"A Thousand Years" is a song recorded by American singer and songwriterChristina Perri, and written by Perri and David Hodges, for '. The song was released as a digital download on October 18, 2011, worldwide, and serves as the second single for the movie. Perri re-recorded the song with vocals from Steve Kazee for '. Perri recorded the song in the, then she re-recorded the second song along with Kazee in the.
Composition
"A Thousand Years" is in the key of B-flat major, with a vocal range of F3 to C5. The song was written about the love affair between Edward and Bella.
Music video
An official lyric video of the song was premiered on October 17, 2011, via Perri's official Facebook and Twitter pages as well as her official website. On October 26, 2011, she released an official video for the song on her YouTube channel. The video begins with Perri holding a candle. It features a few clips from The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 interspersed between scenes with Perri singing in a room with a floor full of candles. Perri ends the video singing into a sunset. It has over 1.6 billion views and 9.7 million likes on YouTube, making it one of the top 90 most-viewed YouTube videos.
Cover versions
A cover by American crossover band The Piano Guys was uploaded on YouTube on May 9, 2012; as of July 2020, it has over 180 million views.
American band Boyce Avenue released an acoustic version of "A Thousand Years". It currently has over 120 million views as of July 2020.
Scottish-American actor, singer, presenter and writer John Barrowman covered the song on his 2014 album "You Raise Me Up". He recorded the song after he married his husband, Scott Gil, and to celebrate gay couples who married after the United States Supreme Court denied an appeal to overturning California Proposition 8.
Michael O'Dwyer, a member of the Irish stage production Celtic Thunder, covered the song for their CD/DVD set Celtic Thunder X.
Mums of children with Down syndrome made a cover of the song that went viral. The video currently has over 7 million views.
Umer Hussain performed the song in his X-Factor audition in series 12, but he was unsuccessful. He posted a cover on his SoundCloud account once the show had been broadcast.
On the week of October 23, 2011, the song debuted at number 63 on the US BillboardHot 100 chart, and number 70 on Canadian Hot 100. It eventually reached a peak at number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Perri her second top 40 hit. By July 2013, the song has sold over three million digital downloads in the US. As of June 2014, the song has sold 3,657,000 copies in the US. On August 3, 2018, the single was certified seven times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling seven million digital copies in the United States. In the United Kingdom, the song reached number 32 on its original release in 2011. The following year, after the release of , it peaked at number 13. In 2013, after it was performed on The X Factor, it reached a new peak of 11.
