I Belong to Me

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"I Belong to Me"

Single by Jessica Simpson
from the album A Public Affair
Released	October 2006
Format	Digital download
Recorded	2006
Genre	Pop R&B
Length	3:40
Label	Epic
Writer(s)	Diane Warren
Producer(s)	Stargate
Chart positions
#1(Asia) #110 (United States)
Jessica Simpson singles chronology
"A Public Affair" (2006)	"I Belong to Me" (2006)	"You Spin Me 'Round (Like A Record)" (2007)

"I Belong to Me" is the second single from Jessica Simpson's album A Public Affair. Simpson's fans chose it as the second single in an official poll on Simpson's official website during August 2006. The song received nearly 14,000 votes, beating out five others included in the poll.^[1] Despite this, the single went on to have very limited success in the US, failing to reach the Billboard Hot 100.

1 Critical response
2 Commercial success
3 Charts
4 Notes

[edit] Critical response

Billboard magazine wrote that it "revisits the self-empowerment theme of her 2004 top 20 "With You", and that "Simple R&B-lite production allows Simpson's lovely vocal to hold the reins, making for a song (written by the incomparable Diane Warren) that is a thematic bull's-eye for her female teen target ... let's see if programmers make this release more of the public affair it deserves to be".^[2]

The song's chorus states, "I belong to me, I don't belong to you, my heart is my possession, I'll be my own reflection". During the bridge of the song Simpson sings, "Love don't mean changin who you are to be, who somebody wants you to be, nobody has got to belong to nobody". Simpson did not write the song herself, but during her MTV special Jessica Simpson: A Public Affair, she said it was about the last relationship she was involved in, which according to her was an "amazing relationship".

The song wasn't originally going to be included on A Public Affair, and only the Wal-Mart version of the album included the song as a bonus track. Later on, Simpson's record company decided to include the song on every new shipment, and the track can be found in any music store in the U.S.^[2] The video was sneak peaked on MTV's Total Request Live on October 4, 2006, the entire video was world premiered on October 11, 2006 and was directed by Matthew Rolston. The video debuted the following day at #8, marking this Jessica Simpson's fifth consecutive video to make a debut on the TRL countdown, and her 10th video overall to make a debut. The video reached a successful peak of #4. However, it quickly fell off the chart after only seven days on the top 10, failing to meet the success her previous single had. The video was also publicly criticized by fans for Jessica's overly dramatic motions and facial expressions.

Two versions of the song exist: the studio version which appears on the album, and the radio edit which appears in the video.

[edit] Commercial success

The song received a large number of digital downloads following the release of the album, which helped the song debut inside the Billboard Pop 100 and peak at #25 on the Billboard Bubbling Under 100 Chart. The song quickly fell off the charts. However, after the release of the music video the song has regained a powerful number of digital sales and it rose up to #62 on the iTunes Music Store. The song returned to the Bubbling Under chart after the video release at #18. It peaked at #10 on its second week. This single became Jessica's fourth song to not reach the Hot 100.Despite the flop in the US,"I Belong To Me" reached #1 in the Asia single charts.