"Unwritten" is a song by English singer

Natasha Bedingfield Natasha Anne Bedingfield (born 26 November 1981) is a British singer and songwriter. Bedingfield released her debut album, '' Unwritten'', in 2004, which contained primarily up-tempo pop songs and was influenced by R&B music. It enjoyed intern ...

for her debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

of the same name. It was released in 2004 as the third single from the album. The song was written by Bedingfield,

Danielle Brisebois Danielle Anne Brisebois (born June 28, 1969) is an American producer, singer-songwriter and former child actress. She is best known for her role as Stephanie Mills on the Norman Lear-produced sitcoms ''All in the Family'' and its spin-off ''Arc ...

, and Wayne Rodrigues and produced by Rodrigues and Brisebois. The single was released as the album's third UK single and second US single (in September 2005). In 2006, "Unwritten" became the

theme song Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...

for the

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

series '' The Hills''. It reached number five on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, becoming her first top-ten hit in the United States.

Background

"Unwritten" was the most played song on US radio during 2006 as confirmed before her performance at the

Concert for Diana Concert for Diana was a benefit concert held at the newly built Wembley Stadium in London, United Kingdom in honour of Diana, Princess of Wales, on 1 July 2007, which would have been her 46th birthday. 31 August that year brought the 10th ann ...

, and as of March 2006, was certified

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...

in the U.S. The song is Bedingfield's most successful single in the US, along with "

Pocketful of Sunshine "Pocketful of Sunshine" is a song by English singer-songwriter Natasha Bedingfield. It was recorded on 3 May 2006 and released on 15 January 2008 as the second single from her second North American studio album of the same title (2008). Beding ...

"; both songs peaked at number five on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The song earned Bedingfield a Grammy nomination in

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 ...

at the 49th Grammy Awards and she was also included in the Grammy Nominees album of that year. She lost that nomination to

Christina Aguilera Christina María Aguilera (; ; born December 18, 1980) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and television personality. Known for her four-octave vocal range and ability to sustain high notes, she has been referred to as the " Voice of ...

's "

Ain't No Other Man "Ain't No Other Man" is a song by the American singer Christina Aguilera from her fifth studio album '' Back to Basics'' (2006). Aguilera co-wrote the song with Kara DioGuardi, Charles Martin Roane, Harold Beatty and the producer DJ Premier. "Ain ...

Commercial performance

"Unwritten" peaked at number five for two weeks on the Hot 100 and stayed in the chart for 38 weeks, thirteen of those inside the top ten, eventually appearing at number six on the 2006 Hot 100-year-end chart. Estimated sales in the United States for "Unwritten" are 2,731,000 as of June 2011. This was the third highest ranking for a female artist for 2006 behind "

Hips Don't Lie "Hips Don't Lie" is a Latin pop and reggaeton song by Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira, featuring Haitian rapper Wyclef Jean, released by Epic Records in 2006 as the second single from the reissue of Shakira's seventh studio album, ''Oral Fixa ...

" by

Shakira Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll ( , ; born 2 February 1977), professionally known by the mononym Shakira, is a Colombian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Barranquilla, she has been referred to as the " Queen of Latin Music" and is ...

and

Wyclef Jean Nel Ust Wyclef Jean (; born October 17, 1969) is a Haitian rapper, musician, and actor. At the age of nine, Jean immigrated to the United States with his family. He first achieved fame as a member of the New Jersey hip hop group the Fugees, a ...

, and "

Promiscuous Promiscuity is the practice of engaging in sexual activity frequently with different Sexual partner, partners or being indiscriminate in the choice of sexual partners. The term can carry a moral judgment. A common example of behavior viewed as pro ...

" by

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 ...

and

Timbaland Timothy Zachery Mosley (born March 10, 1972), known professionally as Timbaland, is an American record producer, rapper, singer, songwriter, and record executive. He has received widespread acclaim for his innovative production work and distinc ...

. The song also proved to be very popular in other radio formats in the United States. The Johnny Vicious and Hani Club Mixes peaked at number one on the Dance Club Play and number two on the Dance Radio Airplay chart, while the original version went to number two on the Adult Top 40 and spent ten weeks at number one on the Adult Contemporary chart. "Unwritten" was not as successful in the United Kingdom as her previous chart-topping hit "

These Words "These Words" (also known as "These Words (I Love You, I Love You)") is a song by British singer-songwriter Natasha Bedingfield. It was written by Steve Kipner, Andrew Frampton, Wayne Wilkins and Bedingfield for her 2004 debut album, '' Unwritt ...

", but made an impressive showing on the charts, peaking at number six. It is one of her few singles to peak higher in the US than in the UK.

Music videos

Two different

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 promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

s were made to promote the song: one was shot in 2004 in the UK for international release; the other one was shot in New York in 2005 for release in North America. Both versions received airplay in Latin America.

Original version

The original version of the video, directed by Michael Gracey, shows Bedingfield as the cover of a small animated book in a large library as it climbs an amazingly large bookshelf. As it gets higher the shelf becomes more like a cliff, even snowing at the top. At the top the book sees a dove and falls off. As the small book is torn apart in the fall, people pick up the pages and look up into the sky. The video may be seen to elaborate the lyric as an oblique spiritual narrative of striving to ascend (and reach a heavenly dove), while the lyric also reflects Bedingfield's concerns at this time with the process of writing, concerns perhaps more clearly expressed in "These Words", also featured on the "Unwritten" album.

North American version

The North American version, directed by Chris Applebaum, shows Bedingfield in an elevator. As the elevator stops at each floor, she experiences different things, including running into a park from the elevator where she sings to the camera as the sun shines brightly behind her, comforting a crying woman who kisses the wall of the elevator with red lipstick before she leaves, dancing on a street with a group of children as they are sprayed by water, watching a janitor throw away his money and watches, singing with a church choir, standing next to a couple kissing madly, and finding a potential romance with a man (portrayed by Keith Carhill) who enters the elevator and follows her after she exits. According to a ''

TRL TRL or trl may refer to: Arts * Temporary Residence Limited, a record label * ''Total Request Live'', a former MTV show * TRL Awards (''Total Request Live''), an Italian music award Libraries * Tampines Regional Library, a regional library in Ta ...

'' interview, Bedingfield chose to make the scene where she gets wet because while filming the North American version of her "

" video it was a very hot and sunny day in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. This scene occurs during the second chorus.

Legacy

Bedingfield performed the song at the

. Bedingfield performed this, alongside "

" in the season 7 finale of the Canadian series '' Degrassi: The Next Generation''. It is the theme song to the popular

series, '' The Hills''. Bedingfield later re-recorded another, slower version of "Unwritten" with production team Carney for use in the final episode of ''The Hills''. A 2019 remix version appears as the theme song in ''The Hills'' sequel series, '' The Hills: New Beginnings''. "Unwritten" has heard in the following feature films: ''

Ice Princess ''Ice Princess'' is a 2005 American Teen film, teen Sports film, sports comedy-drama film directed by Tim Fywell, written by Hadley Davis from a story by Meg Cabot and Davis, and starring Joan Cusack, Michelle Trachtenberg, Kim Cattrall and Hayde ...

'', '' Because I Said So'' and ''

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants ''The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants'' is a series of five bestselling young adult novels by Ann Brashares: ''The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2001),'' ''The Second Summer of the Sisterhood (2003),'' '' Girls in Pants'' (2005), '' Foreve ...

''. 2006 World Champion figure skater

Kimmie Meissner Kimberly Claire "Kimmie" Meissner (born October 4, 1989) is an American former competitive figure skater. She is the 2006 World champion, the 2007 Four Continents champion, and the 2007 U.S. national champion. She is the first American and th ...

has done several exhibition programs to the song as well. The song is heard on the series premiere of ''

Ugly Betty ''Ugly Betty'' is an American comedy-drama television series developed by Silvio Horta, which was originally broadcast on ABC. It premiered on September 28, 2006, and ended on April 14, 2010. The series is based on Fernando Gaitán's Colombian t ...

''. It is featured on the episode "Welcome to the Dollhouse", from the series ''

Pretty Little Liars ''Pretty Little Liars'' is an American mystery teen drama television series based on the novel series of the same name written by Sara Shepard. Developed by I. Marlene King, the series was broadcast on Freeform between June 8, 2010, and June ...

''. In 2006, the

Bratz Bratz is an American fashion doll and media franchise created by former Mattel employee Carter Bryant for MGA Entertainment which debuted in 2001. The four original 10-inch (25 cm) dolls were released on May 21, 2001 — Yasmin, Cloe, Jade ...

released a cover of the song on a special edition of their soundtrack album, '' Bratz: Forever Diamondz''. The song appears in the video games '' Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol'' '' Thrillville: Off the Rails'' and as downloadable content for ''

Rock Band 4 ''Rock Band 4'' is a 2015 music video game developed and published by Harmonix. ''Rock Band 4'' allows players to simulate the playing of music across many different decades and genres using instrument controllers that mimic playing lead and bas ...

'', while the

Johnny Vicious Johnny Vicious (born John Coles) is an American house DJ, producer and remixer. He DJed in New York City clubs Mars and Paladium in the 1980s, and in the early 1990s started his own label, Vicious Muzik Records, with Jeffrey Rodman. Vicious b ...

remix appears in ''

Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova 2 , released in Europe as ''Dancing Stage SuperNova'', is an arcade and PlayStation 2 game in the ''Dance Dance Revolution'' (''DDR'') series of music video games. It was produced by Konami and released through Betson Enterprises. The game was rele ...

'' alongside its original video. The song was used for the

Pantene Pantene () is a brand of hair care products owned by Procter & Gamble. The product line was first introduced in Europe in 1945 by Hoffmann-La Roche, which branded the name based on panthenol as a shampoo ingredient. It was purchased by Procter ...

television and radio advertisements. "Unwritten" has become a common song used to celebrate graduation due to its uplifting message about the future.

Track listings

These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "Unwritten". ;UK 2-track CD (Released 29 November 2004) # "Unwritten" (album version) # "Wild Horses" (live in Sydney) ;UK maxi CD (Released 29 November 2004) # "Unwritten" (album version) # "The Scientist" (live at BBC Radio One Live Lounge) # "If You're Gonna Jump" (Paul Oakenfold Remix 7" Remix) # "Unwritten" (video) ;International single (Released 7 February 2005) # "Unwritten" (radio edit) # "The Scientist" (live at BBC Radio One Live Lounge) # "If You're Gonna Jump" (Paul Oakenfold Remix 7" Remix) # "Unwritten" (album version) # "Unwritten" (video) ;US single CD (Released 23 October 2007) # "Unwritten" (album version) # "Unwritten" (Johnny Vicious Club Mix) # "Wild Horses" (live at the Nokia Theatre, New York) # "Unwritten" (ringtone) ;Remixes/Official versions #"Unwritten" (Johnny Vicious Club) #"Unwritten" (Johnny Vicious Radio) #"Unwritten" (Johnny Vicious Warehouse) #"Unwritten" (Johnny Vicious Mixshow Edit) #"Unwritten" (Hani Num Club) #"Unwritten" (Hani Num Radio) #"Unwritten" (Hani Num Dub) #"Unwritten" (Special live acoustic performance for

The N The N (standing for Noggin) was a nighttime programming block on the Noggin television channel, aimed at preteens and teenagers. It was launched on April 1, 2002, by Viacom and Sesame Workshop. Before the block's introduction, Noggin's daytime l ...

) #"Unwritten" (Ultimix Pt.1) #"Unwritten" (Ultimix Pt.2) ;2019 Remix Digital Single # "Unwritten (The 2019 Remix)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications

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Release history

References

{{Authority control 2004 singles 2004 songs 2005 singles Epic Records singles The Hills (TV series) Music videos directed by Chris Applebaum Natasha Bedingfield songs Number-one singles in the Czech Republic Phonogenic Records singles Songs written by Danielle Brisebois Songs written by Natasha Bedingfield Television drama theme songs