"Butterfly" is a song written and produced by American singer Mariah Carey and Walter Afanasieff for Carey's seventh album, Butterfly (1997). It is a ballad combining elements of pop and gospel, but 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 "Butterfly" with Afanasieff. On the song's lyrics, Carey comments "It was '97 and I was leaving my marriage [to Tommy Mottola] which encompassed my life. I was writing the song 'Butterfly' wishing that that's what he would say to me."
It was released as the album's second single in 1997 (see 1997 in music). It did not appear on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart because it was not issued as a commercial single in the United States; Billboard magazine rules at the time stipulated that a commercial.
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