"Hero" is a song by Spanish singer-songwriter Enrique Iglesias from his second English-language studio album Escape. It was written by Iglesias, Paul Barry and Mark Taylor. Iglesias released the song to radio on August 14, 2001 to a positive critical and commercial reception. To the date the single has sold over 8 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best selling singles of all time. After the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, which took place eight days after the song's release on CD, it was one of the few songs chosen by radio DJs in New York City to be remixed with audio from police, firefighters, civilians at Ground Zero, and politicians commenting on the attacks. Iglesias was asked to sing the song live at . He had performed the song earlier at that year's Miss Venezuela, but due to the terrorist attacks the show was not aired on television. The American television seriesGlee featured a version of the song as a mashup mixed with the Gipsy Kings' "Bamboléo". The release from the twelfth episode in season 3 of the show is named "Bambolero/Hero". The main vocals were done by Chord Overstreet. An Italian version of this song was covered by Micheal Castaldo, in his studio album Bergamot.
Background
"Hero" has a meaning of love and assurance with a desire to be a hero for the love of a woman. Iglesias stated that his high school days were the inspiration for the song. During a 2013 radio interview with Ryan Seacrest, he stated, "I went back to when I was 17 in high school, and this might be cheesy, but I thought about what would be the song I want to slow dance to with my prom date. When I wrote it, it felt good and... I thought I know there is something special in this song." "Hero" was first released on 3 September 2001, just eight days prior to the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Due to the song's subject matter, it was one of the few songs chosen by radio DJs in New York City to be remixed with audio from police, firefighters, civilians at Ground Zero, and politicians commenting on the attacks. Iglesias was also asked to sing the song live at the , which took place on September 21. His performance was broadcast from a warehouse in New York alongside Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, and Sheryl Crow. The location of the warehouse was kept secret in case of further attacks. It was Iglesias's first televised performance of the song. He had performed the song earlier at that year's Miss Venezuela, but due to the terrorist attacks the show was not aired on television.
Chart performance
"Hero" topped many charts in the US including the Billboardadult contemporary chart for fifteen weeks. On the latter, the song would re-enter the top ten a year later, the first song ever to do so. The song peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, though it is actually his most played song on the chart, outdoing prior singles "Bailamos" and "Be with You", both of which went to number one on the chart. A remixed recording also topped the BillboardHot Dance Club Play chart in January 2002. In January 2002, the song was released in the UK, where it debuted at number 86 before jumping 85 places to number one, where it remained for four weeks. Up to this point, Iglesias had already had two hits in the UK but was largely unknown. "Hero" was seen as his breakthrough in the UK and it became the third best-selling single of 2002 there, whilst Escape was also the third best-selling album of the year. With sales of 836,500, "Hero" was the 17th best-selling single of the 2000s in the UK. In April 2015, it was announced that the song had sold 1 million copies in the UK. In Australia, the song reached number one on the ARIA Chart, becoming his first number-one in that country. The song also topped the charts in Spain, Switzerland, the Philippines, Romania, Ireland and Canada. This is one of Iglesias' best-selling singles and has sold 8 million copies.
Music videos
The music video for "Hero" was directed by Joseph Kahn. It features Iglesias as an honorable criminal hunted by his enemies, whilst Jennifer Love Hewitt plays his love interest and Mickey Rourke plays one of the men hunting him. The video follows Iglesias and Hewitt running from their enemies in the desert. Finally, Iglesias' enemies track him down and confront him outside a church. The confrontation leads to Iglesias being floored by Rourke, before being struck with a baton. The video skips ahead where Iglesias and Hewitt are seen in the rain surrounded by police cars. Iglesias, though heavily injured, walks towards Hewitt and breaks down beside her. The video ends with Iglesias' death. In addition to this video, a second video was made for the UK with less violence. The final shot of this video shows Iglesias' legs moving, suggesting that he's not dead. While originally made for the UK, this version has since replaced the original video on many music video stations throughout the world. It is also the version shown on Vevo and YouTube. Portions of the video were filmed in the ghost town Amboy, California in the Mojave Desert and just outside Desert Hot Springs, California near Palm Springs. The historic gas station location that they filmed at, outside of Desert Hot Springs, was one of the first gas stations in the Palm Springs area. As of September 2018, the video has been viewed over 300 million times on YouTube.
Track listing
UK CD1
"Hero" – 4:24
"Hero" – 3:28
"Bailamos" – 3:37
"Hero" – 4:24
UK CD2 – The Remixes
"Hero" – 4:19
"Hero" – 3:43
"Hero" – 4:19
"Hero" – 3:18
DE CD single
"Hero" – 4:11
"Be With You" – 3:56
"Hero" – 4:19
Japanese CD single
"Hero" – 4:11
"Be With You" – 7:46
"Hero" – 3:28
Japanese "Hero/Escape" maxi single
"Hero" – 4:27
"Escape" – 3:30
"Hero" – 4:23
Television and film soundtracks
"Hero" has become wildly popular due in part to the fact that it has been featured in many television shows and movies around the world. The earliest appearance of the song on an American television show was on a 2001 episode of The WB show Smallville entitled "Craving". Since then the song has been featured in such American sitcoms and reality television shows as Scrubs, Saturday Night Live: The Best ofJimmy Fallon, Glee, The X Factor, So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing with the Stars and the mini-series I Love the New Millennium The song has also been featured in such international television shows as Hinter Gittern – Der Frauenknast and So You ThinkYou Can Dance Canada. Numerous films also feature the song, including Hot Tub Time Machine, Premios Amigo 2001, Zoom, Lady Godiva, Drillbit Taylor, Don Quixote, and Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Although the song has appeared in many television shows and movies the first televised performance of the song was scheduled to be Iglesias's performance of the song at Miss Venezuela on September 11, 2001, but this performance was not televised due to the terrorist attacks on that day. The actual first televised performance of the song was when Iglesias performed the song at the concert on September 21, ten days after the attacks.
