After circulating for months, a demo written by Brian Higgins, Matthew Gray, Stuart McLennen and Timothy Powell, was submitted to Warner's chairman, Rob Dickins, while he was scouting for songs to include on Cher's new album.

Recording took place at Dreamhouse Studio in West London, while production was handled by Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling.

It featured a pioneering use of the audio processing software Auto-Tune to distort her vocals, which was widely imitated and became known as the "Cher effect".

Cher has performed the song on many occasions, including the 1999 Brit Awards, the Sanremo Music Festival, as well as on several talk shows and variety programs (in America and abroad).

They also credited the song for restoring Cher's social popularity and further cementing her position as a pop culture icon.

"Believe" earned Cher a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, and Rolling Stone listed it among the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

A demo of "Believe", written by Brian Higgins, Matthew Gray, Stuart McLennen and Timothy Powell, circulated at Warner Records for months.

[1] The Warner chairman, Rob Dickins, asked the production house Dreamhouse to work on it; their goal was to make a dance record that would not alienate Cher fans.

It was assembled with Cubase VST on an early model Power Macintosh G3, with synthesizers including a Clavia Nord Rack and an Oberheim Matrix 1000.

[16] A reviewer from Entertainment Weekly described the song as "poptronica glaze, the soon-to-be club fave..." and noted Cher's voice as "unmistakable".

"[18] New York Daily News described the song as a "club track so caffeinated, it not only microwaved her cold career to scorching-hot but gave dance music its biggest hit since the days of disco.

"[20] Neil Strauss from The New York Times wrote that "the verses are rich and bittersweet, with the added gimmick of breaking up Cher's voice through an effect that makes her sound robotic.

[22] In 2019, Bill Lamb from About.com declared it as a "perfect piece of dance-pop", including it in his list of "Top 10 Pop Songs of 1999".

[11] AllMusic editor Joe Viglione called "Believe" a "pop masterpiece, one of the few songs to be able to break through the impenetrable wall of late 1990s fragmented radio to permeate the consciousness of the world at large.

"[23] Another editor, Michael Gallucci, gave a lukewarm review, writing that the Believe album is an "endless, and personality-free, thump session".

[26] In 2014, Tom Ewing from Freaky Trigger wrote that "Believe" "is a record in the "I Will Survive" mode of embattled romantic defiance – a song to make people who've lost out in love feel like they're the winners."

", and perhaps even more remarkable that it wasn't Jim Steinman, but the genius of the song is how aggressive and righteous Cher makes it sound.

[28] In 2018, Dave Fawbert from ShortList described "Believe" as a "really great pop song with, as ever, an absolute powerhouse vocal performance from Cher".

"Believe" also set a record in 1999 after spending 21 weeks atop the Billboard Maxi-Singles Sales chart—it was still in the top 10 one year after its entry on the chart.

It features Cher in a nightclub in a double role as a singer on stage while wearing a glowing headdress and as a supernatural being in a cage surrounded by many people to whom she is giving advice.

The video largely revolves around a woman (played by Katrine De Candole)[43] who is in the club with her friends and sees her ex-boyfriend.

"[44] In Pitchfork, Simon Reynolds wrote that through the combination of cosmetic surgery, makeup and bright lights, "Cher actually looks how Auto-Tune sounds ...

10 in their list of the "20 Most Annoying Songs"[49] In 2020, British national newspaper The Guardian ranked "Believe" as the 83rd greatest UK number one.

In May 2012, after successfully auditioning for The X Factor (UK), Ella Henderson, then 16 years old, performed a ballad arrangement of "Believe" after the Bootcamp round, reducing guest judge Nicole Scherzinger to tears.

It made such an impact on the Australian audience that in the year it was performed, the cover became the highest ranked Like A Version in a Hottest 100 countdown, landing at No.