page_title: Saving Light
section_title: Writing and production
hierarchical_section_title: Saving Light / Writing and production
caption_attribution_description: English: Photos by Charito Yap.
context_page_description: "Saving Light" is a song by English trance producers Gareth Emery and Standerwick, featuring vocals from Haliene. Roxanne Emery, Haliene, Matthew Steeper, and Karra wrote the song. It premiered in June 2016, during the Electric Daisy Carnival music festival and was digitally released on 30 January 2017. "Saving Light" is an uplifting trance song with lyrics about standing up to bullying and supporting victims by being their "saving light". Monstercat released the song as part of an initiative called "Make Trance No. 1 Again". Their goal was to encourage fans to purchase "Saving Light" on Beatport to support Ditch the Label and get the song to the top of the Beatport charts; this was achieved on 16 February 2017.
  Critical response to "Saving Light" was positive: critics praised Haliene's vocal performance and the song's composition. The song was voted the 2017 Tune of the Year on Armin van Buuren's radio show A State of Trance and the Best Original Trance track of 2017 by the r/EDM subreddit. "Saving Light" was featured on Monstercat 030 – Finale, released on 22 February 2017. Armada Music later re-released it as part of A State of Trance 2017.
context_section_description: Gareth Emery arranged Roxanne Emery, Haliene, Matthew Steeper, and Karra for a writing session in his home studio. Gareth Emery was not able to attend however and instead gave them a demo that he and Standerwick had been working on beforehand. Roxanne Emery suggested that they write a song about suicide; the lyrics were written in under an hour.
  Haliene provided vocals for the song; she explained its conception and depressing lyrical matter to Lisa-sun Nguyen of EDM Identity: "My whole goal is to bring more love and light to this world through my music, encourage people, and encourage togetherness. Coming out of dark places like I have got me thinking, 'How can we spin this?'"
  The four wrote the song around a chorus played by Steeper on piano. Haliene sang the song to Gareth Emery and he believed it would be "a really special song." Once the vocals were complete, Emery and Standerwick tried different musical styles for six months before settling on a classic trance interpretation. Standerwick and Emery produced 20 instrumentals of "Saving Light", some of which included an electronic dance music (EDM) drop and a dubstep section. Emery tested each version in DJ sets before the song was completed.
caption: Emery (pictured) co-produced the song.
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