"Ophelia" is a song recorded by American folk rock band The Lumineers. It was released as the lead single from their sophomore album, Cleopatra on February 5, 2016. As of March 2020, the song has garnered over 389 million streams on Spotify.
Background
The song started out as a slower instrumental demo that Jeremiah Fraites,, sent to Wesley Schultz, in 2011. According to Schultz, the demo generated enough excitement to work on the project. While playing at a backbar in LA alongside The Lumineers, Schultz wrote the song's hook,: "O-o-phelia, you've been on my mind girl, like a drug. O-o-phelia, heaven help a fool who falls in love." Soon after, The Lumineers felt they needed to find a proper substitute for the name Ophelia, due to the fact that a song of the same name had been released years prior by the band, The Band. Nevertheless, this issue reached its end after Schultz decided that no other name had "the right musicality to it." Subsequently, Schultz had trouble writing "good" verses to carry the hook he wrote, which made the songwriting process so difficult that the project was completely abrogated until four years later. In January 2015, when it came time to work on a new record, the defunct "Ophelia" was resurrected. Over a series of vocal demos, the song was recorded at The Clubhouse in Rhinebeck, New York. On February 8, 2016 via Facebook, the single's cover art was premiered, along with an 18 second-long snippet of the song. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Schultz said that the song's lyrics are "a vague reference to people falling in love with fame." The song was featured on the CW's The Flash in the last scene of episode 22 of season 2, "Invincible". The song was featured in the 2017 filmHappy Death Day. The song was featured in a 2017 commercial for American Express's "Shop Small" market campaign.
Critical reception
The song has received mixed reviews from music critics. The song was praised by Marina Watts of The Cornell Daily Sun; where Watts refers to "Ophelia" as "hauntingly beautiful", also noting that the song is "a march that wishes anyone who ever falls in love the best of luck." David Dye of NPR also viewed "Ophelia" positively, while comparing its musical influences and style to The Lumineers' earlier hit, "Ho Hey". In a negative review Brunna Pimentel wrote for The Edge, she claimed to be disappointed with the song, stating that it "might have been an okay track for the middle of the album," but "as a single, it is undoubtedly anti-climatic." Pimentel also criticized the song for its "repetitive" chorus.
Music video
The official music video was directed by Isaac Ravishankara, and released via the Lumineers' YouTube and Vevo accounts on February 12, 2016. As of January 2019, it has gained over 100 million views.
''The Ballad of Cleopatra''
The Ballad of Cleopatra is a compilation of the story in the music videos for "Ophelia", "Cleopatra", "Sleep on the Floor", "Angela" and "My Eyes", all songs from the album Cleopatra. The video was released on the Lumineers YouTube channel on April 27, 2017.
Live performances
On April 7, 2016, the Lumineers performed "Ophelia" on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. The Lumineers also performed the song on Good Morning America on April 13, their first time on the show. A live performance of the song at the iHeartRadio music theater in Los Angeles was aired on Audience Network at 9pm on April 8.
Track listing
Personnel
Wesley Schultz – lead vocals, songwriting, tambourine, stomping
