"This Day" is a song performed by Scottish singer

Emma's Imagination Emma Gillespie (born in Edinburgh, Scotland), better known by her stage name Emma's Imagination, is a Scottish singer. She came to prominence after winning the Sky 1 TV talent contest '' Must Be the Music''. She was signed to Gary Barlow's musi ...

(an alias for Emma Gillespie), from her debut album '' Stand Still''.

Details

The song, written by Gillespie, was first widely heard when she competed on the TV talent contest

Must Be the Music ''Must Be the Music'' is a British television musical talent competition contested by aspiring singers and musicians drawn from public auditions. The show is a music competition and reality show that was broadcast in the United Kingdom and Irela ...

from TV Channel

Sky One Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non- terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1 ...

, singing it on the second semi-final. Accompanied only by an acoustic guitar, Gillespie made it through the final stage of the contest, eventually winning it. Judge

Sharleen Spiteri Sharleen Eugene Spiteri (born 7 November 1967) is a Scottish singer and guitarist, best known as the lead singer of the rock band Texas. She has a contralto vocal range. In 2013, Texas's worldwide album sales were counted at 40 million records. ...

commented after her performance that she "honestly think you've written yourself a hit record." This acoustic version of the song was put on sale after the TV broadcast on itunes and Skysongs, with all the profits off the sales going directly to the artists. Speaking about the song, Gillespie has said that "I wrote it whilst sitting in

Glasgow Green Glasgow Green is a park in the east end of Glasgow, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde. Established in the 15th century, it is the oldest park in the city. It connects to the south via the St Andrew's Suspension Bridge. History In ...

on a really lovely sunny day. The song is about that feeling that you get when you're sitting in the sun and everything just seems alive and beautiful, almost like that day was made especially for you."

Re-recorded version

After winning the talent show, Gillespie was approached by several labels, eventually signing with

Gary Barlow Gary Barlow (born 20 January 1971) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and television personality. He is the lead singer of the British pop group Take That. Barlow is one of the United Kingdom's most successful songwriters, havi ...

Future Records Future Records was a music imprint, based in London, England. It was founded in 2009. The label was closed in 2012. History In 2009, it was announced that Gary Barlow had been given his own music label, Future, by Universal as a reward for ...

, and recorded the album with producer

Martin Terefe Martin Terefe (born 1969, Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish record producer and songwriter, now living and working in London, who has produced Grammy, Brit and Juno award -winning albums with artists like Jason Mraz, James Morrison and KT Tunstal ...

. As such, Gillespie cut a new version of the song for the album, adding fuller instrumentation with prominent drum and bass lines. Also notable is the addition of a string section throughout the song. While Gillespie said the new version may alienate some fans of the simpler acoustic version, she oversaw the process of how she wanted it to be recorded and personally liked the new take. This re-recorded version was selected as the album's lead single in January 2011.

Music video

A video was produced for the re-recorded version, directed by

Vanessa Caswill Vanessa Caswill is an English director and writer of short films and television dramas. Caswill directed BBC miniseries ''Thirteen'' (2016) and '' Little Women'' (2017). ''Little Women'' marked the first time in Angela Lansbury's career of nearly ...

. It shows Emma resting still on several landscapes, like grass, floorboards and bedsheets, while several objects pass beside or circling her, like a spider, dishes with sweets, fruits, roads with miniature cars or Emma's own acoustic guitar and shoes. Filmed with a

green screen Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues ( chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to ...

, Gillespie said afterwards she did not enjoy the experience much: "I had to lie on the floor from eight in the morning till 11 at night. All my muscles were spasming. It was horrible."

Release and reception

The original acoustic version of "This Day" was released the same night she performed it on

, and quickly escalated the UK charts. It eventually entered and peaked at #10 in the UK charts, becoming Emma's first top 10 hit. It also peaked at #9 in Ireland and at #7 in the Scottish Charts, and at #2 on the UK Indie Chart. The re-recorded version, which drew some criticism for eliminating the simplicity of the song, substituting it with "anodyne strings" and "innocuous, featureless arrangements". The single, which had an acoustic cover of

Amy Winehouse Amy Jade Winehouse (14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011) was an English singer and songwriter. She was known for her deep, expressive contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres, including soul, rhythm and blues and jazz. A m ...

's "

You Know I'm No Good "You Know I'm No Good" is a song written and performed by English singer Amy Winehouse from her second and final studio album, '' Back to Black'' (2006). "You Know I'm No Good" was released as the second single from ''Back to Black'' on 5 Janua ...

" as the b-side, only managed to chart at #187.

Tracklisting

Original single (2010) #"This Day (1:51) Re-recorded version (2011) #"This Day" (3:11) #"

" (3:41)

Charts

References

{{reflist 2010 singles 2011 singles Song recordings produced by Martin Terefe 2010 songs Future Records singles