Regina Spektor: Fidelity Meaning

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Song Released: 2006

Covered By: Jasmine Thompson

Fidelity Lyrics

I never loved nobody fully
Always one foot on the ground
And by protecting my heart truly
I got lost in the sounds
I hear in my mind
All of these voices
I hear in my mind all these words
I hear in my mind all this music

And it breaks my...

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1TOP RATED

#1 top rated interpretation:
Charley
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Oct 24th 2009 !⃝
Interpreting first the Song:
The song opens in a reflective tone expressing regret for never committing fully to love by keeping “one foot on the ground”, failing to jump in with both feet so to speak. But by “protecting my heart truly” she has ended up “breaks my heart” as her mind is assailed by voices, words, and music of memory. She tries to forget by “Supposing we never met” but this bring precisely to mind what she is trying to banish: falling in love, your soft sweet kisses, seeing you. Love songs are her solace to break her fall. Though her friend try to solace her with “tha of course it gonna get bet'er, bet'er..” it is her final “better, better, better” that overwhelm her with feelings that she sighs and slides back to the start “I never loved anybody fully...” This time the tone has become wistful and the cycle of regret starts again in a forlorn register. A simple song of grief over lost love beautifully rendered.

Now the Video:
The Video opens with her alone in a room where everything is black and white, this is symbolic of her lonely colorless world. As she sings “Suppose I never met you...” she goes through the memories and she manages to banish him but for his disembodied clothes. Then as she repeat the opening (I never loved nobody fully...) her voice is wistful and her hair is now disarrayed, symbolic of her struggle with the feelings. We see her stand before his still bodiless clothes which kneel as though proposing to her. She pulls the heart-pendant and after painful reflection let it fall and it breaks. On it's shattering intense colors are released into her black and white world of memories. Her willingness to break her heart-pendant indicate she can accept love, she now has lipstick indicating she is prepared to meet him, and he rises from his kneeling position. Still in her memory (the black and white room - Diwali is not usually celebrated indoors) but she seems to have accepted her loss as her voice mellows and we see them revel in one another with smiles. She is remembering the color and laughter love brought to her life. The feeling of being lost banished as they hold hands. The song has become one of recovery through memory.

On a final note :-)
Some lovely touches in this song: like the glottal stop (try saying: uh-oh) used in the repetition of “fall” and “heart”, (she quite likes the glottal stop making use of cockney “Bet'er”), also the pizzicato throughout.
2TOP RATED

#2 top rated interpretation:
anonymous
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Jun 5th 2012 !⃝
"Fidelity" is a celebration of finally finding someone she unconditionally, truly and faithfully loves that surpasses all other prior relationships that she felt she was not wholly committed to because of her lack in confidence in the relationships - hence the words "always one foot on the ground." The love and faithfulness from, and for, this new person has filled her heart so much with love that her heart is overflowing, thus bursting into a cloud of "colorfulness."
anonymous
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Jun 5th 2019 !⃝
I feel she never really loved anyone fully.. and she kept her distance but in the end , she falls in love fully and the man loves her completely too hence the colors! Beautiful really.
anonymous
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Apr 9th 2012 !⃝
I think since she's never loved anybody fully, her lover didn't feel loved, hence the title "Fidelity". And it breaks her heart. She's imagining the voices of her lover and the other person. The music, maybe romantic music at the restaurant they're eating at. Regina regrets always leaving one foot on the ground.
anonymous
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Mar 28th 2012 !⃝
The singer is so in love with a guy. She never care what people say/think about him. She just want him to be happy all the time and throw all the sorrowness he kept inside.

So, she's telling him have fun and make his life worth it. She will always be beside him as a lover, friend and everthing that he wanted her to be. He'll always be her baby. Enjoy and feel the life and come back again to her whenever he needs her company.
anonymous
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Mar 10th 2012 !⃝
To me, this song is reflective from a person that has now opened her heart to true love.
Thinking back at how protective and closed off she used to be, breaks her heart for all of the possible opportunities she could have had.
The second verse is really the same of about how it's better to open your heart and it's sad to think about how much is lost by not.
anonymous
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Mar 5th 2012 !⃝
Charley, that was a really excellent in depth analysis of both the song and video... then finally learning what a glottal stop was at the end of your post was pure candy. =]

*
anonymous
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Jan 18th 2012 !⃝
I don't think that she is refering to fidelity as in staying faithful in a relationship I think she is singing about fidelity to herself. She has fear of commitment and has never "loved anybody fully". This song could be either by way of breaking up with someone because she can't commit or else admitting she has never commited to anyone before and wants to open up to him. She says "I hear in my mind all of these voices" which could mean part of herself always holds her back when she wants to commit. There are numerous other examples of her expressing her inability to commit and her pain because of this.
anonymous
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Feb 3rd 2011 !⃝
I think it's about someone who wants to be happy and inlove but shes very careful and protective of her heart, and so doesn't let go and give as much love as she could. But she did and she proved herself right because she's now upset. He was unfaithful to her.
sacatetuco3_.
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Sep 30th 2009 !⃝
After watching this video several times, (and this is an interpretation of the video) I concluded that she is progressively losing her sanity and at the end she lose it completely, when he appears after she drops the pendant her lipstick and hair are a mess, like a person affected mentally. She is finally on the insanity side... But finally happy. Kinda sad.
anonymous
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Jul 31st 2009 !⃝
"I never loved nobody fully/Always one foot on the ground."

To me, the song seems like it's about finding one person who you care about so much that it throws you off- balance, and the kind of fear that goes with that, but a kind of excitement, too, and just learning to live with it and be okay with it.
anonymous
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Jul 1st 2008 !⃝
Fidelity means faithful. So I think Regina has always been faithful to this one person, but this one person betrayed her and that's why she's feeling so bad. But her friends (in the song) tell her it will get better.
im_right_on_this_one
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Jun 6th 2007 !⃝
I believe this song is about her finding a new person in her life and she can't let go of him.

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