▼ THE DOSSIER & KEY ▼
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PERSON FILE
MARSHA AMBROSIUS
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ON THE RECORD 2001
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of the UK duo Floetry — and, at 23, the voice on the demo that becomes “Butterflies.” she wrote it, sang the guide, and directed Jackson from the talkback mic.
>> THE LEDGER :: INVINCIBLE CREDITS
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07 ♪ Butterflies ◄ writer + guide vocal
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— role :: SONGWRITER / VOCALIST
— w/ Andre Harris
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one cut — but a top-five R&B record on airplay, and Floetry's calling card into the industry. session narrative lives on the track's file.
>> THE STORY :: THE DOCUMENTED ARC, ON THE WIRE
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01
PRE-MJ
“Butterflies” is hers before it's ever Jackson's. ▤She wrote it years earlier about a real crush — a boy who worked at a McDonald's in Shepherds Bush, London. It reaches Jackson through the A Touch of Jazz camp long after the fact; the “ ♪Butterflies” you know started as a personal song by a 23-year-old.
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02
2001
In the room, she's the one giving Jackson notes. ▤At the Sony Music Studios session, she sang the guide and coached Jackson's ad-libs from the talkback mic — a 23-year-old directing Michael Jackson. The full session — how he studied the demo phrase by phrase, wouldn't print a take until the writer signed off — is the “Butterflies” file, produced with ⌜Andre Harris.
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INTERCEPT ┤ N-02 — THE PHONE CALL FOR PERMISSION
> AMBROSIUS, on the scheduling: Jackson, being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, phoned to ask her permission before he stepped away from their session for it.
> the fuller session narrative — coaching, ad-libs, watching him work — sits on the “ Butterflies” file, docked to its wire, not re-run here.
REPORTED SPEECH, NOT VERBATIM · as told in later interviews · press ▤
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03
AFTER
He tells her it's a beginning — and it is. ▤Jackson told her, “If this is your beginning, imagine where you're going to go” — the line itself lives on the “Butterflies” file. Floetry went on from there to a platinum album and multiple Grammy nominations. He said a near-identical version of this to co-producer ⌜Andre Harris too — the same benediction, given to both.
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04
03.25
A new album — and a new “Butterflies.” ■
Ambrosius released Late Nights & Early Mornings (March 2025), which includes a new version of “ ♪Butterflies” itself, plus a collaboration with Alicia Keys.
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