Hero

"Hero" is a song by Doro, the closing track from her 12th studio album Raise Your Fist and the album's third song to chart on Jessica's Top 40. It was written as a tribute to legendary heavy metal vocalist Ronnie James Dio, who died May 2010 of stomach cancer. "Hero" debuted the second week of December 2012 and reached #1 on January 27, 2013, becoming Doro's second chart-topper and first since "Herzblut" in 2009; it also continues the streak of every charting song by or about Dio peaking within the top 2.

The death of Ronnie James Dio, legendary hard rock and heavy metal vocalist, left a devastating void in the world of rock and roll. As one of my personal favorite artists and one of the very few who has not released one song I did not like, Dio has proven to be such a strong artist in my eyes that not only has he achieved success on his own on my chart, but songs about him have also gone on to achieve chart success. White Lion or its lead singer Mike Tramp probably would have never charted on Jessica's Top 40, but Tramp managed to do so because of a tribute to Dio that was true to Dio's sound, which peaked at #2 in 2010.

But what happens when one of my core artists does a Dio tribute song?

Doro's Raise Your Fist era was off to a decent start thanks to the moderate performance of its lead single "Raise Your Fist In The Air" and the top 3 success of the German-language "Engel", but it was her tribute to Dio, "Hero", that brought her back to superstar territory on Jessica's Top 40. The song, like Tramp's tribute "Hymn To Ronnie", musically stays true to the powerful, guitar-driven sound of Dio's music, with the lyrics describing Dio's influence on the heavy metal genre and the joy his music brings to metal fans. Both songs also mention Dio song titles in the lyrics; the first verse of "Hero" references "Rainbow In The Dark" and "Mystery", two of his most popular songs with his self-titled band Dio.

"Hero" quickly climbed up Jessica's Top 40 upon its debut in the middle of December 2012, and by the end of January it became Doro's second #1 hit, coming almost four years after her first, "Herzblut". "Hero" spent two weeks at #1 and went on to attain strong longevity in the top 3, giving Doro one of the first monster hits of 2013. It was perhaps fitting that "Hero" succeeded another song with a Dio connection. Alanis Morissette's "Receive" reached #1 a little over a month after Alanis donated a signed guitar to help raise money for the Ronnie James Dio Cancer Fund.