Songfacts®:

• This song is about a dying relationship. It was produced by R&B/pop production duo The Underdogs. They are best known for producing the soundtrack for the musical Dreamgirls.
• "No Air" is a duet with Sparks' label mate Chris Brown. They originally met at the 2007 BET Awards when the former American Idol winner suggested that they work together. Sparks admitted to Live Daily that she recorded her vocal separately to Brown: "Unfortunately I didn't actually get to work with him, which was really sad. I was supposed to be there. We had set the whole thing up. But there was a mix-up and I was at another studio recording a different song. And he was across town recording 'No Air,' so it was really sad. But I got to see him at the American Music Awards and that was the first time I saw him since he laid his vocal down. I got to tell him thank you and all that good stuff. He's a really cool kid. It's very nice. He's very sweet. He talked to my parents and my brother and made everybody feel really welcome."
• This was the first ever single by an American Idol winner to reach the Top 3 of the UK singles chart. The previous best placing had been Sparks' reality show contemporary Kelly Clarkson, who peaked at #5 with "Since U Been Gone."
• In the UK chart for the week ending July 5, 2008 Chris Brown was featured on two songs in the UK Top 5, this tune and "Forever." It was the first time that an artist had achieved this feat since September 2003, when Sean Paul was in the Top 5, both as a featured artist on Blue Cantrell's "Breathe" and on his own with "Like Glue."
• This spent seven weeks at #1 on the New Zealand singles chart, and was the best selling song of 2008 in that country. It also topped the charts in Australia and Israel.
• An up-and-coming country singer named Rissi Palmer covered this song in 2008, and a video was made for her rendition. This marked a turning point for Palmer, who wanted to focus on her own songs and felt she was being coerced by her record company to fit a certain image. She performed at the White House that year, but left the industry soon after. When she returned to music with her second album in 2013, it was with a focus on family-oriented songs.