"Fly Away" is a song by Trinidadian-German musician

Haddaway Nestor Alexander Haddaway (born 9 January 1965) is a Trinidadian-born German singer best known for his 1993 hit single "What Is Love", which reached number 1 in 13 countries. Early life Nestor Alexander Haddaway was born in Trinidad and Tobago ...

, released on May 29, 1995 by Scorpio and

Polygram PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...

as the lead single from his second album, ''

The Drive The Drive was an offensive series in the fourth quarter of the 1986 AFC Championship Game played on January 11, 1987, at Cleveland Municipal Stadium between the Denver Broncos and Cleveland Browns. Broncos quarterback John Elway, in a span of 5 ...

'' (1995). It was written by

Dee Dee Halligan Tony Hendrik (born Dieter Lünstedt, 4 March 1945 in Bad Bederkesa, a.k.a. Dee Dee Halligan, Jimmy Tarsus) is a German music producer, composer, and owner of a record label. The most known artists and bands he has produced and composed for are Ba ...

, Richard W. Palmer-James and Junior Torello, and produced by Halligan and Torello. As with several of Haddaway's singles, another

CD maxi A maxi single or maxi-single (sometimes abbreviated to MCD or CDM) is a music single release with more than the usual two tracks of an A-side song and a B-side song. The first maxi singles Mungo Jerry's first single, "In the Summertime" was the ...

was commercialized a few months after the first release. The song was a number-one hit in Finland and a top-10 hit in Denmark, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The music video for "Fly Away" features the singer in a prison cell.

Chart performance

"Fly Away" went on becoming a notable hit on the charts across Europe, although it didn't reach the same level of success as his first singles. It peaked at number-one in Finland and on the

European Dance Radio Chart The European Dance Radio Chart (also known as European Dance Radio Top 25) was a weekly chart compiled by pan-European magazine ''Music & Media''. After dance music had played a more dominant role on the magazine's Eurochart Hot 100 in the beginnin ...

, and entered the top 10 also in Denmark (9), Italy (5), Lithuania, the Netherlands (9) and Switzerland (9). Additionally, the single was a top-20 hit in Austria (16), Belgium (15), Scotland (18), Sweden (14) and the United Kingdom, as well as on the

Eurochart Hot 100 The European Hot 100 Singles was compiled by '' Billboard'' and ''Music & Media'' magazine from March 1984 until December 2010. The chart was based on national singles sales charts in 17 European countries: Austria, Belgium (two charts separately ...

, where it reached number 17 in May 1995. On the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, "Fly Away" reached its highest position as number 20 in its first week on the chart, on June 18, 1995. It also peaked at number 25 on the

UK Dance Singles Chart The UK Dance Singles Chart and the UK Dance Albums Chart are music charts compiled in the United Kingdom by the Official Charts Company from sales of songs in the dance music genre (e.g. house, trance, drum and bass, garage, synthpop) in record s ...

and number 13 on the ''

Record Mirror ''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper between 1954 and 1991 for pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after the ''NME'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK album chart was published in ''Re ...

'' UK on a Pop Tip Club Chart.

Critical reception

James Hamilton from British magazine ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

s ''RM'' Dance Update described "Fly Away" as a "unhurried crooned Euro galloper". Paul Moody from ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' said it "is the sort of tedious Euroslush you'd expect minus the existential angst that made '

What Is Love "What Is Love (Baby Don't Hurt Me)" is a song recorded by Trinidadian-German Eurodance artist Haddaway for his debut album, ''The Album (Haddaway album), The Album'' (1993). The song was released in 1993 as the album's lead single. It was a hit ...

' so groovy."

Music video

In the music video for "Fly Away", Haddaway appears sitting alone in a prison cell. On the wall is a picture of a beach. He reads some lines in an old book, then the camera appears flying over a desert landscape. A naked Haddaway runs through this landscape, where he meets a white horse, smells some flowers and bathes in a waterfall. These dreamy outdoor scenes have a bluish tone. As he keeps running, he reaches a beach, where the waves crashes against the shore. It appears to be the same beach from the picture on the wall in his cell. The video was later made available on

Coconut Records Coconut Records is a German record label formed in 1981 by producers Tony Hendrik and Karin Hartmann. The label has released multiple genres of music, including dance, schlager, eurodance, electronica, Hi-NRG, Dance-pop and R&B. Artists ...

official

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel in 2012.

Track listings

* CD single # "Fly Away" (radio edit) — 4:04 # "Fly Away" (extended version) — 6:43 * CD maxi (14 April 1995) # "Fly Away" (radio edit) — 4:04 # "Fly Away" (extended version) — 6:43 # "Fly Away" (hyper space mix) — 6:23 # "Fly Away" (maxi-flight-remix) — 5:25 # "Fly Away" (development corporation mix) — 6:50 * CD maxi - Remixes (12 June 1995) # "Fly Away" (Tinman's mile high mix) — 6:11 # "Fly Away" (

sequential one André Tanneberger (; born 26 February 1973), better known by his stage name ATB, is a German DJ, musician, and producer of trance music. According to the official world DJ rankings governed by ''DJ Magazine'', ATB was ranked No. 11 in 2009 and ...

club house remix) — 5:00 # "Fly Away" ("side by side" mix) — 6:08

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fly Away (Haddaway Song) 1995 singles 1995 songs Eurodance songs Haddaway songs House music songs Number-one singles in Finland Songs written by Richard Palmer-James Songs written by Tony Hendrik