Bring Me to Life
by Evanescence
- 96
- BPM
- E minor
- Key
- 9A
- Camelot
- 32
- Danceability
- 1
- Acousticness
Amy Lee wrote "Bring Me to Life" at 19, after an acquaintance who later became her husband asked whether she was happy. She was in an abusive relationship and was shocked that he saw through her facade. "I felt like he could just see straight into my soul," she said. She realized she had been numb for months, going through the motions of life. Ben Moody and David Hodges share credits on the song.
Wind-up released it as the lead single on January 13, 2003, from the debut album Fallen. The label insisted on a male rap vocal, which Lee did not want, or neither song nor album would come out. Lee wrote the part, and Paul McCoy of 12 Stones performed it. Evanescence made around 10 demos, and David Campbell added real strings, which Lee fought for over a cheaper synthetic alternative.
Rock radio first rejected it. Programmers heard a woman and a piano and turned it off. After the song appeared in the film Daredevil and on its soundtrack, listeners began requesting it. Lee said the band went from clubs to arenas in months. The song reached No. 1 in Australia, Italy, Scotland and the rest of the UK, among others, and won the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance.
Bring Me to Life runs at 96 BPM, the tempo of hip-hop, R&B and reggaeton. In classical terms it sits in andante territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.5 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 625 ms. It is in E minor, Camelot 9A, which shares its notes with G major and mixes cleanly with A minor and B minor.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.