At the age of 60, long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad decided to take on a seemingly impossible challenge: swimming through the treacherous waters from Cuba to Florida. That incredible story of perseverance and strength is documented in NYAD, a new film directed by Academy Award–winning filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, and starring Annette Bening, Jodie Foster, and Rhys Ifans. 

If you’re swimming more than 100 miles, you’re going to need something to keep yourself locked in, and for Nyad, singing songs helps her maintain focus while propelling through the sea. That’s right, in the midst of danger via violent storms, strong currents, hypothermia, dehydration, box jellyfish, sharks, and hallucinations, Nyad (Bening) uses music to keep pushing onward.

So, it only makes sense that NYAD delivers a soundtrack filled with spectacular tunes, including the original song “Find a Way,” performed by singer Jade Bird. With lyrics penned by singer-songwriter Linda Perry, former lead singer and songwriter of 4 Non Blondes, the track embodies the resilience and willpower Nyad showed while chasing her dreams.

For Bird, it was easy to connect with the lyrics. “I was really inspired. In society, we’re convinced that it’s got to happen in your 20s, the peak of your life, or your peak achievement, has to happen then,” she tells Tudum, adding, “As a young woman in her 20s, [the movie is] really inspiring and goes against the grain of what we’re told we can achieve, especially as a woman.”

Bird, who recalls facing plenty of challenges on her own journey as an artist, says she finds Nyad’s story of perseverance motivational, and is confident that it will resonate with anyone else trying to find their way. “The only way you take yourself out of the race is by quitting. As long as you keep in motion toward what you want and you hold that belief and stay on the path of whatever you’re passionate about, you’ll get to where you want to be.” 

Bird speaks just as highly of “Find a Way” writer Perry. “I was trying to support her vision and her art as well as my own,” she says. “It was an amazing sort of mentorship moment. Sometimes you’re the teacher and sometimes you’re the student, and if I’m going to be the student to anyone, it’s Linda Perry.”

As for what she hopes a track like this — with its encouraging lyrics and uplifting tone — will mean to those who hear it, Bird points to the current moment. “In this world right now, there’s a lot of doom and nobody is really telling you that there’s a way out of it, especially for young people. Linda is the master of writing something that has a hopefulness and an optimism to it. It’s a little bit of light in the darkness. I think as artists, that’s all we can offer in these times.”

NYAD is now streaming on Netflix.