performed ‘International Velvet’ at the opening ceremony

The title track of the album, “International Velvet”, featuring the line “Every day when I wake up I thank the Lord I’m Welsh” and Welsh language verses, received additional attention from the media. Matthews explained in an interview that she wanted to turn to invert the idea of being Welsh from an apparent negative into a positive, “We’re not seen to be very good at anything. Our football team is shit. The song is saying, despite all these things, I still wake up in the morning and thank the Lord that I’m Welsh. Hopefully, by now people realise that Wales is brimmed full of talent and we’re great people with massive brains.” In front of 70,000 spectators, Catatonia performed “International Velvet” at the opening ceremony of the 1999 Rugby World Cup in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. The album became the first to be released for Catatonia in the United States, but failed to chart. The Washington Post called it “overlooked”.