Walking on Air
Encyclopedia
"Walking on Air" is a song performed by Estonia
n singer-songwriter
Kerli. It is the second official single
from her debut album, Love Is Dead
(2008). It was originally featured on her now out of print self-titled EP (2007). It is written by Kerli and Lester Mendez
and produced by Mendez. It's about "following your dreams and just going with the flow."
"Walking on Air" was featured twice on the United States dance competition So You Think You Can Dance
(season 5
and season 6
). The song and parts of the music video were featured in a promo for the television series Fringe
. It was also iTunes
' "Free Single of the Week" for the week of July 21, 2008. The song had received mixed to positive reviews from music critics who praised the storyline oft he songs information.
The music video, directed by Alex Topaller and Dan Shapiro (the team known as "Aggressive
"), debuted on May 19, 2008. The video features an inverted house theme where everything is opposite of what it is supposed to normally be.
An EP containing five remixes of "Walking on Air" was released on October 14, 2008. The song had peaked in different countries around the world.
The song in general is about "following your dreams and just going with the flow" and a "little creepy girl that comes from a little creepy place and she has her big dream and she loves music, but nobody believes in her." The specific details in the song, such as "cats and hats and rocking chairs" are based on Kerli childhood when she would frequently wear older hats.
's website.
. After re-entering the house, Kerli turns on the TV which is just a close-up eye staring around the room. She then lights a match and throws it in the fireplace when it then begins to grow lotus
es. Next, she activates the ceiling fan which precedes to spin the room around as she begins to dance.
In the next scene, Kerli is in a kitchen where the walls are an open Wintry
forest and Kerli appears in a more sexualized black outfit. The windows are brick walls and snow is spewing out of an umbrella. She opens the oven which is an extremely cold freezer where a chicken is "roasting". She then takes the chicken and places it in the fridge which is full of flames.
Next, Kerli is now in her bedroom lying on a bed of stones when she starts to cry and her tears float up and transform into butterflies. Another scene is shown where Kerli is with a bird in a cage and the bird is sitting upside down on a perch. Returning to the bedroom scene, the man has returned and appears to be on the opposite side of her mirror as he pounds on it and instructs her to join him. Next, the ball-jointed doll from before is now a full-sized woman and is controlling the strings of Kerli who is now a marionette
. After the Kerli marionette sings the bridge
, she is placed in a box where the puppeteer ball-jointed doll cuts the strings and the bricks in the windows are briefly shown collapsing.
In the final scene, Kerli wakes up to discover a cut string attached to her arm. She proceeds to stare at the camera which pans out to reveal Kerli is now in the gift box from before and the full-sized, ball-jointed doll is holding it rocking on a rocking chair.
. The eye in the TV represents the "all-seeing eye
" of God. It is also part of the "inverted house" theme, where the TV is watching her rather than her watching the TV. The lotus is the only flower that is able to grow in the mud and "the thicker the mud, the more beautiful the flower is going to be". The lotuses symbolize overcoming obstacles as do the act of Kerli's tears floating off and transforming into butterflies. The wallpaper is an Estonian forest. Kerli used this because her last name, "Kõiv" means "birch
" in Estonian
and because it also represents oppression.
Kerli based her "clock
dress" on an image she saw on the internet and represents her love for numbers and their messy layout "[ pisses] on the concept of time". Kerli describes her shoes as "fetish
shoes".
for the weeks of July 16, 2008 and July 23.
on October 22 at the Scream Awards
. and in 2009 at The Dome
in Munich, Germany
on May 22 and at the Estonian festival Õllesummer on July 19 in Tallinn
.
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
n singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
Kerli. It is the second official single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
from her debut album, Love Is Dead
Love Is Dead (Kerli album)
Love Is Dead is the debut studio album by Estonian recording artist Kerli. It was released in the United States on July 8, 2008 by Island Records. The album peaked at number 2 on the U.S. Heatseekers Albums chart, which measures the popularity of albums by new artists...
(2008). It was originally featured on her now out of print self-titled EP (2007). It is written by Kerli and Lester Mendez
Lester Mendez
Lester Mendez is an American record producer and songwriter. His production/writing credits include a multitude of successful hits including Shakira's "Underneath Your Clothes" and "La Tortura", Jessica Simpson's "A Public Affair", and Nelly Furtado's "Te Busqué".Mendez worked with Carlos Santana...
and produced by Mendez. It's about "following your dreams and just going with the flow."
"Walking on Air" was featured twice on the United States dance competition So You Think You Can Dance
So You Think You Can Dance (U.S. TV series)
So You Think You Can Dance is an American dance competition and reality show that airs on Fox in the United States.The series first premiered on July 20, 2005, and was created by American Idol producers Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe and is produced by 19 Entertainment and Dick Clark Productions...
(season 5
So You Think You Can Dance (season 5)
So You Think You Can Dance is a United States television reality program and dance competition airing on the Fox Broadcasting Company network. Season five premiered on May 21, 2009, with Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy returning as permanent judges and Cat Deeley returning to host...
and season 6
So You Think You Can Dance (season 6)
So You Think You Can Dance, also known as SYTYCD, is a United States television reality program and dance competition airing on the Fox Broadcasting Company network. Season six premiered on Wednesday, September 9, 2009, with Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy returning as permanent judges and Cat Deeley...
). The song and parts of the music video were featured in a promo for the television series Fringe
Fringe (TV series)
Fringe is an American science fiction television series created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. The series follows a Federal Bureau of Investigation "Fringe Division" team based in Boston, Massachusetts under the supervision of Homeland Security...
. It was also iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
' "Free Single of the Week" for the week of July 21, 2008. The song had received mixed to positive reviews from music critics who praised the storyline oft he songs information.
The music video, directed by Alex Topaller and Dan Shapiro (the team known as "Aggressive
Aggressive (film director)
Aggressive is a New York based Grammy Award-winning music video directing team of Alex Topaller and Daniel Shapiro.To date, Aggressive has directed music videos for Michael Jackson, Stone Temple Pilots, Juanes, Megadeth, Bloc Party, The Click Five, Kerli, Black Label Society, Hoobastank, Killswitch...
"), debuted on May 19, 2008. The video features an inverted house theme where everything is opposite of what it is supposed to normally be.
An EP containing five remixes of "Walking on Air" was released on October 14, 2008. The song had peaked in different countries around the world.
Composition
Kerli claims when she was younger, her mother would tell her a story: "In the black, black world there was a black, black town and in the black, black town there was a black, black house and in the black, black house there was a black, black cupboard and in the black, black cupboard there was a white box." This is the inspiration for the verse in the song.The song in general is about "following your dreams and just going with the flow" and a "little creepy girl that comes from a little creepy place and she has her big dream and she loves music, but nobody believes in her." The specific details in the song, such as "cats and hats and rocking chairs" are based on Kerli childhood when she would frequently wear older hats.
Production
Kerli had created "Book of Kerli": a book of pictures that she had collected over the years of how she wanted the video and herself in the video to appear. The music video is directed by Alex Topaller and Dan Shapiro (the team known as "Aggressive"). It premiered on May 19, 2008 on MTVMTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
's website.
Synopsis
The video beings with a man dropping off a gift box on a doorstep. After he leaves, Kerli opens the box and finds a ball-jointed dollBall-jointed doll
A ball-jointed doll is any doll that is articulated with ball and socket joints. In contemporary usage when referring to modern dolls, and particularly when using the acronyms BJD or ABJD, it usually refers to modern Asian ball-jointed dolls. These are cast in polyurethane synthetic resin, a hard,...
. After re-entering the house, Kerli turns on the TV which is just a close-up eye staring around the room. She then lights a match and throws it in the fireplace when it then begins to grow lotus
Nelumbo nucifera
Nelumbo nucifera, known by a number of names including Indian Lotus, Sacred Lotus, Bean of India, or simply Lotus, is a plant in the monogeneric family Nelumbonaceae...
es. Next, she activates the ceiling fan which precedes to spin the room around as she begins to dance.
In the next scene, Kerli is in a kitchen where the walls are an open Wintry
Winter
Winter is the coldest season of the year in temperate climates, between autumn and spring. At the winter solstice, the days are shortest and the nights are longest, with days lengthening as the season progresses after the solstice.-Meteorology:...
forest and Kerli appears in a more sexualized black outfit. The windows are brick walls and snow is spewing out of an umbrella. She opens the oven which is an extremely cold freezer where a chicken is "roasting". She then takes the chicken and places it in the fridge which is full of flames.
Next, Kerli is now in her bedroom lying on a bed of stones when she starts to cry and her tears float up and transform into butterflies. Another scene is shown where Kerli is with a bird in a cage and the bird is sitting upside down on a perch. Returning to the bedroom scene, the man has returned and appears to be on the opposite side of her mirror as he pounds on it and instructs her to join him. Next, the ball-jointed doll from before is now a full-sized woman and is controlling the strings of Kerli who is now a marionette
Marionette
A marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a manipulator. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms...
. After the Kerli marionette sings the bridge
Bridge (music)
In music, especially western popular music, a bridge is a contrasting section which also prepares for the return of the original material section...
, she is placed in a box where the puppeteer ball-jointed doll cuts the strings and the bricks in the windows are briefly shown collapsing.
In the final scene, Kerli wakes up to discover a cut string attached to her arm. She proceeds to stare at the camera which pans out to reveal Kerli is now in the gift box from before and the full-sized, ball-jointed doll is holding it rocking on a rocking chair.
Concept
Kerli describes the video as being a "dark" Alice in WonderlandAlice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures...
. The eye in the TV represents the "all-seeing eye
Omniscience
Omniscience omniscient point-of-view in writing) is the capacity to know everything infinitely, or at least everything that can be known about a character including thoughts, feelings, life and the universe, etc. In Latin, omnis means "all" and sciens means "knowing"...
" of God. It is also part of the "inverted house" theme, where the TV is watching her rather than her watching the TV. The lotus is the only flower that is able to grow in the mud and "the thicker the mud, the more beautiful the flower is going to be". The lotuses symbolize overcoming obstacles as do the act of Kerli's tears floating off and transforming into butterflies. The wallpaper is an Estonian forest. Kerli used this because her last name, "Kõiv" means "birch
Birch
Birch is a tree or shrub of the genus Betula , in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the beech/oak family, Fagaceae. The Betula genus contains 30–60 known taxa...
" in Estonian
Estonian language
Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...
and because it also represents oppression.
Kerli based her "clock
Clock
A clock is an instrument used to indicate, keep, and co-ordinate time. The word clock is derived ultimately from the Celtic words clagan and clocca meaning "bell". A silent instrument missing such a mechanism has traditionally been known as a timepiece...
dress" on an image she saw on the internet and represents her love for numbers and their messy layout "
Sexual fetishism
Sexual fetishism, or erotic fetishism, is the sexual arousal a person receives from a physical object, or from a specific situation. The object or situation of interest is called the fetish, the person a fetishist who has a fetish for that object/situation. Sexual fetishism may be regarded, e.g...
shoes".
Reception
The video became the number one music video on AOLAOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
for the weeks of July 16, 2008 and July 23.
Live performances
Among other performances, in 2008 Kerli performed "Walking on Air" at the Greek TheatreGreek Theatre (Los Angeles)
The Greek Theatre is a 5,700-seat amphitheater, located at Griffith Park, in Los Angeles, California. It was built in 1929, opening on September 29 of that year...
on October 22 at the Scream Awards
2008 Scream Awards
The Spike TV Scream Awards is an award show dedicated to the horror, sci-fi, and fantasy genres of feature films. The show was created by executive producers Michael Levitt, Cindy Levitt, and Casey Patterson....
. and in 2009 at The Dome
The Dome (television program)
The Dome is a German television program and music event, produced and broadcast by RTL 2. Roughly every three months, a new show is recorded in an event hall in different cities in Germany and Austria. In each episode, several national, but also international bands and musicians perform their...
in Munich, Germany
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
on May 22 and at the Estonian festival Õllesummer on July 19 in Tallinn
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
.
Track listings and formats
- CD PromoPromotional recordingA promotional recording, or promo, is an audio or video recording distributed for free, usually in order to promote a recording that is or soon will be commercially available...
- Walking on Air (Radio Edit) – 3:47
- Walking on Air (LP Version) – 4:26
- Digital downloadMusic downloadA music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
- Walking on Air (Radio Edit) – 3:47
- 12" vinylGramophone recordA gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
promo
- Walking on Air (Radio Edit) – 3:47
- Walking on Air (Armin van Buuren Club Mix) – 7:43
- Walking on Air (Lindbergh Palace Full Mix) – 6:23
- Walking on Air (Ralphi Rosario & Craig J Club Mix) – 9:46
- Walking on Air (Josh Harris Club Mix) – 8:06
- CD single / Digital download single
- Walking on Air (Radio Edit) – 3:49
- Walking on Air (Armin van Buuren Radio Edit) – 3:23
- RemixRemix albumA remix album is an album consisting mostly of remixes or re-recorded versions of a music artists' earlier released material.One of the earliest remix albums was 1971's Aerial Pandemonium Ballet by Harry Nilsson, which was released by Nilsson after the successes of Everybody's Talkin and The Point!...
EPExtended playAn EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
- Walking on Air (Ralphi Rosario & Craig J Club Mix) – 9:46
- Walking on Air (Josh Harris Club Mix) – 8:06
- Walking on Air (Lindbergh Palace Full Mix) – 6:23
- Walking on Air (Armin van Buuren Club Mix) – 7:43
- Walking on Air (Ralphi Rosario Big Dub) – 9:32
Credits and personnel
- Lead vocals: Kerli
- Co-writers: Kerli and Lester MendezLester MendezLester Mendez is an American record producer and songwriter. His production/writing credits include a multitude of successful hits including Shakira's "Underneath Your Clothes" and "La Tortura", Jessica Simpson's "A Public Affair", and Nelly Furtado's "Te Busqué".Mendez worked with Carlos Santana...
- Producer and arranger: Lester Mendez
- Engineers: Joe Wohlmuth and John Ewing (at Henson Recording StudiosHenson Recording StudiosHenson Recording Studios was established in 2000 at the former A&M Studios. The remake of We Are the World was recorded at Henson Recording Studios in February 2010 to benefit the Haiti earthquake victims....
in Hollywood, California) - Assistant engineer: Keith Gretlein
- Mixer: Neal Pogue (at Encore Studios in Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos ÁngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
) - Mix assistant engineer: Charlie Wilson, Jr.
- Strings: Sonus QuartetSonus QuartetSonus Quartet is a Los Angeles based string quartet whose members include Caroline Campbell , Kathleen Sloan , Neel Hammond , and Vanessa Freebairn-Smith...
Charts
| Chart (2008) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40 Ö3 Austria Top 40 Ö3 Austria Top 40 is the name of the official Austrian singles chart, as well as the radio show which presents it, aired Fridays on Hitradio Ö3. The show presents the Austrian singles, ringtones and downloads chart. It premiered on 26 November 1968 as Disc Parade and was presented by Ernst Grissemann... ) |
35 |
| Belgian Flanders (Ultratop Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... ) |
32 |
| Belgian Wallonia (Ultratop Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... ) |
32 |
| European Hot 100 Singles | 75 |
| Germany (Media Control Charts Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... ) |
25 |
| Italy (FIMI) | 20 |
| Switzerland (Swiss Music Charts Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... ) |
37 |
Release history
| Region | Date | Format |
|---|---|---|
| United States | January 1, 2008 | Digital download |
| United States | October 14, 2008 | Remixes EP |
External links
- Kerli's official website
- "Walking on Air" music video at YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....