I Can Fly

Album: Big Eyes (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • Lana Del Rey co-wrote and performs this song, which plays over the end credits of the Tim Burton movie Big Eyes. The film tells the story of Margaret Keane, the American artist whose iconic 1950s and '60s paintings of big-eyeballed children were falsely credited to her then-husband.
  • This triumphant ode is one of two songs that Lana Del Rey sings for Big Eyes. The other cut, the title track, was originally intended for the closing credits, but it was felt the tune was too downbeat to send audiences out. Del Rey came up with this more uplifting number to replace it, which finds her singing about flying like a once-caged bird.

    Del Rey recalled to Billboard magazine: "I think they felt 'Big Eyes' was a little bit somber and they were excited about wanting [a song] to share this story about how Margaret [Keane] comes out of this darkness, a redemption theme. I said, 'I have a song called "I Can Fly," but I'd like to rework the lyrics and talk more about what she was doing [in the film].'"
  • Del Rey co-wrote this with one of her frequent collaborators, Rick Nowels. Other Del Rey cuts the San Francisco songwriter has contributed towards include her hit songs "Summertime Sadness" and "Young And Beautiful." (The latter was also penned for a movie – The Great Gatsby).

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