"Somewhere I Belong" is a song by American
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
Linkin Park. It was released to US radio on February 24, 2003, as the first single from their second studio album, ''
Meteora
The Meteora (; el, Μετέωρα, ) is a rock formation in central Greece hosting one of the largest and most precipitously built complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries, second in importance only to Mount Athos.Sofianos, D.Z.: "Metéora". ...
'' (2003), and is the album's third track. It entered the top ten on several music charts, including the
New Zealand Singles Chart
The Official New Zealand Music Chart ( mi, Te Papa Tātai Waiata Matua o Aotearoa) is the weekly New Zealand top 40 singles and albums charts, issued weekly by Recorded Music NZ (formerly Recording Industry Association of New Zealand). The Music ...
, where it peaked at 1 in April 2003.
Commercial performance
Warner Bros. Records officially released "Somewhere I Belong" to American
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
radio formats on February 24, 2003.
The song debuted at No. 47 on the US ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
''
Hot 100, peaked at No. 32 during its 15th week on the chart, and remained on the listing until its 20th week.
It also topped the ''Billboard''
Mainstream Rock Tracks
Mainstream Rock is a music chart in ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States, a category that combines the formats of active rock and heritage rock. The chart was launched in M ...
and
Modern Rock Tracks charts.
In Canada, the song reached the top five on the
Canadian Singles Chart
The Canadian Singles Chart was a chart compiled by the American-based music sales tracking company, Nielsen SoundScan, which began publication in November 1996. It was published every Wednesday and also published on Thursday by ''Jam!''/Canoe. It ...
, peaking at No. 3.
"Somewhere I Belong" was released in Australia and the United Kingdom on March 17, 2003.
In New Zealand, the song debuted at number 33 on April 6, 2003, and jumped to number one the following week, becoming Linkin Park's most successful single there.
It entered the top 10 in the Czech Republic,
Hungary,
Ireland,
and the United Kingdom,
and it was a top-20 success in Australia, Austria, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
It additionally reached the top 40 in France and Belgium (
Flanders and
Wallonia).
Music video
The video was directed by the band's turntablist,
Joseph Hahn. It presents the band playing the song in front of a fire, with occasional shots of Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda in front of a waterfall with what appears to be monks around them. The doors in what is supposedly Bennington's room have the Chinese characters for fire and water, which possibly represent the waterfall and burning fire behind Shinoda while rapping.
During the video, on a dresser sits several props, most notably, Master Grade
Gunpla
Gundam models, or , are model kits depicting the vehicles and characters of the fictional ''Gundam'' multiverse by Bandai.
These kits became popular among mecha anime fans and model enthusiasts in Japan and nearby Asian countries beginning in ...
models of the MSN-04 Sazabi from ''
Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack'', XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam Zero (EW Version) from ''
Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz'', and RX-78GP01-Fb Gundam "Zephyranthes" Full Burnern from ''
Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory''. At the last time they sing the chorus, the bed sets on fire, and forms the Hybrid Theory Soldier. Near the ending of the video, tall, long-legged, tusked creatures that were on a painting (reminiscent of
Salvador Dalí's ''
The Elephants'' and ''
The Temptation of St. Anthony'') behind Chester's bed march past, even at one point the creature paintings seemed to move before stopping again. It was awarded as Best Rock Video at the 2003
MTV Video Music Awards, and was the first music video broadcast on
Fuse TV
Fuse is an American pay television channel launched in 1994 which was originally dedicated to music. After merging with the Latino-oriented NuvoTV in 2015, Fuse shifted its focus to general entertainment and lifestyle programming targeting mult ...
.
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
's James Montgomery named the video as Linkin Park's fifth best, saying that while the video is "massive", he said "it's the minimal touches that make it one of their all-time best", and called the end result a "stirring, powerful piece".
As of January 2023, the song has 259 million views on
YouTube.
Track listing
CD single
7-inch vinyl
Personnel
Linkin Park
*
Chester Bennington
Chester Charles Bennington (March 20, 1976 – July 20, 2017) was an American singer and songwriter who was best known as the lead vocalist of rock band Linkin Park. He was also the lead vocalist of the bands Grey Daze, Dead by Sunrise, a ...
– lead vocals, additional guitar
*
Mike Shinoda
Michael Kenji Shinoda (; ja, 篠田 賢治, Shinoda Kenji; born February 11, 1977) is an American musician, singer, rapper, songwriter and record producer. He co-founded the rock band Linkin Park in 1996 and was the band's collaborative vocal ...
– rap vocals, rhythm guitar, piano, sampler
*
Brad Delson
Bradford Phillip Delson (born December 1, 1977) is an American musician, best known as the lead guitarist and one of the founding members of the rock band Linkin Park. – lead guitar
*
Dave "Phoenix" Farrell – bass guitar
*
Joe Hahn
Joseph Hahn (born March 15, 1977) is an American musician, DJ, director and visual artist best known as the DJ of the American rock band Linkin Park, doing the scratching, turntables, sampling, and programming for all seven of Linkin Park ...
–
turntables, samplers
*
Rob Bourdon
Robert Gregory Bourdon (born January 20, 1979) is an American musician, best known as the drummer and co-founding member of the American rock band Linkin Park.
Early life
Bourdon was born in Calabasas, California. He received classical piano l ...
– drums
Production
* Don Gilmore – producer
* Linkin Park – producer
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Release history
In other media
* The song was one of the three songs off of ''Meteora'' that played during ''
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers win at the
2003 MTV Movie Awards
The 2003 MTV Movie Awards was held on May 31, 2003 in Los Angeles. It was hosted by Seann William Scott and Justin Timberlake and featured performances by t.A.T.u., 50 Cent, and Pink. Colin Farrell was presented an award for Trans-Atlantic Breakth ...
. "Somewhere I Belong" played during "Best Movie" while "
From the Inside" and "
Faint" appeared during the nominee montage for "Best On-Screen Team" and "Best Action Sequence" respectively.
* Conservative commentator
Mark Levin's son selected the song's instrumental as the main bumper music theme for
his father's radio talk show.
* The song was also featured in a profile video for Jamaican sprinter
Usain Bolt at the
2008 Beijing Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...
.
* The instrumental version played in the opening video for the
AST Dew Tour
The Dew Tour is an extreme sports circuit organized by the Adventure Sports Group, a subsidiary of American Media, LLC.
History
The tour was announced in late 2004, and made its debut in Louisville, KY in June 2005. The tour then made stops ...
.
* In January 2011, "Somewhere I Belong" was released in a Linkin Park
DLC pack for ''
Rock Band 3''.
* The song was used for a promo of the ''
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are p ...
'' entitled "Chasing Big Cats".
* On November 18, 2013, a 2002 demo of this song, titled as "Pretty Birdy", is chosen and featured on ''
LP Underground XIII''.
*
Israel Adesanya used the song as his Walkout song during UFC 263.
References
{{Authority control
2002 songs
2003 singles
Linkin Park songs
Number-one singles in New Zealand
Songs written by Mike Shinoda
Warner Records singles