"I Believe I Can Fly" is a 1996 song by R&B singer R. Kelly

R. Kelly

Robert Sylvester Kelly , better known by his stage name R. Kelly, is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. A native of Chicago, Kelly began performing during the late 1980s and debuted in 1992 with the group Public Announcement. In 1993, Kelly went solo with the album 12 Play...

. The song was written, produced and performed by Kelly and was featured on the soundtrack to the 1996 film Space Jam

Space Jam

Aside from Jordan, a number of NBA players and coaches appeared in the film. Larry Bird portrays a friend of Jordan who joins him for a game of golf. When the Monstars steal the NBA players' talent, they invade a game between the Phoenix Suns and the New York Knicks, causing the Knicks' Patrick...

. The song later appeared on Kelly's 1998 album R.

R. (album)

-Commercial performance:R. debuted at #2 on the Billboard top 100 with 1st weeks sales of 741,000 coppies in the 1st week.in the second week the album fell to #3 with 567,000 coppies.the album was eventually rewarded a 8x plantium award with more than 8 million copies sold in the United States to...

.

In early 1997, "I Believe I Can Fly" reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

; it was kept from the #1 spot by Toni Braxton

Toni Braxton

Toni Michelle Braxton is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Braxton has won six Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, and five Billboard Music Awards and has sold over 60 million records worldwide...

's "Un-Break My Heart

Un-Break My Heart

"Un-Break My Heart" is a song by American recording artist Toni Braxton from her second studio album, Secrets . Written by Diane Warren and produced by David Foster, the ballad was released as the album's second single...

". Despite the fact that two of R. Kelly's songs did reach #1, "I Believe I Can Fly" remains the biggest hit of R. Kelly's career. The single was #1 on the R&B Singles chart (for six nonconsecutive weeks), and #1 in the United Kingdom. It has won three Grammy Award

Grammy Award

A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

s, and is ranked #406 on Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Peak positions

Chart (1996-1997)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	2
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B Singles & Tracks	1
U.S. Billboard Dance Maxi Singles	6
U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary	7
UK Singles Chart	1
Australia ARIA Singles Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...	1
Austrian Singles Chart	2
Dutch Singles Chart	1
Eurochart Hot 100 Singles	1
French Singles Chart	1
German Singles Chart	3
Swedish Singles Chart	11
Swiss Singles Chart	1
Polish Singles Chart	1

End of year charts

End of year chart (1997)	Position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	6

End of decade charts

Chart (1990-1999)	Position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	87

Cover versions

In 2003, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes is a punk rock supergroup and cover band that formed in 1995. The Gimmes work exclusively as a cover band. The band is named after a children's book of the same name by Gerald G. Jampolsky and Diane V. Cirincione...

 covered the song for their album Take a Break. William Hung

William Hung

William James Hung Hing Cheong , commonly known as William Hung, is an American singer who gained fame in early 2004 as a result of his off-key audition performance of Ricky Martin's hit song "She Bangs" on the third season of the television series...

 recorded this song for his 2004 album Inspiration

Inspiration (William Hung album)

Inspiration is the debut album of William Hung recorded following the early 2004 broadcast of his failed American Idol audition where Hung received notoriety and a cult following....

. Saxophonist Marion Meadows

Marion Meadows

Marion Meadows is an American tenor saxophonist, soprano saxophonist, composer, and smooth jazz recording artist of Native American, African American and Caucasian descent. Meadows has released a total of 9 albums to date.-Upbringing:...

 also covered the song from the album Dressed to Chill. Patti Labelle

Patti LaBelle

Patricia Louise Holte-Edwards , better known under the stage name, Patti LaBelle, is a Grammy Award winning American singer, author and actress who has spent over 50 years in the music industry...

 sang the chorus of the song on her 1998 live album Live One Night Only as an addition to her signature tune "Over the Rainbow

Over the Rainbow

"Over the Rainbow" is a classic Academy Award-winning ballad song with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg. It was written for the movie The Wizard of Oz, and was sung by Judy Garland in the movie...

". Jessica Simpson sang the song on her Dreamchaser tour in 2001.

The song has also been covered by Yolanda Adams

Yolanda Adams

Yolanda Adams is an American Grammy- and Dove-award-winning Yolanda Adams is an American [[Grammy Awards|Grammy]]- and [[Dove Awards|Dove]]-award-winning...

 (in a duet with Gerald Levert

Gerald Levert

Gerald Levert was an American R&B singer. Gerald Levert sang with his brother, Sean Levert, and friend Marc Gordon in the R&B trio LeVert. He was also a part of LSG, an R&B supergroup comprising Keith Sweat, Johnny Gill, and Levert...

), Ruth Brown

Ruth Brown

Ruth Brown was an American pop and R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, composer and actress, noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atlantic Records in the 1950s, such as "So Long", "Teardrops from My Eyes" and " He Treats Your Daughter Mean".For these...

, James Ingram

James Ingram

James Ingram is an American soul musician. He is best known as a vocalist. He is also a self-taught musician who plays piano, guitar, bass, drums and keyboards...

, Ronan Keating

Ronan Keating

Ronan Patrick John Keating is an Irish recording artist, singer-songwriter, musician, and philanthropist. Keating debuted on the professional music scene alongside Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham, Shane Lynch and Stephen Gately, in 1994 as the lead singer of Boyzone. His solo career started in 1999, and...

, Bianca Ryan

Bianca Ryan

Bianca Taylor Ryan is an American singer and guitarist, who won the debut season of NBC's America's Got Talent at age 11....

, and Tyler Carter of the band Woe, Is Me

Woe, Is Me

Woe, Is Me is an American rock band from Atlanta, Georgia. Formed in 2009, the group is currently signed to Rise Records and its subsidiary, Velocity Records...

.

Katharine McPhee

Katharine McPhee

Katharine Hope McPhee is an American pop singer, songwriter, actress, model, and television personality. She gained fame as a contestant on the fifth season of the Fox reality show American Idol in 2006, eventually finishing as the runner-up.Her self-titled debut album was released on RCA Records...

, Anwar Robinson

Anwar Robinson

Anwar Farid Robinson is an American singer/songwriter/musician who was the 7th place finalist on the fourth season of American Idol.-American Idol:...

, Aaron Kelly

Aaron Kelly (singer)

Aaron Wayne Kelly is an American singer from Sonestown, Pennsylvania who finished fifth on the ninth season of American Idol. Prior to Idol, Kelly was a finalist on America's Most Talented Kid at age 11.-Early life:...

, and Jacob Lusk

Jacob Lusk

Jacob Lusk is an American singer from Compton, California, who finished in fifth place on the tenth season of American Idol.-Early life:...

 all performed the song in different seasons of the TV show American Idol

American Idol

American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...

.

In film and television

"I Believe I Can Fly" was performed by the school band in the movie Drumline

Drumline (film)

Drumline is a 2002 American film directed by Charles Stone III. The screenplay, which was inspired by The Southwest Dekalb High School Drumline , was written by Tina Gordon Chism and Shawn Schepps...

during the high school graduation ceremony of Devon Miles (Nick Cannon

Nick Cannon

Nicholas Scott "Nick" Cannon is an American actor, comedian, rapper, entrepreneur, record producer, radio, and television personality. On television, Cannon began as a teenage sketch comedian on All That before going on to host The Nick Cannon Show, Wild 'N Out, and America's Got Talent...

). In Ice Age: The Meltdown

Ice Age: The Meltdown

Ice Age: The Meltdown, also known as Ice Age 2: The Meltdown or simply as Ice Age 2, is the 2006 sequel to the 2002 computer-animated film Ice Age. It was produced by Blue Sky Studios for 20th Century Fox, and premiered in Belgium on March 1, 2006...

, Crash sings the song before he crashes into a tree. In the film Good Boy!

Good Boy!

Good Boy! is a 2003 film produced by Jim Henson Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, starring talking alien dogs. The film stars Liam Aiken as Owen Baker, as well as Matthew Broderick, Delta Burke, Donald Faison, Cheech Marin, Brittany Murphy, Vanessa Redgrave, and Carl Reiner were the voice cast for...

, Wilson briefly sings the song while diving into a pool. In Fun with Dick and Jane

Fun with Dick and Jane (2005 film)

Fun with Dick and Jane is a 2005 remake of the 1977 American comedy film of the same name, directed by Dean Parisot and written by Judd Apatow and Nicholas Stoller. It stars Jim Carrey and Téa Leoni as Dick and Jane Harper, an upper-middle-class couple who resort to robbery after the company for...

, Jim Carrey sings along with the song as it is played in an elevator.

Notable other performances

R. Kelly performed the song at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards.

STS-122

STS-122

STS-122 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station , flown by the Space Shuttle Atlantis. STS-122 marked the 24th shuttle mission to the ISS, and the 121st space shuttle flight since STS-1....

 crew heard this song on flight day 10 as a wake up call.

Since its release, it has become commonly associated with the NBA

National Basketball Association

The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...

, most notably with Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan

Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats...

.