"They" is the first single released from Welsh singer Jem's debut album, Finally Woken (2004). It includes a sample of the Swingle Singers' 1963 adaptation of Johann Sebastian Bach's Prelude in F minor (BWV 881) from their album Jazz Sebastian Bach. Jem recorded the song's vocals in her mother's spare bedroom.
"They" was released in the United States in February 2004 and was issued worldwide the following year. The song became Jem's most successful single, reaching number six on the UK Singles Chart, number one in Hungary, and the top 10 in Greece, Ireland, and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Jem released two music videos for "They". The UK version, directed by Laurent Briet, features Jem stripping herself in a spaceship in the style of Jane Fonda in the opening scene of Barbarella (although she remains covered by strategically placed light based holograms of planetary orbital paths); this is actually a boy dreaming about her as he constructs a model of the same spaceship back on Earth. The US version features Jem walking at a park while being accompanied by a number of children. She then encounters several signs and decides to disobey them. Some intercut scenes show her at a roundabout being spun by children.
UK CD1
UK CD2 and Australian CD single
Credits are lifted from the Finally Woken album booklet.
Locations
Personnel