Songfacts®:

• This song is the one original composition on the I Dreamed a Dream album.
• Boyle said of this song: "Ambition, fate, call it what you will, but who was I born to be? Mum must have picked this for me."
• The song features the gospel group The LJ Singers led by Lawrence Johnson on the final verse.
• This piano ballad was written by Oklahoma singer/songwriter Audra Mae. Until she got this song placed on I Dreamed a Dream, her biggest claim to fame was being the grandniece of famed Hollywood icon Judy Garland. For this track she hooked up with Swedish production/songwriter trio Play Production who sent her the chords and melody for a song they said was intended for Boyle's album. She told MTV News how she achieved her big break: "I knew it needed to be a song that made sense for her to sing, so I went online and researched her and her life and found out how she got to be where she is, and it came from that. I knew it needed to be something that she could be proud to sing. Almost like a mantra - and I'm thrilled that she liked it enough to put it on the album. The cool thing is that she symbolizes real talent above anything else, above a show with pyrotechnics, a hot body... she's f---ing talented and it's really awesome to be a part of that."