Evanescence Tops Billboard Charts Thanks to Nathan Fielder and Captain Sully

The second season of Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal is already making waves in the aviation safety community, as evidenced by the fact that Fielder was given a platform to roast the FAA on CNN. And the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure straight up addressed the thesis of a TV show that once featured a prolonged discussion about the fuckability of Albert Einstein.

But The Rehearsal has also, it seems, had a pretty big influence on the music world. As you may recall, in the episode “Pilot’s Code,” Fielder attempts to relive the bulk of Captain Sully Sullenberger's life, beginning in infancy. After pouring over Sully's autobiography, Fielder floats the theory that the famed pilot was only able to pull off the “Miracle on the Hudson” with the aid of his trusty iPod and the inspiring sounds of one of his very favorite bands: Evanescence.

The cathartic track, “Bring Me to Life,” became something of a running gag; it was later performed by the winner of Fielder’s fake Canadian Idol-esque singing competition, Isabella Henao, during the season finale. And Henao covered the track again during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

The band’s singer and keyboardist, Amy Lee, was apparently a big fan of how the song was used. “It’s just blowing my mind. It’s really beautiful,” Lee told Vulture. 

While the band wasn’t familiar with The Rehearsal beforehand, they agreed to let HBO license the song purely because Fielder’s pitch sounded “really weird and fun.” Lee also noted that Fielder is “some kind of genius.” And as for his theory about Sully using the power of their song to safely land U.S. Airways Flight 1549, she’s keeping an open mind. “It’s totally possible, and it means so much to me, even if it was just in his heart,” Lee stated. 

Now, Evanescence’s willingness to go along with Fielder’s unhinged idea is clearly paying off. According to Billboard, “Bring Me to Life,” which was first released more than 20 years ago, reached “No. 1 on Billboard’s Top TV Songs chart.” In the month of May, when both of The Rehearsal’s Evanescence-heavy episodes aired, the song “earned 22.1 million official on-demand U.S. streams and sold 3,000 downloads,” plus it “returned to Billboard’s Hard Rock Digital Song Sales chart twice.” Although these reports don't specify exactly how many of these streams were from airline pilots in emergency situations. 

It’s just too bad that Fielder was never able to give the same type of boost to The Banzai Predicament, the musical group he once convinced to pioneer the “Blues Smoke Detector.”