"Heaven Is a Place on Earth" is a single by American singer Belinda Carlisle from her second studio album, Heaven on Earth (1987). Written by Rick Nowels and Ellen Shipley, the song was released as the lead single from the album on September 14, 1987, and it reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 on December 5, 1987, becoming Carlisle's first and only US chart-topper. A month later, it peaked at number one in the United Kingdom, where it held the top spot of the UK Singles Chart for two weeks. In Australia, it peaked at number 2. It is considered to be Carlisle's signature song.
The song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1988, but lost out to Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)". In 2017, ShortList's Dave Fawbert listed the song as containing "one of the greatest key changes in music history".
In 2015, Carlisle re-recorded the song as an acoustic ballad. This version appeared on her album Wilder Shores (2017), which combines acoustic tracks with world beats and traditional Sikh chants.
Contents
Composition
Sheet music for "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" sets the key of E major (D major for the pre-chorus), with a tempo of 123 beats per minute in common time (sheet music originally published in the key of A major). Carlisle's vocals span from E3 to D♯5. During the final chorus of the song, the key modulates to F♯ major.
Production
Carlisle's backup vocalists on the song include songwriters Nowels and Shipley as well as Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas, Chynna Phillips of Wilson Phillips, and songwriter Diane Warren. It also features Thomas Dolby on synthesizers.
Critical reception
A review in Pan-European magazine Music & Media described "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" as being "a truly uplifting song, sporting an enjoyable and irresistible chorus". Jerry Smith of British magazine Music Week deemed the song a "glossy, and ultimately very commercial, number", and a potential hit. Reviewing the song in 2021, Tom Breihan of Stereogum described the track as a "simple, straightforward love song built around terms so overstated that they cross over into actual religious territory,” awarding it a score of 7 out of 10.
Chart performance
"Heaven Is a Place on Earth" reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number seven on the Adult Contemporary chart. It was also a number-one hit in the United Kingdom, topping the UK Singles Chart for two weeks. The single also reached number one in many other countries, among them Switzerland, Ireland, Zimbabwe, Sweden, South Africa and Norway. It also reached number three in Germany and Canada, number two in Australia, and number six in Italy. It reached gold status in Canada and platinum status in the United Kingdom.
Music video
The promotional music video for the song was directed by actress Diane Keaton. It includes an appearance by Carlisle's husband Morgan Mason. It features children wearing black masks and capes, and holding illuminated plastic globes. Carlisle appears wearing a strapless dress and later changes to a black off-the-shoulder blouse. The video was partially filmed at Six Flags Magic Mountain theme park in Valencia, California (now Santa Clarita, California), on the now-defunct Spin Out ride.
In popular culture
The song appears in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997), Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008), Love & Other Drugs (2010), the Black Mirror episode "San Junipero" (2016), season 2 episode 6 of Dark (2017), and it is sung by the protagonist June Osbourne in the Handmaid's Tale episode "Heroic" (2019).
The song is referenced in Lana Del Rey's 2011 debut single "Video Games". The artist as well as the song are referenced in "Belinda Says", from Canadian band Alvvays' 2022 album Blue Rev.
The song was later included in the jukebox musical Head over Heels that used the Go-Go's music in addition to two of Carlisle's solo tracks. The musical debuted on Broadway in 2018.