Music of Final Fantasy VIII - Eyes On Me

Eyes On Me

"Eyes on Me" is the ballad that serves as the theme of the game Final Fantasy VIII. It was performed by Chinese singer Faye Wong and composed, like the rest of the game music, by Nobuo Uematsu. The song's lyrics, written in somewhat imperfect English by Kako Someya, unveil the hopes of a night club singer for romance with a member of her audience. It was released as a CD single in Japan, including an instrumental version and Wong's ballad "Red Bean". The song sold more than 400,000 copies, placing it as the highest-selling video game music disc ever released in that country at the time. "Eyes on Me" was the first song in video game history to win an award at the 14th Annual Japan Gold Disc Awards, where it won "Song of the Year (Western Music)" in 1999. The single reached #9 on the Oricon charts, and stayed on the charts for 20 weeks.

Within the game, the song is written by Julia Heartilly, a pianist who is the love interest of Laguna Loire. It is heard repeatedly throughout the game in various incarnations, including as an instrumental piece entitled Julia, as well as in "Waltz for the Moon" and "Love Grows" for the "love" scenes between Squall Leonheart and Rinoa Heartlily.

A dance remix of the song was included on the Japanese release of Wong's 2000 album Fable. Remixes also appeared in Toshiba EMI's Dancemania series. In 2004, a Japanese-language version entitled "Summer Album" (夏のアルバム, "Natsu no Arubamu"?) with lyrics by Kazushige Nojima was included on Final Fantasy Song Book: Mahoroba. It was covered by Angela Aki for release on her 2006 single "Kokoro no Senshi".