"Don't Give Up" is a song by Britishelectronic music artistChicane featuring vocals from Canadian singerBryan Adams. The track was released on 6 March 2000 as the second single from Chicane's second studio album,Behind the Sun (2000). "Don't Give Up" peaked at number one on theUK Singles Chart and became a popular dance track inclubs across Europe and North America.
The collaboration between the two musicians began in 1999, when Adams contactedChicane at hisstudio to arrange for aremix of Adams's forthcoming single "Cloud Number 9" from his 1998 albumOn a Day Like Today.[3] The resulting remix was selected by Adams as theradio edit of the single, which went on to reach number six on the UK chart.[4]
Later, having written the music for a track that needed to be turned into a song, Chicane played the idea to Adams during his search for a voice. Adams agreed to the role, and also wrote the melody and lyrics to the song "Don't Give Up".[3]
Adams's rock-styled vocals were buried inaudio processing. This was done throughProsoniq's OrangeVocoderplugin onSteinberg'sCubase VSTdigital audio workstation. Even though his voice was altered electronically, it is still recognisable.[5] One critic felt the processed vocals were unsuccessful: "Adams digitally treated his vocal on this track to an extreme degree to make it sound less rock. I don't think he quite manages it – his singing is husky anyhow."[6]
Adams's vocal credit was initially not publicised, particularly when the single, in awhite label release, was first played by notedBBC Radio 1DJPete Tong[4] on his 31 December 1999Essential Selection show.[7] It was chosen as Tong's "Essential New Tune" selection, which, on this episode, was specially designated "Essential New Tune for the millennium".[7][8] On a later January show,Judge Jules, standing in for Tong, played it as the Essential New Tune again.[9][10] It was also included on Tong'sEssential Selection Spring 2000 compilation album.
On the week of 12 March 2000, "Don't Give Up" overtook "American Pie",Madonna's number one single of the previous week, on theUK Singles Chart, outselling it by 1224 copies and becoming Bryan Adams' second number one in the UK after "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" in 1991 and Chicane's first.[11] The song featured on the acclaimed[12] 2000 mix albumCreamLive. The song sold 270,000 copies in the UK as stated by the Official UK Charts Company.
In 2004, following Chicane's departure from Xtravaganza, the label issued "Don't Give Up 2004", a single including only new remixes by label founder Alex Gold and Xtravaganza artistsAgnelli & Nelson.
Dom Passantino ofStylus Magazine was mixed, saying "this is our Bryan's only entry to number one [in the UK Singles Chart in the 2000s], a far too obvious attempt at appealing to bothDave Pearce andKen Bruce at the same time. Bizarrely enough, time has revealed it to actually be the colour negative of 'Emerge' byFischerspooner. Except this actually sold some copies."[13] Tom Ewing ofFreaky Trigger, although saying the song predicted theEDM boom of the 2010s, was also mixed, saying: "Inadvertently, the track hits on an idea – throaty, effortful bloke singing over formula builds and drops – that we will see an awful lot of in the early 2010s. But this inadvertent futurism isn't the result of any particular vision, just an offspring of the listless humping of two clichés."[6]
A music video was released for the song, featuring a young girl working in a dystopian scenario, who occasionally snatches views of herself (using aNokia Communicator) living in a more pleasant existence, interspersed with scenes of Adams singing the song.
