"Somewhere I Belong" is a song by American
rock band
Linkin Park. It was released to US radio on February 24, 2003, as the first single from their second studio album, Meteora (2003), and is the album's third track. It entered the top ten on several music charts, including the
New Zealand Singles Chart, where it peaked at
No. 1 in April 2003.
"Somewhere I Belong" was released in Australia and the United Kingdom on March 17, 2003.[13][14] In New Zealand, the song debuted at number 33 on April 6, 2003, and jumped to number one the following week, becoming Linkin Park's most successful single there.[15] It entered the top 10 in the Czech Republic,[16] Hungary,[17] Ireland,[18] and the United Kingdom,[19] and it was a top-20 success in Australia, Austria, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden.[20] It additionally reached the top 40 in France and Belgium (
Flanders and
Wallonia).[21]
Music video
The video was directed by the band's turntablist,
Joseph Hahn. It presents the band playing the song in front of a fire, with occasional shots of Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda in front of a waterfall with what appears to be monks around them. The doors in what is supposedly Bennington's room have the Chinese characters for fire and water, which possibly represent the waterfall and burning fire behind Shinoda while rapping.
During the video, on a dresser sits several props, most notably, Master Grade
Gunpla models of the MSN-04 Sazabi from Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam Zero (EW Version) from Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, and RX-78GP01-Fb Gundam "Zephyranthes" Full Burnern from Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory. At the last time they sing the chorus, the bed sets on fire, and forms the Hybrid Theory Soldier. Near the ending of the video, tall, long-legged, tusked creatures that were on a painting (reminiscent of
Salvador Dalí's The Elephants and The Temptation of St. Anthony) behind Chester's bed march past, even at one point the creature paintings seemed to move before stopping again. It was awarded as Best Rock Video at the 2003
MTV Video Music Awards,[22] and was the first music video broadcast on
Fuse TV.
MTV's James Montgomery named the video as Linkin Park's fifth best, saying that while the video is "massive", he said "it's the minimal touches that make it one of their all-time best", and called the end result a "stirring, powerful piece".[23][24]
^
abMeteora (US CD album booklet).
Linkin Park.
Warner Bros. Records. 2003. 48186-2. ...they ended up recording the final version one week after the rest of the album was finished, in the studio where they were mixing.{{
cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (
link)
^"
ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Change the chart to CZ – SINGLES DIGITAL – TOP 100 and insert 201730 into search. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
^"
ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Singles Digital Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select SINGLES DIGITAL - TOP 100 and insert 201730 into search. Retrieved August 1, 2017.