Roland Orzabal

b. 1961 · English musician and songwriter

Roland Orzabal (b. 1961) wrote ‘Mad World’ as one half of Tears for Fears, and it remained his song through every reinterpretation. When the Gary Jules cover topped the UK chart in 2003, it earned Orzabal a second Ivor Novello Award for a song he had written twenty-one years earlier — a reminder that the writer, not the famous performer, is the constant across all the versions.

Who recorded it

Songs written by Roland Orzabal

Mad World

Written by them — first recorded by Tears for Fears

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