"Chasing Pirates" is the first single by American singer

Norah Jones Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar; March 30, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. She has won several awards for her music and as of 2012, has sold more than 50 million records worldwide. ''Billboard'' named her the ...

from her fourth album, '' The Fall''. It was released exclusively to

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on Tuesday, October 13, 2009. The song also had its

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n radio station premiere on the defunct 97.3 EZ Rock, now CHBM, in

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on October 9,

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. The song went top ten in

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and

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. In the US, "Chasing Pirates" peaked at No. 13 on

Hot 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 ...

Tracks and No. 7 on

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Songs. "Chasing Pirates" was nominated for the

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

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, becoming Jones's third nomination, after "

Don't Know Why "Don't Know Why" is a song written and composed by Jesse Harris that originally appeared on his 1999 album, ''Jesse Harris & the Ferdinandos.'' A cover of the song was the debut single of American singer Norah Jones from her debut studio album, ...

" and "

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Background

Norah Jones explained how "Chasing Pirates" came to be, "About a year ago, I did some demos in my home studio. I had some friends come in and we figured out a cool arrangement for 'Chasing Pirates,' with a cool drum part. It went somewhere I didn't expect it to go, and that became a direction to look in."

Music video

October 27, 2009 VH1 aired the full version of Norah Jones's "Chasing Pirates" music video directed by

Rich Lee Richard "Rich" Lee is an American music video and commercial director. He has directed music videos for Eminem, Lana Del Rey, Maroon 5, The Black Eyed Peas, Norah Jones, Michael Bublé and The All-American Rejects. Rich Lee started his professio ...

. In the beginning of the music video, she finds a map of Manhattan in a bottle while sitting on the couch in an apartment complex. In the next scene of the music video, she steers a building from a roof made to look like a pirate ship as she tries to find what is marked on the map. She also sits on deck before the roof transforms into a pirate ship. The music video also gained significant airplay on Australia's channel GO as filler time between programs in late 2009 and early 2010.

Performances

She performed the song live on ABC's ''

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'' on October 20, as well as ''

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'' on November 11, 2009, ''

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'' on November 16, 2009, '' The View'' on November 23, 2009, ''

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'' on December 15, 2009 and ''

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Chart positions

The song entered the

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charts on October 21, 2009 at #13. It became the highest entry by a female artist on that chart since

Alanis Morissette Alanis Nadine Morissette ( ; born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice and confessional songwriting, Morissette began her career in Canada in the early 1990s with two ...

's "

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" in 2004. The last single by a female artist to chart at a higher position was another single by Jones, "

." The song entered on the

Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and compiled on their behalf by the Official Charts Company. Chart rankings are bas ...

for the first time on #39.

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{authority control Norah Jones songs 2009 singles Songs written by Norah Jones EMI Records singles 2009 songs Blue Note Records singles Song recordings produced by Jacquire King Music videos directed by Rich Lee