| "Hero" | ||||
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| Single by Enrique Iglesias | ||||
| from the album Escape | ||||
| Released | 3 September 2001 | |||
| Recorded | February–May 2001 | |||
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| Label | Interscope | |||
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| Producer(s) | Mark Taylor | |||
| Enrique Iglesias singles chronology | ||||
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| "Hero" on YouTube | ||||
"Hero" is a song by Spanish singer-songwriter Enrique Iglesias from his second English-language studio album Escape (2001). It was written by Iglesias, Paul Barry and Mark Taylor. Interscope Records released the song on 3 September 2001 to a positive critical and commercial reception. To the date the single has sold over 8 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best selling singles of all time.
After the 11 September attacks on the World Trade Center, which took place eight days after the single was released, "Hero" was one of the few songs chosen by radio DJs in New York City to be remixed with audio from police, firefighters, civilians at Ground Zero, and politicians commenting on the attacks. Iglesias was asked to sing the song live at America: A Tribute to Heroes. He had performed the song earlier at that year's Miss Venezuela, but due to the terrorist attacks the show was not aired on television.
The American television series Glee featured a version of the song as a mashup mixed with the Gipsy Kings' "Bamboléo". The release from the twelfth episode (called "The Spanish Teacher") in season 3 of the show is named "Bambolero/Hero". The main vocals were done by Chord Overstreet (playing the character Sam Evans). British musician Lawrey recorded a synth-pop version of the song featuring Kate Hawken and Jory Griffin. An Italian version of this song was covered by Micheal Castaldo, in his studio album Bergamot.
On 4 December 2020, Latin boyband CNCO released a cover version of the song 20 years after the original.