"I'm Like a Bird" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter

Nelly Furtado Nelly Kim Furtado (; ; born December 2, 1978) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. Furtado has sold over 40 million records worldwide making her one of the most successful Canadian artists. She first gained fame with her trip hop-inspired deb ...

. It was written by Furtado and produced by Gerald Eaton and Brian West for her debut studio album, ''

Whoa, Nelly! ''Whoa, Nelly!'' is the debut studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado. It was released in North America on October 24, 2000, by DreamWorks Records. Recording sessions for the album took place from 1999 to 2000. It peaked at num ...

'' (2000). Released as the album's first single, it became one of the most successful singles of 2001, peaking at number one in Portugal, number two in Australia and New Zealand, number five in the United Kingdom, and number nine in the United States. It was the eighth-most-played song on Canadian radio in 2001. In 2002, "I'm Like a Bird" was nominated for the

Grammy Award for Song of the Year The Grammy Award for Song of the Year is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. The Song of the Year award is one of the four most prestigious categories at t ...

and won the

Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance was a Grammy Award recognizing superior vocal performance by a female in the pop category, the first of which was presented in 1959. It was discontinued after the 2011 Grammy season. The awar ...

, making Furtado the first female act to win the award for her debut single since Mariah Carey did so ten years earlier and the last to be awarded to a Canadian in the category. It also won the Juno Award for Single of the Year in 2001.

Composition

"I'm Like a Bird" is composed

common time The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note val ...

in the key of

B♭ major B-flat major is a major scale based on B, with pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative minor is G minor and its parallel minor is B-flat minor. The B-flat major scale is: : Many transposing instr ...

.Sheet music for "I'm Like a Bird". Nelstar Publishing. 2001. The song moves at 90

beats per minute Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery ...

, and Furtado's voice spans around two octaves, from F₃ to F₅. It is written in verse-chorus form, with a

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

before the third chorus.

Furtado's response

In 2006, Furtado said of the song, "I've heard it sung at karaoke or by cover bands and it was awesome — I was like, wow, I've got one of those songs. Somebody once called it a 'hairbrush song', one that girls and guys sing in front of the mirror with their hairbrush. I just think I'm lucky I have it — it's paying the bills!".

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

for "I'm Like a Bird" was directed by

Francis Lawrence Francis Lawrence (born March 26, 1971) is an Austrian-born American filmmaker and producer. After establishing himself as a director of music videos and commercials, Lawrence made his feature-length directorial debut with the superhero thrille ...

, and features heavy use of CGI. The video begins in the sky where the camera slowly pans down onto Furtado, who is lying in the grass. It then shows her singing on a tree trunk in mid-air. In the chorus she gets up and starts singing to the camera while birds are flying around her. The second verse shows her sitting in mid-air in a forest, while singing to the camera. The chorus consists of flashes of Furtado singing in mid-air, again, while leaning on the tree trunk. During the bridge she is singing to a bug while her eyes change colour, which changes the bug's color accordingly. The conclusion of the video shows her falling backwards from a branch into a crowd as she sings the final chorus of the song. The last shot pans out to reveal a crowd of tens of thousands. There was an edited version of the music video for European VH1, where some scenes were changed.

Track listings

Credits and personnel

Credits are adapted from the ''

'' album booklet. Studios * Recorded and engineered at The Gymnasium (Toronto, Canada) and Can-Am Recorders (

Tarzana, Los Angeles Tarzana is a suburban neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Tarzana is on the site of a former ranch owned by author Edgar Rice Burroughs. It is named after Burroughs' fictional jungle hero, Tarzan. History ...

) * Mixed at Can-Am Recorders (Tarzana, Los Angeles) * Mastered at Classic Sound (New York City) Personnel * Nelly Furtado – writing, lead vocals, background vocals,

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

* Gerald Eaton – micro-synth guitar, programming, production *

Mike Elizondo Mike Elizondo (born October 22, 1972) is an American producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. A protege of Dr. Dre, Elizondo has worked with 50 Cent, Eminem, Carrie Underwood, Fiona Apple, Mastodon, Ry Cooder, Skylar Grey, Twenty ...

– bass guitar *

Russ Miller Russ Miller is an American session drummer.Flans, Robyn (May 2007)Russ Miller-Doing It All: Studio Vet, Touring Pro, Master Clinician, And Product Inventor ''Modern Drummer'', Retrieved December 8, 2010 Miller grew up in Ohio.vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist ...

* Brian West – production, programming, recording, engineering * Brad Haehnel –

pepper shaker Salt and pepper shakers or salt and pepper pots, of which the first item is normally called a salt cellar in British English, are condiment dispensers used in Western culture that are designed to allow diners to distribute grains of edible salt ...

, mixing, recording, engineering * John Knupp – second engineering * Scott Hull – mastering

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Notes

References

{{Authority control 1999 songs 2000 debut singles 2001 singles DreamWorks Records singles Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance Juno Award for Single of the Year singles Music videos directed by Francis Lawrence Nelly Furtado songs Number-one singles in Portugal Songs about birds Songs written by Nelly Furtado