Album: Black Ivory Soul (2002)
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Songfacts®:

  • Kidjo based the lyrics on a Yoruba (a group of West African people) proverb: "A bird that is burned today will not die unless the faith of the bird ceases."
  • This is a duet with Dave Matthews. Kidjo started writing the song while she was opening for Matthews on tour. In I Got Thunder: Black Women Songwriters and Their Craft by LaShonda Barnett, Kidjo says: "The last day of the tour I gave him the lyric. He took the lyric from me, and he said, 'So, where's the music?' So I gave him the music, too. Then I went on touring by myself. A few weeks later I was in Calgary recording - about to go to Seattle - when I received a call that Dave Matthews was in Calgary and wanted to come to the studio to do the song. So that's how it happened."

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