was at

The Royal British Legion The Royal British Legion (RBL), formerly the British Legion, is a British charity providing financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the British Armed Forces, their families and dependants, as well as all others in n ...

Festival of Remembrance The Royal British Legion (RBL), formerly the British Legion, is a British charity providing financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the British Armed Forces, their families and dependants, as well as all others in ne ...

held at the Royal Albert Hall on 12 November 2011 attended by

The Queen In the English-speaking world, The Queen most commonly refers to: * Elizabeth II (1926–2022), Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 1952 until her death The Queen may also refer to: * Camilla, Queen Consort (born 1947), ...

. The event was broadcast in the final episode of The Choir television programme to an estimated television audience of 2.65 million viewers. The Military Wives made a guest appearance on the BBC's '' Strictly Come Dancing'' on 10 December 2011, when

Vincent Simone Vincent Simone (born 15 March 1979) is an Italian professional dancer, who has appeared as a professional dancer on '' Strictly Come Dancing'' from 2006 until 2012. He moved to Guildford, Surrey, United Kingdom when he was 17. Simone and prof ...

and

Flavia Cacace Flavia Cacace-Mistry born 1980 is an Italian British professional dancer. Her professional dance partner is Vincent Simone (they are branded when performing together as 'Vincent and Flavia'), and for ten years both partners appeared on the BBC's ...

danced to their performance of "Wherever You Are".

Commercial performance

A campaign was launched to promote sales of the CD single, with the aim of it becoming the 2011

Christmas number one In the United Kingdom, Christmas number ones are singles that top the UK Singles Chart in the week in which Christmas Day falls. The singles have often been novelty songs, charity songs or songs with a Christmas theme. Historically, the volume ...

in the

. Support for this campaign was received from BBC Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans. In the traditional, competitive speculation in the run-up to Christmas, the Military Wives single was said to be in competition for the title with 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) ...

'' winners Little Mix, who released a

's "

", a campaign to promote the 2011 re-release of Nirvana's "

" to number one, a campaign to highjack the Christmas Number 1 spot by British

vlogger

named Forever Yours and a campaign fronted by

from

to hijack the Christmas #1 with Dominick the Donkey. The race was further heated by the introduction of a trophy for the number one record by the Official Charts Company to celebrate sixty years of the UK Charts. It is to be awarded to every artist who makes it to number one in the UK Charts, with the first trophy being given out to the 2011 Christmas number one single. In mid-December 2011 it was reported that "Wherever You Are" had broken sales records in becoming the most pre-ordered music item ever on the UK

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 ...

website. According to Amazon, the pre-order sales were three times as many as those of

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 ...

’s 2010 album ''

Progress Progress is the movement towards a refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. In the context of progressivism, it refers to the proposition that advancements in technology, science, and social organization have resulted, and by extension w ...

''. Following the second day of release, some 242,000 copies of the single had been sold, making it the fastest selling single since ''X Factor'' winner

Shayne Ward Shayne Thomas Ward (born 16 October 1984) is an English actor and singer. He rose to fame as the winner of the second series of ''The X Factor''. His debut single, "That's My Goal", was released in the United Kingdom on 21 December 2005 an ...

's 2005 single

That's My Goal "That's My Goal" is the debut single by British singer Shayne Ward, the winner of the second series of ''The X Factor''. It was released as his winner's single on 21 December 2005. Ward was the first ''X Factor'' winner to release an original ...

. At that point it was leading the race for Christmas number one, having sold six times the number of singles as second place Little Mix. On the chart dated 24 December 2011, the song debuted at number 144 on the

. The following week the song climbed to the number-one spot, becoming the

of 2011. It sold 555,622 copies, more than the rest of the top 12 combined. It is also the biggest first-week sales since " A Moment Like This" by

sold over 571,000 copies in its first week in 2006. Despite impressive first week sales, "Wherever You Are" only spent one week atop the chart, with

Coldplay Coldplay are a British rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer Will Champion and creative director Phil Harvey. They met at University ...

's "

Paradise In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in parad ...

" replacing it at the summit on January 1; causing it to fall three places to number four.

B side

The

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 company ...

of the single is a choral setting by Paul Mealor of the Christmas song "

A Spotless Rose "" (literally "A rose has sprung up") is a Christmas carol and Hymns to Mary, Marian hymn of German origin. It is most commonly translated into English as "Lo, how a rose e'er blooming" and is also called "A Spotless Rose" and "Behold a Rose of J ...

". The song is part of Mealor's "Rose Cycle " of songs entitled "

Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal "Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal" is a poem written by Alfred Tennyson. It is like a sonnet in having fourteen iambic lines, but it is not rhymed (except that the word "me" is repeated at the ends of key lines), and it does not follow either the Sh ...

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

The "Wherever You Are" official videoThe Military Wives official websiteMilitary Wives on Gareth Malone's website
{{Authority control Decca Records singles Charity singles 2011 debut singles Number-one singles in Scotland UK Singles Chart number-one singles Songs about the military Christmas number-one singles in the United Kingdom 2011 songs