"Fortunate" is a

neo soul Neo soul (sometimes called progressive soul) is a genre of popular music. As a term, it was coined by music industry entrepreneur Kedar Massenburg during the late 1990s to market and describe a style of music that emerged from Soul music, soul ...

song from the 1999 motion picture ''

Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

'' and was released on the film's

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

. The song was written, composed, produced and arranged by R. Kelly and recorded by

Maxwell Maxwell may refer to: People * Maxwell (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name ** James Clerk Maxwell, mathematician and physicist * Justice Maxwell (disambiguation) * Maxwell baronets, in the Baronetage of N ...

. "Fortunate" was awarded Best R&B Single of the Year at the

Billboard Music Award The ''Billboard'' Music Awards are honors given out annually by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'', a publication covering the music business and a Billboard charts, music popularity chart. The ''Billboard'' Music Awards show has been held annu ...

and Best R&B/Soul Single (Male) at

Soul Train Music Awards The Soul Train Music Awards is an annual music awards ceremony which honors the best in African-American culture, music and entertainment. It is produced by the production company of '' Soul Train'', the program from which it takes its name, and ...

. Maxwell was nominated for a Grammy for Best R&B Male Vocalist and also nominated for a

Blockbuster Entertainment Awards The Blockbuster Entertainment Awards was a film awards ceremony, founded by Blockbuster Entertainment, Inc., that ran from 1995 until 2001, and ended with the decision to cancel the 2002 awards following concerns after the September 11 attacks. ...

for Favorite Song of the Year. The song, Maxwell's biggest hit to date, spent eight weeks at number one on the US R&B chart and peaked at number four on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It is his first number-one R&B hit, eventually followed by " Pretty Wings" in 2009. According to R. Kelly, Maxwell didn't want to sing "Fortunate". Instead, he wanted to sing the song "

" - which Kelly gave to

K-Ci & JoJo K-Ci & JoJo is an American R&B duo, consisting of brothers Cedric "K-Ci" Hailey (born September 2, 1969) and Joel "JoJo" Hailey (born June 10, 1971). Natives of Charlotte, North Carolina, they are also the lead singers of the chart-topping R& ...

. Kelly rejected Maxwell's idea because he felt that the neo-soul singer wouldn't have been believable singing a song from the perspective of a prison inmate.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{authority control 1999 singles Songs written by R. Kelly Songs written for films Music videos directed by Francis Lawrence 1998 songs Columbia Records singles Song recordings produced by R. Kelly Maxwell (musician) songs Contemporary R&B ballads Soul ballads 1990s ballads

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

See also

References