Whole World Is Watching

According to music critics and lead vocalist Sharon den Adel, the song is the slowest one on Hydra.[7][8][9] Before the song was finished, the band was already considering inviting Dave Pirner to provide his vocals on the track by its "captivating" voice, turning the final result as the band thought that it should be.[10] The song premiered on the Polish national radio station Polskie Radio Program III. The Polish version of the song features the native singer Piotr Rogucki instead of Pirner.[4] A few days later, on 15 January 2014, the main version of the song, featuring Pirner, was released as a promotional song on Dutch and Belgian radio station Q-music.[5] According to the band's official Facebook account, a video for the song was shot on 20 November 2013.[11] A teaser trailer for the video was released on 24 January 2014 and the video was released on 31 January 2014, the same day of the Hydra release.[12]

Sharon den Adel's explanation of the song's lyrics;

["Whole World Is Watching"] is about setbacks. Sometimes when you finally get back from the setback in your life, the thing that has given you certain problems, you feel like everybody who was informed about the problem that you had – maybe it could be a physical problem or a disease or you've been struggling with a certain kind of thing – everybody who knows it is watching and mentally supporting you while you're reaching that moment that you stand up and you get over that problem. That's a very positive feeling, a feeling of empowerment, like everybody is watching you while you're getting to this finish line. You finally ran that marathon and you finally reached the finish line. That's what the song is about. That's the feeling that we wanted to grasp. If you had something to battle for, something you've been working so hard for, it is the song when you come back and when you finally made that moment come true.

— Sharon den Adel, Songfacts Interview[13]