"I Saved the World Today" is a song recorded by British pop music duo Eurythmics for their eighth studio album, Peace (1999). It was written and co-produced by band members Annie Lennox and David A. Stewart. The song was released as the first single from the album and returned Eurythmics to the UK Singles Chart for the first time in nearly a decade, peaking at number 11. It peaked within the top 10 in several countries, including Finland, Greece, Hungary, and Italy. In the United States, the song was added to adult contemporary radio in January 2000.

Background

Producer Andy Wright said, "The first time I met Annie Lennox she was sitting at a piano playing something new that she'd been working on – the chord progression to what turned out to be the song, "I Saved The World Today". ... We began work at The Church Studios in North London, Dave's studio, a place I was very familiar with. Annie was sitting playing the piano in the upstairs studio which has a very big live room, and we began straight away. "I Saved The World Today" was the first thing we did. I put together a beat and some ideas, Annie recorded some piano, we put down a guide vocal, Dave came up with a great Rickenbacker 12-string guitar part, and the song just started to emerge." In an interview with Sain magazine, Lennox summarized the general premise of the song: "It's a song that really sums up feelings that I have, and what a lot of people have. It's about feeling impotent in the face of extreme violence, in the form of warfare or tragedies we're bombarded with every day in the media. It's about 'If only someone could do that' and the implausibility of that idea. I feel very sad about this song sometimes."

Charts

Release history