“You Raise Me Up” is a popular song in the inspirational mould. The music was written by Secret Garden’s Rolf Løvland and the lyrics by Brendan Graham. The song was originally written as an instrumental piece and titled “Silent Story.” Almost all of the melody is based on a traditional Irish tune (especially the opening phrase of its chorus), the Londonderry Air, which is best known as the usual tune to the 1910 song Danny Boy. Løvland approached Irish novelist and songwriter Brendan Graham to write the lyrics to his melody after reading Graham’s novels. It was originally released on the 2002 Secret Garden album Once in a Red Moon, with the vocals sung by Irish singer Brian Kennedy, and sold well in both Ireland and Norway. Originally, Brian Kennedy was supposed to follow Secret Garden on their Asian tour in 2002, but fell ill, and could not attend. He was replaced by Norwegian singer Jan Werner Danielsen, who also later recorded the song together with Secret Garden, but it was never released. Westlife version Although the original version did not chart internationally, the song has now been covered more than 125 times, with the most successful covers being by Josh Groban (#73 in the US and #1 on the US Adult Contemporary chart), Westlife (#1 in the UK), Daniel O’Donnell (#22 in the UK) and Dutch Popstars winner Wesley Klein (#4 in the Netherlands). The song has also found success as part of a three-song EP entitled “George Best – A Tribute” by Peter Corry and the song’s original vocalist Brian Kennedy, which reached #4 in the UK. In 2004, the song was played more than 500,000 times on American radio. In late 2005, there were over 80 versions available in USA alone, and it has become nominated for Gospel Music Awards four times, including “Song of the Year.” On 21 September 2006, “You Raise Me Up” became the first song to have sold over 20,000 copies of the score on the popular sheet music website musicnotes.com.
“You Raise Me Up” was the debut single from Westlife’s fifth studio album, Face To Face. This version is one of the most successful covers of the song, peaking at #1 on the UK Singles Chart, the only version to do so. This was the band’s 13th number one single as well as the first single to be released following the departure of Brian McFadden from the group. The single sold 540,000 copies on UK so far. Westlife performed this song with Secret Garden at the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize concert. On December 11, 2009, they performed it again at the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize concert celebrating US President Barack Obama. The backing track is reused in the Spanish version of this song, Por Ti Sere, performed by Il Divo in their Siempre album.
By Westlife
Lyrics
When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary; When troubles come and my heart burdened be; Then, I am still and wait here in the silence, Until you come and sit awhile with me.
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains; You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas; I am strong, when I am on your shoulders; You raise me up… To more than I can be.
[Instrumental break]
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains; You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas; I am strong, when I am on your shoulders; You raise me up… To more than I can be.
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains; You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas; I am strong, when I am on your shoulders; You raise me up… To more than I can be.
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains; You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas; I am strong, when I am on your shoulders; You raise me up… To more than I can be.
You raise me up… To more than I can be.