"Julia" is a song performed by British pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 duo Eurythmics

Eurythmics

Eurythmics were a British pop rock duo, formed in 1980, currently disbanded, but known to reunite from time to time. Consisting of members Annie Lennox and David A...

. It was written by group members Annie Lennox

Annie Lennox

Annie Lennox, OBE , born Ann Lennox, is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving minor success in the late 1970s with The Tourists, with fellow musician David A...

 and David A. Stewart

David A. Stewart

David Allan Stewart , often known as Dave Stewart, is an English musician, songwriter and record producer, best known for his work with Eurythmics. He is usually credited as David A. Stewart, to avoid confusion with other musicians named "Dave Stewart".-Early life:Stewart was born in Sunderland,...

 for their album 1984 (For the Love of Big Brother)

1984 (For the Love of Big Brother)

-Personnel:* Annie Lennox: vocals, keyboards/synthesizers, percussion* David A. Stewart: backing vocals, guitar, bass guitar, keyboards/synthesizers, drum & sequencer programming* Produced by David A Stewart* Mixed by David A Stewart & Eric 'E.T.' Thorngren...

, which served as the soundtrack

Soundtrack

A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...

 to the film 1984

Nineteen Eighty-Four (film)

Nineteen Eighty-Four is a 1984 British science fiction film, based upon George Orwell's novel of the same name, following the life of Winston Smith in Oceania, a country run by a totalitarian government...

, an adaptation of the political novel

Political fiction

Political fiction is a subgenre of fiction that deals with political affairs. Political fiction has often used narrative to provide commentary on political events, systems and theories. Works of political fiction often "directly criticize an existing society or.....

 Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...

by George Orwell

George Orwell

Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...

. The song was produced by Stewart and was the second and final single released from the album.

Musicial concept

The song is a ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

 with very sparse electronic instrumentation and an almost a cappella

A cappella

A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

 performance by Lennox. Her vocals are accentuated by vocoder

Vocoder

A vocoder is an analysis/synthesis system, mostly used for speech. In the encoder, the input is passed through a multiband filter, each band is passed through an envelope follower, and the control signals from the envelope followers are communicated to the decoder...

 effects in the background. The title and lyrics of the song are based upon the novel's heroine and love interest, Julia

Julia (1984)

Julia is a fictional character in George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Her last name is never given in the novel but she is called Dixon in the 1954 BBC TV production....

. The cover artwork for the single is a still image from the film, featuring English actress Suzanna Hamilton

Suzanna Hamilton

Suzanna Hamilton is an English actress. She is most famous for her performance as Julia in the modern film adaptation of George Orwell's classic novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.-Early career:...

 as Julia.

Midway through the song, an instrumental line based on J.S. Bach's "Fugue #2 in C Minor" from The Well Tempered Clavier, Book 1, can be heard.

Breaking a string of six consecutive Top 10 hits, "Julia" peaked at number 44 on the UK singles chart

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

.

Other versions

The version of "Julia" found on the soundtrack differs from the one being played during the end-credits of the film - which is more string based with less synthetic arrangements. This is also the case for many of the other songs on the soundtrack versus their version used in the film.

Track listings

7"

• A: "Julia" [edited]
• B: "Ministry of Love"

12"

• A: "Julia" (extended mix) *
• B: "Ministry of Love" (extended)

* this version although labelled as "extended" is the same as the one found on the album 1984 (For the Love of Big Brother)

1984 (For the Love of Big Brother)

-Personnel:* Annie Lennox: vocals, keyboards/synthesizers, percussion* David A. Stewart: backing vocals, guitar, bass guitar, keyboards/synthesizers, drum & sequencer programming* Produced by David A Stewart* Mixed by David A Stewart & Eric 'E.T.' Thorngren...

Chart performance

Chart (1985)	Peak position
Irish Singles Chart	17
UK Singles Chart	44