WESTLIFE - "You Raise Me Up"

(#1021, 4th November 2005)

Winning the Nobel Peace Prize is an immense and serious honour. A sign of one’s arrival in the top tier of international statesmen, perhaps, or recognition of a life spent selflessly working to promote international harmony and end the scourge of war. In 2005, Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, received the prize for his work in nuclear non-proliferation. A highlight of a glittering diplomatic career, and an implied rebuke to the Americans who’d tried that year to force him out of the role. At the annual concert to celebrate the prize, ElBaradei was treated to a performance by Westlife of their latest hit, “You Raise Me Up”. Blessed are the peacemakers, indeed.

This was not Westlife’s first or last Peace Prize gig. In 2000 they regaled the South Korean President with a performance of “My Love”. And in 2009 “You Raise Me Up” - by then a signature song - returned, this time in honour of Barack Obama, whose schedule did not permit him to actually attend the gig.  

While Westlife are plainly a good fit with the needs of the Nobel Peace Concert, their placidity isn’t necessarily typical of the gig - Robyn and Morrissey have both played it, for instance. Even so “You Raise Me Up” feels like it was born in public, a song that exists to be sung in front of others. An affirmation.

Westlife were by no means the first to notice how well “You Raise Me Up” fitted a whole range of emotional needs. In fact its proven uplifting pedigree must have made it particularly tempting for the band, needing to reassure any fans still salty from the departure of Brian McFadden. The song had been a particular success for American artist Josh Groban - another plus, as while Groban was omnipresent on the US telethon and charity circuit he barely had a UK profile.

As the song passed from sometime Eurovision winners Secret Garden through Groban to Westlife, it changed its style and emphases. Secret Garden’s version isn’t too far in tone from their Eurovision winner “Nocturne” - as much emphasis on strings and pipes as on vocals, a song with a long introductory drift through the Celtic mist of the imagination. Groban’s version keeps the intro but sexes the song up, makes it personal - his “You Raise Me Up” video starts with him pulling his shirt off, and his rich, deep, precise singing makes him inevitably the focus.

Westlife step further away still - the keening intro is replaced by soft piano, letting the group get straight into the song (an instrumental break nods to “You Raise Me Up”’s roots, though). None of the band are as dominant a singer as Groban, so they can treat the song as a precious burden to be passed gently from voice to voice: in the video they each make humble eyes at the camera, as if shyly reintroducing themselves to their public. The video also makes it plain that “You Raise Me Up” is an inspirational everysong - we see couples old and young, but plenty of parents and children too. Its second person is even broader than most pop songs’ “You”; it could contain almost anyone.

One thing it could very easily contain is God - “You Raise Me Up” is in that useful territory of songs that can be picked off the rack by Christian music artists but are also plausibly unspecific for anyone who doesn’t want to wall themselves off in that world. (Groban in particular seems to be well practised in this dance). It wouldn’t be out of place at any wedding, or anniversary, or Mother’s or Father’s Day, or funeral - in fact it was first performed at a funeral - or charity gig, or fundraiser, or remembrance concert, or indeed a Nobel Peace Prize show.

This immense capacity comes at a cost. You have to look back to things like “Gym And Tonic” to find Number 1s that are as sheerly functional as “You Raise Me Up”. Without a specific reference point - an event or person to pin its “You” to - the song feels like a template for emotion, not emotional in its own right. 

This formlessness suits Westlife perfectly, of course, particularly this version of them, whose remaining members are firmly committed to business as usual. They needed a song which could fit smoothly alongside all their other ones, and they were lucky to get one flexible enough for that or any other job. “You Raise Me Up” can suit almost any event, but it’s not an event in its own right, and their version is less of one than any. I play it sitting at a desk writing this entry and I feel absolutely nothing. 

3 out of 10  

(Apologies for the double email notification on this - Patreon decided to only show the first few lines and I had to hunt around for the setting I needed to stop that)