Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith founded the English pop rock group Tears for Fears in Bath, Somerset, in 1981. Tears for Fears, a new wave synthesizer band that achieved international chart success in the early 1980s, was formed following the breakup of their previous band, the mod-influenced Graduate.
The Hurting, the group’s debut album, peaked at number one on the UK Albums Chart in 1983, and the band’s first three hit singles, “Mad World,” “Change,” and “Pale Shelter,” all debuted in the top five of the UK Singles Chart. Their second album, Songs from the Big Chair (1985), which was a part of the MTV-driven Second British Invasion of the US, peaked at number one on the US Billboard 200 and was certified multi-platinum in both the UK and the US. “Shout” and “Everyone Wants to Control the World,” which both peaked in the UK’s top five and the latter of which won the Brit Award for Best British Single in 1986, were both number-one songs on the Billboard Hot 100.
The Ivor Novello Award for ‘Outstanding Song Collection’ was given to Orzabal and Smith in 2021 in recognition of their “era-defining Tears for Fears albums” and “critically hailed, inventive hit singles.”
