Mystery of Love

"Mystery of Love"
A background displaying waterfalls in Bergamo, Italy, with actors Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer hiking in the background and foreground, respectively.
Cover art for 10" single
Single by Sufjan Stevens
from the album Call Me by Your Name: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
B-side
  • "Visions of Gideon"
  • "Futile Devices" (Doveman Remix)
Released1 December 2017
GenreAcoustic
Length4:08
LabelSelf-released
Songwriter(s)Sufjan Stevens
Producer(s)Thomas Bartlett
Sufjan Stevens singles chronology
"Venus"
(2017)
"Mystery of Love"
(2017)
"Tonya Harding"
(2017)
Music video
"Mystery of Love" on YouTube

"Mystery of Love" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens and produced by Thomas Bartlett. It was self-released digitally, under license to Madison Gate Records and Sony Classical, on 1 December 2017. Luca Guadagnino, director of the 2017 film Call Me by Your Name, approached the singer to contribute to the film as a narrator, but Stevens declined and agreed to record an original song instead. Stevens was granted full creative control during the songwriting process and received inspiration from the film's script and André Aciman's novel of the same name. An acoustic song, the lyrics describe romance and allude to the relationship between film characters Elio and Oliver. They also make several references to the state of Oregon, birds, and Christianity.

A music video for the track was released on 4 January 2018, on Pitchfork's YouTube channel. It contains clips from the film and footage of artwork recorded at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples. The song was featured in the trailer for the movie and during a scene in the film where Elio and Oliver go hiking in Bergamo. It was featured on the film's official soundtrack in addition to two other Stevens-penned songs ("Futile Devices" and "Visions of Gideon"). Critical response to the song was generally positive.

"Mystery of Love" was nominated for awards at several ceremonies, including the Critics' Choice Movie Awards, Georgia Film Critics Association, and Guild of Music Supervisors Awards. It was also nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The song also received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 61st ceremony.[1] Commercially, "Mystery of Love" entered Billboard's Hot Rock Songs chart in the United States and reached the main record charts in France, Hungary, Portugal, and Scotland.

  1. ^ "61st Annual GRAMMY Awards". Archived from the original on 7 December 2018. Retrieved 7 December 2018.