“Firework” – single by Katy Perry from the album Teenage Dream
Released: October 26, 2010
Songwriters: Katy Perry, Mikkel S. Eriksen, Tor Erik Hermansen, Sandy Wilhelm, Ester Dean
Producer: Stargate, Sandy Vee
Charted: No.1 in US and No.3 in UK
Music video, directed by Dave Meyers, was released on October 28, 2010. It portrays Perry singing and dancing around Budapest, with interspersed scenes of young people becoming confident in themselves. An open casting call for the music video drew an unprecedented 38,000 applicants. On MuchMusic’s top 50 videos of 2010, “Firework” reached the top position. The music video was said to be a more upbeat take on Christina Aguilera’s message in “Beautiful”. It was nominated for three awards at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, eventually winning one of those, the Video of the Year, the main and final award. “Firework” was nominated for Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance at the 54th Grammy Awards. On January 5, 2012, “Firework” was ranked the fifth-most-played single on US radio during 2011 by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, with 509,000 plays.
The video is part of a cross-promotional deal with European telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom. Deutsche Telekom hosted a series of activities and competitions from which fans around Europe would be recruited to be in the video.
Lyrics:
Do you ever feel
Like a plastic bag
Drifting through the wind
Wanting to start again
Do you ever feel
Feel so paper-thin
Like a house of cards
One blow from caving in
Do you ever feel
Already buried deep
Six feet under
Screams but no one seems to hear a thing
Do you know that there’s
Still a chance for you
‘Cause there’s a spark in you
You just gotta
Ignite the light
And let it shine
Just own the night
Like the Fourth of July
‘Cause baby, you’re a firework
Come on show them what you’re worth
Make them go, “Oh, oh, oh”
As you shoot across the sky
Baby, you’re a firework
Come on let your colors burst
Make them go, “Oh, oh, oh”
You’re gonna leave before they know
You don’t have to feel
Like a waste of space
You’re original
Cannot be replaced
If you only knew
What the future holds
After a hurricane
Comes a rainbow
Maybe the reason why
All the doors are closed
So you could open one
That leads you to the perfect …
Like a lightning bolt
Your heart will glow
And when it’s time you know
You just gotta
Ignite the light
And let it shine
Just own the night
Like the Fourth of July
‘Cause baby, you’re a firework
Come on show them what you’re worth
Make them go, “Oh, oh, oh”
As you shoot across the sky
Baby, you’re a firework
Come on let your colors burst
Make them go, “Oh, oh, oh”
You’re gonna leave before they know
Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon
It’s always been inside of you, you, you
And now it’s time to let it through
‘Cause baby, you’re a firework
Come on show them what you’re worth
Make them go, “Oh, oh, oh”
As you shoot across the sky
Baby, you’re a firework
Come on let your colors burst
Make them go, “Oh, oh, oh”
You’re gonna leave before they know
Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon
Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon
Music video by Katy Perry performing Firework. (C) 2010 Capitol Records, LLC
