"Broken" is a song by South African rock band

Seether Seether are a South African rock band founded in 1999 in Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa. The band originally performed under the name Saron Gas until 2002, when they moved to the United States and changed it to Seether to avoid confusion wi ...

, first appearing on their debut album, ''

Disclaimer A disclaimer is generally any statement intended to specify or delimit the scope of rights and obligations that may be exercised and enforced by parties in a legally recognized relationship. In contrast to other terms for legally operative langua ...

'' (2002). It was reworked and recorded again in 2004, this time featuring American singer

Amy Lee Amy Lynn Hartzler (; born December 13, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She is the co-founder, lead vocalist, and lead songwriter of the rock band Evanescence. Alongside her contributions with the band, Lee has also particip ...

, the lead singer of

Evanescence Evanescence is an American rock band founded in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1995 by singer and musician Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody. After recording independent EPs as a duo in the late 90's, and a demo CD, Evanescence released their de ...

and then-girlfriend of Seether vocalist

Shaun Morgan Shaun Morgan Welgemoed (, born 21 December 1978) is a South African musician. He is the singer, songwriter, and guitarist for the rock band Seether. Early life Morgan spent most of his early life in South Africa.Bottomley, CSeether: South Af ...

. It was included on the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

to the 2004

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Comics'' in 19 ...

superhero film ''

The Punisher The Punisher (Francis "Frank" Castle, born Castiglione) is an antihero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Gerry Conway and artists John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru. The Punisher mad ...

'', and was also on Seether's second studio album, ''

Disclaimer II ''Disclaimer II'' is the second studio album by South African rock band Seether. It is a recompilation of the band's first album, ''Disclaimer'', from 2002. Although the 12 tracks from the original album are present, they have been slightly rem ...

''. Released as a single on 19 April 2004, "Broken" peaked at number 20 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, number three in Australia, and number two in New Zealand. It was later certified Platinum by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/ ...

(RIAA) and the

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replac ...

(ARIA). It is the band's biggest pop hit and is often considered Seether's most popular track, as well as their only song to enter and crossover to the US pop and

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

charts, but it is not their highest-charting single on the

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 i ...

chart and

Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...

chart. Despite this, it was the most played song on most rock radio formats due to the pop success of the song. In addition, it still charted highly, peaking at number nine on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and number four on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. Shaun Morgan wrote the song about the breakup of his marriage and family, after his wife chose to remain in South Africa with their daughter rather than accompany him to live in the United States.
''VH1'', 12 May 2017. Accessed 12 January 2018.

Critical reception

While reviewing ''

'', Jason D. Taylor of the website

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

noted, "The album closes with the one successful laid-back song: 'Broken' is mellow yet confident, as vocalist

finds the courage to open himself up without releasing a scream every few seconds." The song earned Seether a ''

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'' Readers' Choice Award in 2004, when it was voted "Best Song from a Movie Soundtrack".

Music video

Directed by

Nigel Dick Nigel Dick (born 21 March 1953) is a British music video and film director, writer and musician from Catterick, England, now based in Los Angeles, California. He directed the Britney Spears videos " ...Baby One More Time" and " Oops!... I Did I ...

, the video features Morgan sitting in an abandoned car playing an acoustic guitar while

, wearing black angel wings, appears behind him as her vocals fade in. For the rest of the video, Lee and Morgan wander through a dilapidated landscape that was revealed on the ''

'' DVD to be a real-life trailer park that was burned to ashes by a

crystal meth Methamphetamine (contracted from ) is a potent central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational drug and less commonly as a second-line treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obesity. Methamph ...

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explosion. Although there are shots of the band and Lee performing together in a clearing, the underlying theme of the video is that Lee and Morgan are looking for but will never find each other. Lee knows that Morgan is there and where he is throughout the video but Morgan is unaware of her presence around him, which explains the lyrics "you've gone away... you don't feel me here anymore".

Track listings

US, European, and Australian maxi-CD single # "Broken" (featuring Amy Lee) # "69 Tea" # "Something in the Way" ("Live X" session at 99X, Atlanta) # "Out of My Way" # "Broken" (video) European CD single # "Broken" featuring Amy Lee – 4:18 # "Out of My Way" – 3:51 European mini-CD single # "Broken" featuring Amy Lee (album version) – 4:18 # "Got It Made" – 5:10

Credits and personnel

Credits are taken from the ''

'' liner notes. Studios * Recorded and mixed at Henson Recording Studio (Hollywood, California) * Mastered at The Lodge (New York City) Personnel *

– writing (as Shaun Welgemoed), vocals, guitar *

Dale Stewart Dale William Stewart (born 30 November 1979) is a South African musician, best known as the bass guitarist for the South African rock band Seether Seether are a South African rock band founded in 1999 in Pretoria, Gauteng, South Afric ...

– writing, bass, vocals * Amy Lee – featured vocals, string arrangement * Pat Callahan – additional guitars * John Humphrey – drums * Double G – string arrangement *

Bob Marlette Robert Roy Marlette (born December 7, 1955) is an American record producer, recording engineer, mixer, and songwriter. His production, writing and mixing credits include David Lee Roth, Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie, Sebastian Bach ...

– production, mixing, engineering * Dan "I Love the Metric System!" Certa – recording engineer * Alex Gibson – recording engineer (strings) * Jeremy Parker – assistant recording engineer * Jeff Moses – assistant recording engineer * Sid Riggs –

Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture ( sound design, audio post-prod ...

recording and mix engineering * Jon Berkowitz – assistant mix engineering *

Emily Lazar Emily B. Lazar is an American mastering engineer. She is the founder, president, and chief mastering engineer of The Lodge, an audio mastering facility that has operated in New York City's Greenwich Village since 1997. She won a Grammy Award fo ...

– mastering

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Broken (Seether Song) 2004 singles 2004 songs Amy Lee songs Epic Records singles Male–female vocal duets Music videos directed by Nigel Dick The Punisher (2004 film) Seether songs Song recordings produced by Bob Marlette Songs written by Dale Stewart Songs written by Shaun Morgan Wind-up Records singles