"This Time I Know It's for Real" is a song by American singer-songwriter Donna Summer, released on February 13, 1989, as the first single from her 14th studio album, Another Place and Time (1989), by Atlantic Records and Warner Bros. Records.
Like the rest of the album, the song was written and produced by the British Stock Aitken Waterman team, though Summer also had a hand in writing this song.
The song became Summer's biggest hit in the United Kingdom since the 1970s (during which time she had been the most popular female disco artist), reaching number three and spending a total of 14 weeks in the UK Singles Chart top 75, longer than any of her other singles there.
It also reached number seven in both the United States and Canada, becoming her 14th and final US top-10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as the last top-40 hit of Summer's career. The song was also successful on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary chart, peaking at number two.
This was Summer's first US single to be released on Atlantic Records. Since 1980 she had been signed to Geffen Records but her work across Europe had always been distributed by Warner Bros.' main label.
This would continue to be the case following her signing to Atlantic.