"Somewhere I Belong" was officially released to U.S. radio on March 18, 2003. The song reached the top thirty on the Hot 100 Airplay, and the following week it debuted at No. 47 on the US BillboardHot 100. It peaked at No. 32 during its fifteenth week on the chart and remained on the listing until its twentieth week. The song entered the top ten on the majority of the Billboard charts on which it appeared. It proved to be highly popular on rock radio, reaching No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks and Modern Rock Tracks charts. It was listed at No. 24 on the Modern Rock Tracks decade-end chart. In Canada, "Somewhere I Belong" was officially released to radio in March 2003. It reached the top five on the Canadian Singles Chart, peaking at No. 3. "Somewhere I Belong" was released in Australia, Europe and New Zealand in May 2003. The single reached No. 1 in New Zealand and the top ten in the Ireland and Japan, and it was a moderate top-twenty success in Australia, Austria, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. It additionally reached the top forty in France and Belgium.
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 ', XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam Zero from ', and RX-78GP01-Fb Gundam "Zephyranthes" Full Burnern from . 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 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, 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".
Track listing
CD single 7-inch vinyl
In other media
The song was one of the three songs off of Meteora that played during ' win at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards. "Somewhere I Belong" played during "Best Movie" while "From the Inside" and "Faint" appeared during the nominee montage for "Best On-Screen Team" and "Best Action Sequence" respectively.
Conservative commentator Mark Levin's son selected the song's instrumental as the main bumper music theme for his father's radio talk show.
