Butterfly (Mariah Carey song)

"Butterfly" is a song by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey from her sixth studio album of the same name. It was released as the second single from the album on December 1, 1997 by Columbia Records. The song was written by Carey and Walter Afanasieff; both of them producing and arranging the song as well. "Butterfly" is a ballad combining elements of pop and gospel genres. Carey had originally conceived it as a house record with David Morales titled "Fly Away (Butterfly Reprise)". After realizing how personal the lyrics were and how they could be applied to Butterfly, she wrote the album's title track with Afanasieff. On the song's lyrics, Carey sings to someone, telling them to spread their wings and release into the world on their own, like a butterfly.

The song's music video depicts Carey in an abandoned house, trapped in a desolate life. As the video progresses, she leaves, apparently for the first time in years, and runs into a nearby meadow. Towards the end, Carey jumps over a barbed fence and goes out into the world on a horse. The song's lyrics and video were directly connected to Carey's personal life at the time. "Butterfly" was performed live on the Late Show with David Letterman, Saturday Night Live and various European television programs. The song was also a permanent part of the set-list during her Butterfly World Tour during 1998. Due to current conflict with Columbia, "Butterfly" was never issued a commercial release, therefore hindering its charting ability. The song performed weakly on the charts, peaking outside the top twenty in most countries, except for New Zealand, where it peaked at number 15. In the United States, "Butterfly" was not eligible to chart on the Hot 100 due to Billboard rules at the time.

Butterfly (Kylie Minogue song)

"Butterfly" is a song by Australian recording artist and songwriter Kylie Minogue from her seventh studio album Light Years (2000). The song was written by Minogue and Steven Anderson and was produced by DJ Mark Picchiotti. It was released as the sixth and first promotional single off her album.

The song received generally positive reviews from music critics, many saying it is an instant standout from the album. The song was originally issued to clubs in spring 2000 in the UK as a test pressing to gauge DJ reaction to Minogue's new material. "Butterfly" had been in the running to be the fourth single from Light Years, but due to its strong club influences it was pulled in favour of the radio-friendly "Please Stay". However, Mark Pichotti remixed the track and issued it in the United States through his own Blue2 label (a division of Blueplate Records), where it became a hit on the Billboard Dance music charts. The song had peaked at number fourteen on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.

Butterfly (Kaela Kimura song)

"Butterfly" is a wedding song by Japanese musician Kaela Kimura, released as a digital single on June 1, 2009, roughly a month before her fifth album, Hocus Pocus. It was extremely successful, reaching downloads of over 2,000,000 just over six months after its release. It is Kimura's most successful single digitally. Columbia released a special instrumental version of the song on February 14, 2010.

Writing and inspiration

The song is a ballad, arranged with a harpsichord and piano backing. As the song progresses, a band arrangement with electric guitars and drums is introduced. Also present in the song are the sounds of church bells, a children's choir and a church organ. The lyrics describe a newly wed bride as a butterfly, who is "more wonderful today than any other time before" who "flaps white wings, together towards happiness." The verses deal with how the person writing the song met the wedding bride so long ago, and describes the wedding ceremony, and how happy the bride is.

Lolita (term)

Lolita was the nickname of one of the principal characters in Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita. Lolita's actual name was Dolores, with whom the narrator, Humbert Humbert, develops a sexual obsession. In the book itself, "Lolita" is specifically Humbert's nickname for Dolores. Nevertheless, "Lolita" and "loli" has come to be used as a general reference to a seductive or sexually attractive young woman.

In the marketing of pornography, lolita is used to refer to a young girl, frequently one who has only recently reached the age of consent, or appears to be younger than the age of consent.

Etymology & Related Terms

Nymphet

A nymphet is a sexually attractive girl, or young woman. The first recorded use of the term "nymphet", defined by The Century Dictionary as "a little nymph", was by Drayton in Poly-Olbion I. xi. Argt. 171 (1612): "Of the nymphets sporting there In Wyrrall, and in Delamere."

In Lolita, "nymphet" was used to describe the 9- to 14-year-old girls to whom the protagonist is attracted, the archetypal nymphet being the character of Dolores Haze. Nabokov, in the voice of his narrator Humbert, first describes these nymphets in the following passage:

Lolita (trop jeune pour aimer)

"Lolita (trop jeune pour aimer)" (meaning "Lolita (Too Young to Love)") is the third single from Celine Dion's album Incognito, released in October 1987 in Quebec, Canada.

The song was composed by Jean-Alain Roussel and the lyrics were written by Luc Plamondon. The song references Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and the lyrics describe a young woman who insists that she is not "too young" for love. According to Dion, "When I saw what Luc had written, I was bowled over. Like Eddy, Luc had explored my inner life. What he had written was so close to me that I couldn't help being really unsettled by it." Dion said the song described her love for her manager and future husband René Angélil, "The first time I sang the words to 'Lolita,' I was in front of René, and I sang it to arouse him."

The single was released with "Ma chambre" as B-side. "Lolita (trop jeune pour aimer)" was very successful reaching number 1 in Quebec for two weeks. It entered the chart on October 3, 1987 and spent twenty two weeks on it.

Lolita (1997 film)

Lolita is a 1997 American-French drama film directed by Adrian Lyne and written by Stephen Schiff. It is the second screen adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's novel of the same name and stars Jeremy Irons as Humbert Humbert and Dominique Swain as Dolores "Lolita" Haze, with supporting roles by Melanie Griffith as Charlotte Haze, and Frank Langella as Clare Quilty.

The film had considerable difficulty finding an American distributor and premiered in Europe before being released in America, where it was met with much controversy. The film was picked up in the United States by Showtime, a cable network, before finally being released theatrically by The Samuel Goldwyn Company. The performances by Irons and Swain impressed audiences, but, although praised by some critics for its faithfulness to Nabokov's narrative, the film received a mixed critical reception in the United States.

Plot

In 1947, Humbert Humbert, a European professor of French literature, travels to the United States to take a teaching position in New Hampshire. He rents a room in the home of widow Charlotte Haze, largely because he sees her adolescent daughter Dolores, also called "Lo", while touring the house. Obsessed from boyhood with girls of this age (whom he calls "nymphets"), Humbert is immediately smitten with Lo and marries Charlotte just to be near her.