John Lewis Christmas ad 2021: The story behind this year’s song, Together in Electric Dreams

You’ll be humming the song all Christmas long

The John Lewis Christmas advert is here, and with it comes another song you’ll be humming over the coming weeks.

This year’s ad is performed by Lola Young, a singer-songwriter from south London who began writing songs aged 11. You can read The Independent’s review of the track here.

Her song “Blind Love” has over 1.9 million listens  on Spotify, with her track “None For You” reaching nearly 1.8 million.

But, it’s her cover of “Together in Electric Dreams” that will introduce a new fanbase to her music.

The 1984 song was written by Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder for the soundtrack to the science-fiction film Electric Dreams, which was directed by Steve Barron.

It became a bigger hit than the film it was promoting, reaching number three in the UK singles chart. It remained there for 13 weeks.

Barron had previously directed the music video to “Don’t You Want Me” by The Human Legaue, the synthpop band Oakey was a part of.

“Together in Electric Dreams” is commonly, and incorrectly, credited as a Human League song, so much that the band often perform it as an encore at their gigs.

Giorgio Moroder co-wrote the song with Human League’s Philip Oakey (Getty Images)

Speaking about selecting Young for this year’s advert, a John Lewis spokesperson said: “Lola is a brilliant up and coming British talent.”

They added that she was “chosen for her rich and unique sound, which brings to life the magic of the advert and the friendship that develops on screen”.

Find our review of this year’s song here.