Genre Pop Label Columbia, Epic | Length 4:11 | |
Released 8 June 1998 (1998-06-08) Format CD single, cassette single Recorded 1997 Record Plant Studios, The Hit Factory, Middle Ears Studio, Masterphonics | ||
"Immortality" is a single from Celine Dion's album Let's Talk About Love. It was released on 8 June 1998 outside the United States. The Bee Gees can be heard on the background vocals, and are credited as special guests on/for the recording. It was used as a theme song for the Brazilian telenovela "Torre de Babel". For that occasion was release a promo CD Single only in Brazil with various remixes.
Contents
"Immortality" was composed especially for Dion by brothers Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, and Maurice Gibb, the members of the Bee Gees, and was produced by Walter Afanasieff. A demo version of the song featuring just the brothers can be found on subsequent greatest hits albums of the Bee Gees.
There are two music videos. The first one, directed by Scott Floyd Lochmus, shows Dion and the Bee Gees in the recording studio in 1997. It was included as a bonus on the Au cœur du stade DVD. The second one was directed by Randee St. Nicholas and released at the end of July 1998. This more elaborate video deals with themes of love, loss and reincarnation, with a cameo from the Bee Gees themselves.
The song was a commercial success reaching number 2 in Austria and Germany, number 4 in Europe, number 5 in the United Kingdom, and number 8 in Switzerland. In Brazil, the Cuca mixes became very popular. However, the track was never released as a single in the United States, where Sony Music Entertainment instead decided to release "To Love You More."
"Immortality" was certified platinum in Germany (for over 500,000 copies sold), gold in Sweden (15,000), and silver in France (145,000) and the UK (200,000).
The live version of this song was included on the One Night Only CD and DVD by the Bee Gees, released on 3 November 1998. Dion also performed this song during her Let's Talk About Love Tour. The song was performed also on British TV programme Top of the Pops on July 1998. For the first time in 16 years, Dion performs the song in her current residency show Celine at the The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.
"Immortality" became a part of non-American versions of Dion's later greatest hits: All the Way… A Decade of Song and My Love: Essential Collection.
In 2001, Donny Osmond covered "Immortality" for his 2001 album This Is the Moment. For the 2001 Greatest Hits album "The Record", The Bee Gees re-recorded the song without Dion's vocals, instead having Barry Gibb as the lead singer and Maurice and Robin on back-up vocals.
Music video
The video opens with Celine walking through a graveyard. She and the Bee Gees then appear as ghosts in a manor house where Dion meets a man (presumably her lover). Celine and the Bee Gees later appear at a club where she is a singer. The video then ends in the graveyard where Dion walks away.
Critical reception
Entertainment Weekly editor David Browne called this song 'banal' and said that it is "flimsy concoction that droops under the weight of its arrangement." The New York Observer editor Jonathan Bernstein called this collaboration "dispiriting".
Official versions
- "Immortality" (Cuca cool DJ mix) – 4:27
- "Immortality" (Cuca cool remix) – 4:26
- "Immortality" (Cuca pop remix) – 4:27
- "Immortality" (Cuca club remix) – 7:06
- "Immortality" (Cuca cool mix) – 6:13
- "Immortality" (album version) – 4:11
- "Immortality" (demo version) – 4:15