9 Million Bicycles In Beijing

2007 Schools Wikipedia Choice. Related subjects: Musical Recordings and compositions

"Nine Million Bicycles"

Single by Katie Melua
from the anthology Piece by Slice
B-side(southward)	"Market Solar day in Guernica", "Stardust"
Released	September xix, 2005 (Britain)
Format	CD unmarried, digital download
Genre	Pop/Jazz/ Dejection
Length	three:fifteen
Label	Dramatico
Author(s)	Mike Batt
Producer(south)	Mike Batt
Nautical chart positions
#5 ( Great britain)
Katie Melua singles chronology
" Itch upwards a Loma" (2004)	"Nine Million Bicycles" (2005)	" I Cried for You"/" Merely like Heaven" (2005)

"9 Million Bicycles" is a song written and produced by Mike Batt for Georgian-born vocalist Katie Melua's 2d album, Slice by Piece. It was released equally the album'due south first single in September 2005 (come across 2005 in music) and reached number 5 on the Great britain Singles Chart, becoming Melua'due south beginning top five hit as a solo artist (she had previously participated in Ring Assistance 20's 2004 number-1 charity single "Practice They Know It'southward Christmas?"). It was a finalist for The Record of the Yr prize, losing to " You Enhance Me Up" past Westlife.

About the record

According to Melua, the inspiration for the song came from when her interpreter during her time in Beijing, China was showing her and her manager, Mike Batt, around the city. The interpreter gave information almost Beijing to them, including the fact that there are supposedly ix million bicycles in the city. Batt wrote a song based around the championship "Nine Million Bicycles" upon his render to England ii weeks later, and it was one of the last songs to exist recorded for Slice by Piece. Adrian Brett, who played the ethnic flutes on Batt's album Caravans (1978), contributed to the song; an ocarina was used for the low sounds, and he played a Chinese bamboo flute for the high sounds. In the song Melua pronounces the name of the Chinese capital "Beishing" instead of "Beijing".

Melua said that she liked the song "because information technology is a simple juxtaposition of a piffling idea ("Nine Million Bicycles") against an of import thought ("I volition honey you till I die")". The website indieLondon named information technology ane of the "highlights" of Piece past Piece, describing it as "genuinely sugariness ... The meandering blasts of flute that weave their way throughout lend the song a Chinese feel and make information technology quite enticing."

The single's video, directed past Kevin Godley, features Melua existence dragged across the flooring through a diversity of settings, including a brief shot of the Summer Palace (Yiheyuan, Chinese: 颐和园/頤和園) in Beijing, until she returns to a picnic in a park with her friends.

The vocal was featured prominently in a high-profile radio and goggle box advertising campaign for the Slovenian cell-phone operator Mobitel.

Controversy

On September 30, 2005, an article appeared in The Guardian newspaper in which physicist Simon Singh criticised the song's lyrics. Singh said that with the song Melua "demonstrates a deep ignorance of cosmology and no understanding of the scientific method", and objected to its second verse, where the vocal's protagonist "[contrasts] such guesswork with her own confidence in her blossoming long-term love":

We are 12 billion lite-years from the edge,

That'southward a judge — no-i can ever say information technology's true,

Merely I know that I will always be with you

Singh interpreted the get-go lyric as a statement that the observable universe was twelve billion years old, which he said was wrong; according to "the very latest information", the universe was actually 13.vii billion years sometime. He added, "the next line in the song is unforgivable. To say that the age of the universe is "a guess" is an insult to a century of astronomical progress. The historic period of the universe is non but "a guess", but rather it is a advisedly measured number that is now known to a high degree of accurateness". He wrote replacement lyrics which he believed would, if used, remedy his concerns:

We are 13.7 billion lite-years from the border of the observable universe,

that's a good judge with well-defined fault bars,

Scientists say it's true, only acknowledge that information technology may be refined,

and with the available information, I predict that I will always exist with you lot

Singh's statements received moderate coverage in the media, and led Batt to submit a response to The Guardian in which he defended his right to poetic license. Melua agreed to re-record the song's 2d poesy with Singh's proposed lyrics, though she said she encountered difficulty fitting in all of the syllables. The revised version, which omitted the line "Scientists say information technology'southward true, only admit that it may be refined", premiered on the radio prove The Today Program on Oct 15. Melua said that she felt embarrassed by the error in the song, particularly given that she had been a member of her school'south astronomy gild. Singh himself later on said he intended his article to exist "to some extent ... tongue-in-cheek", just that he also wanted to defend principles in cosmology "that are on much firmer footing". He added that he believed his response to the song'due south lyrics had helped innovate cosmology to a wider audience, and said that "the writing of the original commodity was probably the well-nigh productive hr of my career".

Credits

Personnel

Vocals by Katie Melua
Guitars past Katie Melua, Chris Spedding, Jim Cregan
Pianoforte past Mike Batt
Bass by Tim Harries
Drums by Henry Spinetti
Solo trumpet by Dominic Glover
Solo violin by Mike Darcy
Percussion by; Martin Ditchman, Chris Karan
Ethnic flutes past Adrian Brett
Orchestra – The Irish Film Orchestra; conducted by Mike Batt

Production

Producers – Mike Batt
Engineer – Steve Auction
Arranger – Mike Batt

Track listing

"Ix Million Bicycles" ( Mike Batt) – 3:15
"Market Mean solar day in Guernica" (Batt) – 4:02
"Stardust" ( Hoagy Carmichael, Mitchell Parish) – 4:ten