"You Bring Me Joy" is the debut single by British singer

Amelia Lily Amelia Lily Oliver (born 16 October 1994) is an English singer and television personality. In 2011, she became a finalist on the eighth series of ''The X Factor'', where she finished in third place. In 2017, she finished as runner-up on the t ...

. The song premiered on

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on 7 July 2012, after the radio premiere the song leaked online the following day. Officially it was released in the

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on 9 September 2012 through

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

. The song was written by Annie Yuill,

Brian Higgins Brian Michael Higgins (born October 6, 1959) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for , serving since 2005. The district, numbered as the 27th district from 2005 to 2013 but as the 26th since 2013, includes Buffalo and N ...

, Carla Marie Williams, Fred Falke, Luke Fitton, Matt Gray, Miranda Cooper, Owen Parker,

Toby Scott Toby Warren Scott is an American record producer, engineer and sound mixer. In addition to serving as an engineer on 18 Bruce Springsteen albums and numerous live performances, Scott has also recorded artists including Bob Dylan, Natalie Mercha ...

and produced by

Xenomania Xenomania is an English songwriting and production team founded by Brian Higgins and based in Kent, England. Formed by Higgins with his Creative Director Miranda Cooper and Business Director Sarah Stennett of First Access Entertainment, Xenoman ...

Critical reception

The song has received mostly positive reviews.

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provided an early review on the song stating, "It’s brilliant. It’s obviously brilliant the first time you hear it and increasingly brilliant over the subsequent twenty or thirty listens". ''

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'' was also positive towards the song, calling it a "sophisticated banger" which sees Lily's "impressive voice take centre stage."

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rated the song 4 out of 5 stars, adding; "'I'm not looking back when I've only just begun,' she growls over a propelling dance-rock riff, before calling out her contrary lover on a soaring yet wistful chorus. Like a PB&J sandwich the result won't initially be to everyone's taste, but it doesn't take long for addiction to set in.". NME described it as "Atonal, generalised fury about the utterly mundane".

ranked "You Bring Me Joy" at number 27 on its "The Top 45 Singles of 2012" list, stating that they "instantly loved" the song, also saying that it was "the sort of thing we were hoping Cher’s comeback single would sound like".

Commercial performance

"You Bring Me Joy" came out for digital downloads on 9 September 2012, one month later than its music video. The single reached number 1 on UK

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Chart on the first release day and stayed at the top for 4 days. It sold 50,000 copies on its first week, debuting at number 2 on 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 ...

behind "

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" by

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and

will.i.am William James Adams Jr. (born March 15, 1975), known professionally as will.i.am (pronounced "Will-I-am"), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is the founding and lead member of the musical group Black Eyed Peas. ...

. It was the second biggest debut single for a ''X Factor'' contestant in 2011 (behind

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's "

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"), and even bigger than

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 gr ...

's single "

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" that debuted at number 3, three weeks later.

Music video

Filming for the accompanying music video took place on 10 July 2012 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

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. The music video was uploaded onto Lily's official

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page on 30 July 2012. The video begins with Lily in the back of a vintage gold Mercedes in Los Angeles, reminiscing about a past love. Lily and her friends then stop by a service station and buy water guns. They jump back into the car and spray a man with the water guns who approaches them. All these scenes are intercut with Lily performing the lyrics, either on the hood of the Mercedes or in front of a beach. The ending sequence of the video takes place on the beach in the evening during a beach party in which Lily sings the closing lines of the song. The video reached 3,000,000 views on 15 October 2012. The video has been nominated for 'Best Video' at the 4Music Video Honours.

Live performances

Lily sang her single for the first time live at the Birmingham ICC for the inaugural '

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Fruit Shoot Awards' on 21 July 2012. Lily posted an acoustic version of the song on her YouTube account on 24 August 2012, before the single release. She came back to G-A-Y club to promote "You Bring Me Joy" on 9 September 2012 and at the Gay Pride in Manchester. On 10 September 2012, she sang for Sun Biz Sessions, part of UK newspaper '' The Sun''. And she also performed the song on '' This Morning'' on 13 September 2012, after it reached number one on mid week charts. Lily performed at the Girlguiding’s Big Gig 2012 too, on 6 October and at the Bournemouth AIr Festival on the Corona Stage on 31 August. Later on 29 October was confirmed that Lily has joined the cast of Shrek the Musical for BBC Children In Need to perform on 14 November 2012.

Track listing

Digital download # "You Bring Me Joy" – 3:51 # "You Bring Me Joy" (Steve Smart & Westfunk club remix) – 5:27

Credits and personnel

* Lead

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

– Amelia Lily *

Producers Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

–

Lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a "libretto" and their writer, a ...

– Annie Yuill,

, Carla Marie Williams, Fred Falke, Luke Fitton, Matt Gray, Miranda Cooper, Owen Parker,

Label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed dir ...

: Sony Music

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2012 debut singles 2012 songs Dance-rock songs Song recordings produced by Xenomania Songs written by Brian Higgins (producer) Songs written by Carla Marie Williams Songs written by Fred Falke Songs written by Miranda Cooper Songs written by Tim Powell (producer) Sony Music singles