"Birmingham" is a song by Canadian pop-rock singer

Amanda Marshall Amanda Meta Marshall (born August 29, 1972) is a Canadian Juno award winning pop-rock singer and songwriter. She has released four studio albums; the first was certified diamond in Canada, with the second and third certified 3× platinum and p ...

. It was released in 1996 as the second single from her self-titled debut album. The song is her most successful single in Canada, reaching number three on the ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or r⋅min−1) is a unit of rotational speed (or rotational frequency) for rotating machines. One revolution per minute is equivalent to hertz. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 def ...

'' 100 Hit Tracks chart, and it became her only song to appear on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, peaking at number 43.

Music video

The song's music video, directed by

Jeth Weinrich Jeth Weinrich (born 1951) is a Canadian documentary filmmaker and music video and commercial director. Early life Weinrich was born in Pittsburgh in 1951 and grew up in Calgary; he was valedictorian of his graduating class at Viscount Bennett H ...

, mirrors the song's lyrics by featuring a woman fleeing from an abusive relationship - ostensibly, in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...

as per the title. Interspersed throughout the video are clips of

performing the song. Marshall chose for the video to focus on the woman instead of the man, wanting to create a candid storyline for the female protagonist. Wayne Isaak of

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

gave the video a positive review, calling the subject matter "empowering".

Track listings

Canadian CD single and US cassette single # "Birmingham" – 5:21 # "Let's Get Lost" – 4:13 European maxi-CD single # "Birmingham" (radio edit) – 4:09 # "Beautiful Goodbye" (live at The Spectrum) – 5:51 # "Promises" – 5:22 Australian maxi-CD single # "Birmingham" (radio edit) # "Birmingham" (album version) # " Let It Rain" (live) # "Fall from Grace" (live) # "Beautiful Goodbye" (This Could Take All Night) Japanese CD single # "Birmingham" (radio edit) # "Last Exit to Eden" (live at the

Spectrum A spectrum (: spectra or spectrums) is a set of related ideas, objects, or properties whose features overlap such that they blend to form a continuum. The word ''spectrum'' was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of co ...

, Montreal, Canada) # "Beautiful Goodbye" (live at the Spectrum, Montreal, Canada) # "Birmingham" (live at the Spectrum, Montreal, Canada)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control Amanda Marshall songs 1996 singles 1995 songs Epic Records singles Songs about Alabama Songs about cities in the United States Songs about domestic violence Songs written by David Tyson Songs written by Dean McTaggart