The song was released as a CD single in Japan on February 24, 1999. It was the first song in video game history to win an award at the 14th Annual Japan Gold Disc Awards, where it won "Song of the Year " in 2000. It sold over 500,000 copies, placing it as the best-selling video game music disc ever released in Japan until the release of "Hikari" by Utada Hikaru for Kingdom Hearts. The B-side was a ballad, "Red Beans", composed by Jim Lau with Mandarin lyrics by Lin Xi. The Japanese title for it was "Akashia no Mi". It had been included in Faye Wong's 1998 album Sing and Play, along with a Cantonese version "Repayment", and was popular in its own right.
Near the end of the production of Final Fantasy VII, the developers suggested to use a singer, but abandoned the idea due to a lack of reasoning based on the game's theme and storyline. However, Nobuo Uematsu thought a ballad would closely relate to the theme and characters of Final Fantasy VIII. This resulted in the game's developers sharing "countless" artists, eventually deciding on Faye Wong, a Chinese vocalist. Uematsu claims "her voice and mood seem to match my image of the song exactly", and that her ethnicity "fits the international image of Final Fantasy". After negotiations were made, "Eyes on Me" was recorded in Hong Kong with an orchestra. The lyrics, written in imperfect English, unveil the hopes of a night club singer for romance with a member of her audience: Within Final Fantasy VIII, the song is written by Julia Heartilly, a pianist who is a love interest of Laguna Loire. It is heard repeatedly throughout the game in various incarnations as an instrumental piece, including a version entitled Julia. Its full version is heard during a moment between Squall Leonhart and Rinoa Heartilly—the main protagonists—on board the Ragnarok. It is played once more during the game's ending. The song was popular among gamers in the West, and brought Faye Wong to the attention of many who were not previously familiar with her music.
Other versions
A happy hardcore remix was recorded for the 2000 Dancemania compilation Speed 4., and on the first greatest hits compilation of the Dancemania Speed series. There is another dance remix of the song made by Almighty, later included on the Japanese release of Wong's 2000 album Fable, Dancemania X5, and Dancemania Diamond Complete Edition In 2004, a version by Manami Kiyota entitled "Summer Album" with Japanese lyrics by Kazushige Nojima was included on . The original song was also covered by Angela Aki for release on her 2006 single "Kokoro no Senshi", with minor grammatical changes. In an Excite Japan interview, Aki reports composer Nobuo Uematsu as saying her version 'shed light on "Eyes on Me"'. Covers by Kanon and Susan Calloway have also been made; these singers have also collaborated with Nobuo Uematsu on The Last Story and Final Fantasy XIV respectively. A Korean language version of the song was covered by the singer MayBee.
