"Unwritten" is a song by English singer Natasha Bedingfield for her debut studio albumof the same name. It was released in 2004 as the third single from the record. The song was written by Bedingfield, Danielle Brisebois, and Wayne Rodrigues and produced by Rodrigues and Brisebois. The single was released as the album's third UK single and second US single. In 2006, "Unwritten" became the theme song for the reality television seriesThe Hills. It reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming her first top-ten hit in the United States.
Background
"Unwritten" was the most played song on US radio during 2006 as confirmed before her performance at the Concert for Diana, and as of March 2006, was certified platinum in the U.S. The song is Bedingfield's most successful single in the US, along with "Pocketful of Sunshine"; both songs peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100. The song earned Bedingfield a Grammy nomination in Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 49th Grammy Awards and she was also included in the Grammy Nominees album of that year. She lost that nomination to Christina Aguilera's "Ain't No Other Man".
Commercial performance
Peaking at number five for two weeks in the United States, "Unwritten" charted at number six on the 2006's Hot 100 year-end chart. "Unwritten" stayed in the Hot 100 for 38 weeks, thirteen of those inside the top ten. Estimated sales in the United States for "Unwritten" are 2,731,000 as of June 2011. This was the third highest ranking for a female artist for 2006 behind "Hips Don't Lie" by Shakira and Wyclef Jean, and "Promiscuous" by Nelly Furtado and Timbaland. The song also proved to be very popular in other radio formats in the United States. The Johnny Vicious and Hani Club Mixes peaked at number one on the Dance Club Play and number two on the Dance Radio Airplay chart, while the original version went to number two on the Adult Top 40 and spent ten weeks at number one on the Adult Contemporary chart. "Unwritten" was not as successful in the United Kingdom as her previous chart-topping hit "These Words", but made an impressive showing on the charts, peaking at number six. It is one of her few singles to peak higher in the U.S. than in the UK.
Music videos
Two different music videos were made for the promotion of the song: one was shot in 2004 in the UK to promote it internationally; the other one was shot in New York in 2006 to promote the single in North America. Both versions received airplay in Latin America.
Original version
The original version of the video, directed by Michael Gracey, shows Bedingfield as the cover of a small animated book in a large library as it climbs an amazingly large bookshelf. As it gets higher the shelf becomes more like a cliff, even snowing at the top. At the top the book sees a dove and falls off. As the small book is torn apart in the fall, people pick up the pages and look up into the sky. The video may be seen to elaborate the lyric as an oblique spiritual narrative of striving to ascend, while the lyric also reflects Bedingfield's concerns at this time with the process of writing, concerns perhaps more clearly expressed in "These Words", another song featured on the "Unwritten" album.
North American version
The North American version, directed by Chris Applebaum, shows Bedingfield in an elevator. As the elevator stops at each floor, she experiences different things, including running into a park from the elevator where she sings to the camera as the sun shines brightly behind her, comforting a crying woman who kisses the wall of the elevator with red lipstick before she leaves, dancing on a street with a group of children as they are sprayed by water, watching a janitor throw away his money and watches, singing with a church choir, standing next to a couple kissing madly, and finding a potential romance with a man who enters the elevator and follows her after she exits. According to a TRL interview, Bedingfield chose to make the scene where she gets wet because while filming the North American version of her "These Words" video it was a very hot and sunny day in Rio de Janeiro. This scene occurs during the second chorus.
Legacy
Bedingfield performed this song at the Concert for Diana. Bedingfield performed this, along with "Pocketful of Sunshine" in the season 7 finale of '. It is the theme song to the globally popular MTV series, The Hills. Bedingfield later re-recorded another, slower version of "Unwritten" with production team Carney for use in the final episode of The Hills. A 2019 remix version appears as the theme song in The Hills sequel series, '. "Unwritten" has been featured in the following motion pictures: Ice Princess, Because I Said So and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. 2006 World Champion figure skater Kimmie Meissner has done multiple exhibition programs to the song as well. It is featured on the episode "Welcome to the Dollhouse", from the series Pretty Little Liars. In 2006, the Bratz released a cover of the song on a special edition of their soundtrack album, '. The song appears in the video games Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol and ', while the Johnny Vicious remix appears in Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova 2 along with its original video. The song was used for the Pantene television and radio advertisements in English-speaking and other markets between 2006 and 2008, and in France, Spain, Poland, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Track listings
These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "Unwritten". ;UK 2-track CD
