Close My Eyes Forever

"Close My Eyes Forever" is a collaboration between New York-based singer-songwriters Amy Marshall and Esmeralda Dimuzio. The song was released as the first single from Amy's third studio album Morbid Lullabies and Esmeralda's greatest hits collection.

Song information
The song was originally a hit for Lita Ford and Ozzy Osbourne (who both co-wrote the song), becoming the first top 10 hit for both singers in 1989.

Esmeralda has had experience with collaborations, having released a quartet of duet singles between the months of January and July 2006, and has also worked with Amy before, contributing two songs to her self-titled debut album. She wanted to do a cover song to release as the lead for her greatest hits collection, and then Amy suggested a cover of this song before the two eventually decided on working together on the project.

Amy vs. Essie Controversy
Amy developed a hard partying lifestyle before full-time promo began, getting drunk and smoking pot at nightclubs. Esmeralda's attempts to get Amy to snap out of it failed, as Amy began publicly putting Essie down at every possible opportunity.

Amy offered to reconcile with Esmeralda and give up her heavy drinking, but three days later, was arrested for drunk driving. Amy avoided a long sentence thanks to, of all people, Esmeralda - due to a clause in the Alias Records contract called the Monopoly Clause, all artists signed to Alias are given one get out of jail free pass, and Esmeralda, being the responsible label boss she is, used hers to free Amy so she can return to promotion.

Esmeralda got too involved in the matter and her friendship with Amy suffered; the two refused to do promotional appearances together and did not meet together on the video shoot, instead the two were digitally spliced together in some scenes. Also, after the single's charting Amy left Esmeralda's label Alias and signed with Wired Records.

"Leave Me Be" on Amy's Morbid Lullabies and "The Only One To Blame" on Esmeralda's Greatest Hits share each respective artist's thoughts on the feud.

Post-feud
Amy and Esmeralda quietly patched up their feud in early 2008. Esmeralda covered "Don't Turn Your Back", a single she wrote for Amy early in her career, as a B-side to her comeback single "False Hopes". In March 2009, Amy performed "Close My Eyes Forever" with Esmeralda during her support set on opening night of Romo's tour Belle's Ball; earlier that day, the three acts were just few of the many to participate in the SAVE URAPS recording sessions. "Bang!", the lead single from Amy's following album, was released against Esmeralda's "Product Of The Past", which defeated Amy by a close margin to take the #1 spot. The follow-up to "Bang!" was "Why I Drink", a reflective song focusing on the foolishness of Amy's ways during the feud. Esmeralda accepted Amy's invitation to appear in the song's music video.

Track listings
CD1 1. Close My Eyes Forever (Album Version) 2. Close My Eyes Forever (Radio Edit) 3. Bad Boyfriend (Live) CD2 1. Close My Eyes Forever (Radio Edit) 2. Close My Eyes Forever (Ben's Blindside Beat Remix) 3. Close Those Wicked Eyes (Tika Vs. Amy/Essie) 4. Close My Eyes Forever (Jace Clemson's Blind is Beautiful Mix)

Music video
Filming for the "Close My Eyes Forever" video began November 1, 2007. Amy and Esmeralda agreed to shoot in two separate locations.

The first part of the video sees Amy portraying a troubled starlet and Esmeralda as her motherly figure. After heavy drinking, Amy breaks a bathroom mirror, leading her to quarrel with a hotel maid. Esmeralda has a visitor over for dinner, but she's too distressed with Amy's situations to keep him entertained. Both Amy and Esmeralda's characters seem to realize they can't be with or without each other.

In the second part, Esmeralda enters a dark ballroom lobby, without knowing she is being watched by Amy, who looks upon her from a staircase. Esmeralda climbs up the steps and finds herself in an empty room where she discovers Amy has left. She follows a secret passageway out of the building as a split-screen shows Amy entering a stadium, apparently overcome by the stress of fighting with her rival. Amy and Esmeralda confront each other and engage in a war of words that escalates into a catfight - and the pair are caught by the hotel maid and Esmeralda's visitor. Amy finds herself displeased with people's attempts to change her so she charges towards Essie's friend and slams him to the wall. The video's ending sees Esmeralda staring at a mirror, seeing Amy's reflection. Essie turns and walks away while Amy's reflection simply disappears.

The video's director said the scene where Amy destroys the mirror upon seeing Esmeralda's face as the reflection was intended to pay homage to the video for Amy's 2005 single "Don't Turn Your Back", which was written by Esmeralda.

Chart performance
"Close My Eyes Forever" debuted at #3 on the Urapopstar Top 40 Singles Chart the week of December 2, 2007, in a close race between Jake, Jack Stevens, and Jon Farley's Children In Need single "Trendy Pop Boys" and Alesha and Neyssa's second collaborative single "Those Who Love Me Can Take The Train". It sold 69,691 copies in its first week, slightly higher sales than Amy's previous lead single "Teen Queens & iPod Dreams", which also entered at #3. The single provided Esmeralda with her best debut and first week sales since reaching #1 with her collaboration with Blush "Local Legend/Unbreakable" in March 2006.

The single has sold an impressive total of 322,270 copies - Amy's best seller and Esmeralda's third best. It became Amy's first and Esmeralda's sixth single to be awarded a platinum certification, a major accomplishment for both acts.

The song also reached #1 on the Urapopstar Airplay 40, becoming a record fifth #1 for Esmeralda, while Amy earned her fourth, tied for the second most airplay chart-toppers with Russ Hooch and Christine Tyler. Currently Esmeralda and Amy, along with China, tie the record with seven #1s apiece.