"All Around the World" is a song by English singer, songwriter and actress Lisa Stansfield from her debut studio album, Affection (1989).
Songwriters, Stansfield, Devaney and Morris, received the 1989 Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.
The song became the first of two UK number-one singles for Stansfield (the second being an appearance on George Michael and Queen's "Five Live" EP) and the first of eight top-ten hits she would achieve in that country.
In 2014, the remixes of "All Around the World" were included on the deluxe 2CD + DVD re-releases of Affection, Face Up and on the People Hold On ...
Stansfield co-wrote the lyrics of "All Around the World" with her former bandmates Ian Devaney and Andy Morris from Blue Zone.
In a 2019 interview, Stansfield recalled the process when the song was made: I came into the studio, and Ian was messing around at the piano.
As a tribute to him, they made a spoken intro on "All Around the World" like the one on the album version of White's "Let the Music Play", only shorter.
Bill Coleman from Billboard felt it "sports that all-too-familiar Soul II Soul-ish feel but it's the lyric and Stansfield's emotive vocal which take it to the next level.
Considine from The Baltimore Sun complimented her "warm, emotive voice", "summoning the vocal authority of an Anita Baker or Dionne Warwick with "All Around the World".
"[7] Ernest Hardy from Cashbox stated that "it's her earthy vocals swarthed in whirling strings and placed against a soft beat that sets toes tapping, shoulders swaying and heads bopping."
"[16] Steven Daly from Spin viewed it as "a sensational piece of self-invention around the kind of voice that vaporizes all criticism.
"[17] John Nichols from Toledo Blade felt it is "dazzling", and stated that Stansfield's voice "is everywhere it is should be – whispering, soaring, going deep and then going loud.
In a 2019 retrospective review, Matthew Hocter from Albumism declared the song as "sultry and heartbreakingly beautiful".
[21] AllMusic editor Alex Henderson described it as a "melancholy, Barry White-influenced single" and noted further that "it was obvious that not since Teena Marie had a white female singer performed R&B so convincingly.
"[22] Tom Ewing of Freaky Trigger said in 2010, that "All Around the World" "is a song about guilt and loss, it's no surprise she doesn't sound quite so joyful.
Other scenes shows Stansfield singing, while she rotates in the middle of a ring of men standing next to each other as the camera follows her round.
In the United States, the promotional single included remixes created by Norty Cotto and reached number thirty-four on the Billboard's Hot Dance Club Songs.