Release Date: April 17, 2011
Format: CD Single, Digital Download
Recorded: Capitol Studios, Los Angeles, California
Genre: RnB, Soul, Blues
Length: 5:43
Label: Junction Records!
Written By: Alicia Lena
Producers: Ryan Ross Hernandez, Alicia Lena

Song Meaning
“The Butterfly Effect is a song in two parts. It’s about that theory that something so insignificant can have a major impact on something. A small change at one place in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere, it’s a fascinating theory to me. I spoke to this girl who had a story which inspired me to write a similar kind of story and put it in a song.
Her story goes like this, A girl called Jessica woke up and got ready to head off to work, it was just a normal day and she was on her way to get the train to work when she saw a huge traffic jam. She’d always go the same way to work each day for 15 years and for some reason on this day she decided to take the longer route because she didn’t want to be stuck in a traffic jam on a bus for so long and that decision became hugely important. She took the longer route, which led to her missing her train, she had never missed the 7:45 train to work in 15 years and this one time she missed it was the time when the train was in a horrific accident, there was something wrong with the track and the train overturned, sadly killing several people on it. That one decision to take the longer route essentially saved her life and I find that so scary but also so mind blowing that one decision can result in life or death.”
- Alicia Lena

Song Description
The Butterfly is a soulful melodic track with focus mainly on Alicia Lena’s vocals, deciding to just make use of her voice and her piano as she seems to prefer, it’s a throwback to classic motown music which Alicia has stated is where her heart is at when it comes to making music. It’s soft, soulful and emotional, telling a story of how one seemingly innocuous decision changed a life.
It’s music accompanying the song and the piano playing is very classically influenced, even sampling Beethoven’s Ode To Joy towards the end of the song to add intrigue and mystique to song. Not an obvious choice as a single from someone who is generally considered a popstar, it’s beauty is there in a similar way to the Eva Cassidy cover of Fields Of Gold or even Tears In Heaven by Eric Clapton.
Clearly Ryan Ross Hernandez’ presence in the studio is more evident on this track than any other.

Music Video


A very simplistic music video which continually switches between Alicia Keys playing piano in a Manhattan apartment and also follow the story of the young girl who‘s decision to take a different route to work results in the young woman narrowly avoiding near-death. As the young woman makes her way to work she makes a decision to take a longer route to the train station and missed her regular train, the video cuts to the young woman walking towards her place of work as she sees a news bulletin in Times Square about the train that she missed earlier had overturned and resulted in some people being killed.
As the song progresses the focus switches to Alicia Lena as she continue’s to perform the song in the Manhattan apartment and the final shot of the video is of Alicia blowing a kiss into the camera.