making its debut during the album's accompanying set of concerts, the Music Box Tour. The song was included on several of Carey's compilation albums, #1's (1998), Greatest Hits (2001), The Ballads (2008), and #1 to Infinity (2015). Throughout the course of her career, Carey has re-recorded the song twice, and filmed other music videos, aside from the original. The first music video for the song was filmed by Larry Jordan in July 1993, during a private concert at Proctor's Theatre, later released on the home video Here Is Mariah Carey. In 2001, following the September 11 attacks, Carey re-recorded the song as a mash-up single titled "Never Too Far/Hero Medley", a medley with her single at the time, "Never Too Far". Additionally, prior to the release of her compilation album The Ballads, Carey re-recorded "Hero" and filmed a new video featuring behind the scenes footage of the studio. "Hero" won two ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards, one ASCAP Pop Music Award and one BMI Pop Award for the Songwriter Award. The song has been covered many times during both studio and live recordings, such as on global singing competitions. Background Mariah Carey's second studio album, Emotions (1991), contained influences from mostly 1950s, 1960s and 1970s balladry and gospel, as well as her continued work of R&B and soul. The album, while praised by some as more mature and raw, failed to reach the critical or commercial heights of her debut effort, and could not introduce Carey to a different market. Following these events, Columbia decided to market the singer in a similar fashion to her debut, only have her produce a more commercial and radio-friendly album. Their plans were to tone down Carey's vocals, and soften the album's production, leaving a more contemporary pop record. Agreeing to the change, Carey and producer Walter Afanasieff began writing and recording material for her third studio effort, Music Box (1993). The B-side for the single, Everything Fades Away, was never included on the Music Box album, and was not performed by Carey for years until the early 2020 leg of her The Butterfly Returns residency, when she performed parts of the song with her background singers and singer JoJo as part of a series of snippet videos recorded for her fans. The song was later included in her 2020 compilation, The Rarities Writing and recording Aside from her work as a vocalist