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We Belong Together

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"We Belong Together" is a pop–R&B song co-written and co-produced by American pop and R&B singer Mariah Carey for her ninth album The Emancipation of Mimi (2005). It was released as the second single from the album in 2005 (see 2005 in music), and was both a critical and commercial success. The song is an R&B ballad and has been noted for its quiet storm ambience, laid back piano-driven rhythm and Carey's subdued vocals. Its protagonist declares herself "stupid" and "foolish" for ending a relationship on the wrong terms, and she wants her former lover to return as she feels that they "belong together". The song has now become Carey's signature song, and having broken numerous chart and airplay records on the U.S. Billboard charts, it is also considered her comeback single following the commercial failure of the singles from Glitter (2001) and Charmbracelet (2002).[1] It was also a success outside of the U.S.; apart from peaking at number one in countries including Australia and France, it was named the "song of the year" at the 2005 World Music Awards ceremony.

"We Belong Together"
Song

Composition and style

Lyrics

The song was primarily written by Carey, Jermaine Dupri, Manuel Seal, and Johnta Austin, and produced by Carey, Dupri, and Seal. It was among the last records written for The Emancipation of Mimi; after Dupri and Carey had finished recording the album, L.A. Reid, Island Def Jam's boss, felt that something was still missing, so he encouraged them to write more songs. Following considerable experimentation, "It's Like That" (the album's first single) and "We Belong Together" were written.

When asked about the story behind the song, Carey responded: "Basically, it's about someone you used to be with and you're not with them anymore for whatever reason, but you know in your heart that is the right person for you".[2] The lyrics chronicle a relationship that had ended on the wrong terms, with Carey accepting the blame. She sings, "I didn't mean it when I said/ I didn't love you so.../ I was stupid, I was foolish/ I was lying to myself". She wants her ex-lover to come back, as she lost a part of herself when he left, and no one can take his place. Carey believes that the song's theme and the universality of the lyrics contributed to its commercial appeal.

Carey and Dupri came up with the idea of drawing influence from other hits. In the middle phase of "We Belong Together", Carey mentions Bobby Womack's "If You Think You're Lonely Now" (1981):

"I can't sleep at night
When you are on my mind
Bobby Womack's on the radio
Singing to me, 'If you think you're lonely now'"

Immediately after that, she changes radio stations and refers to Babyface's 1987 song recorded by The Deele, "Two Occasions":

"And then I hear Babyface
'I only think of you',"

The latter line is the first line of the chorus of "Two Occasions". The reference is clearer on the Jadakiss–Styles remix, where she continues singing the rest of the chorus of the earlier song. Because of the interpolation of these songs, their writers were given co-writing credit on "We Belong Together".

Structure and music

As Carey had wanted her vocals to be the song's main force, the musical backing was sparse and unadorned, being led by a beat and simple piano chords. The song begins with a piano playing part of the chorus in C major.[3] As Carey vocalizes, rhythm and bass are added into the background, creating an understated, relaxed tempo[4] in a 4/4 time signature; a quarter note constitutes each beat.[5] The song contains a mixture of different styles and sounds. While it is primarily an R&B ballad featuring a blend of quiet storm and soul ambience,[6] it also contains sensibilities of hip hop music, most evident in Carey's fast-paced singing.

File:WBT2.jpg
During the third phase of "We Belong Together", Carey becomes desperate for her former lover to return to her; she believes that they "belong together".

The song also marks a change in Carey's vocal style. A contrast to her favored melismatic style, Carey employed a state of vocal restraint, phrases several words per note, and sometimes sings counter to the rhythm. "People have to learn the art of subtlety," she said. "We realized that once we did it, it was an inspiration in terms of how I was singing it. It was obvious that if it was touching us, it was going reach other people too."[7] There are three phases in the song, each containing a different style of singing. In the first, Carey sings sadly, regretting the loss of her lover. In the next, she becomes increasingly agitated, and she tries to distract herself by listening to the radio. The hip hop influence on her vocal delivery is more prominent, and she "uses just a few notes to deliver a nimble burst of words." After failing to distract herself, she ends up furiously pleading for him to come back. In this third phase, Carey's voice raises an octave, expressing her sheer frustration and desperation. Part of the song's success has been in how well these three sections capture the range of human emotions in such a situation.

Upon Jermaine Dupri's insistence, Carey also employed the full-voiced style that defined her singing during the 1990s, rather than the soft and breathy style that she had often been criticised for. Dupri explained, "When I went into the studio with Mariah my first thing to do was to change the format of how she'd been singing. She'd gotten into this whisper mode where everything was soft. I told her, 'that's not gonna work. You gotta SING these songs.' When she did that on "We Belong Together" it became such a massive record."[8]

Critical response

"We Belong Together" received generally positive reviews, and many critics believed that the song marked the true "return of the voice". A critic for Slant magazine wrote: "the wobbly diva [keeps] cool with breathy, rapid-fire verses until the final full-voiced climax that, though scratchy, proves that The Voice has indeed returned...Mariah's finally got her own anthem". Apart from being influenced by Bobby Womack's "If You Think You're Lonely Now" and Babyface's "Two Occasions", Slant wrote that "We Belong Together" is subtly reminiscent of Janet Jackson's "Come Back to Me" (1990), as both had similar themes and simple musical backings. In its countdown of 2005's best songs, the magazine placed "We Belong Together" at number two.[9] Billboard also noted Carey's voice, hailing the song as a "return-to-form R&B groove ballad...with her vocals taking center stage".[10] In a New York Times article, Kelefa Sanneh proclaimed "We Belong Together" 2005's "song of the summer", and offered the opinion that Carey's different and challenging singing style here may have contributed to its popularity[11], while Johnny Loftus of Metrotimes opined that the song was "straightforward, heartfelt and classy...There's a classic sensibility to the lyrics and sound of "We Belong Together" that makes for perfect... pop/R&B song writing".[12]

While the song has proved to be popular with fans and critics alike, it also received some unfavorable reviews. Helen Duong of UkMusic felt that it was "bearable,... but if you weren't a fan of Mariah's work before, you're not going to start now".[13] Similarly, a reviewer from Virgin.net wrote that the lyrics were made up of clichés, and "no matter how impeccable her voice [is], it cannot compensate for the sheer lack of inspiration behind this 'music'".[14]

Music video and performances

 
A distraught Carey turns to see her former boyfriend watching the wedding from a distance.

The music video for "We Belong Together" was directed by Brett Ratner and closely follows the theme and storyline of the song. It serves as the sequel and conclusion to the video for "It's Like That" (the two music videos were filmed simultaneously). In the "It's Like That" video, Carey's character was seen at a party the night before her wedding, when a guest (played by Wentworth Miller) revealed himself as a former boyfriend of Carey's. The "We Belong Together" video begins the following morning where Carey prepares for the wedding. During the ceremony, she walks down the aisle towards her smiling husband-to-be (played by Eric Roberts). As she reaches the altar, Carey catches sight of her former boyfriend watching the wedding from a distance. It is then when she decides that she had her former boyfriend "belong together". She runs away from her heartbroken husband-to-be and leaves the ceremony alongside her former boyfriend.

File:Webelongtogether1.jpg
After deciding that "they belong Together", Carey runs away with her fromer boyfriend.

The video triggered much publicity as the Vera Wang wedding dress is the one Carey wore at her 1993 wedding to Tommy Mottola, whom she later divorced.[15] The media also compared the Eric Roberts character to Mottola and the Wentworth Miller character to Derek Jeter (an ex-boyfriend of Carey's). While it is speculated that Carey used the dress as a publicity stunt to help promote her new album, she insists that the video treatment called for a wedding dress, and she simply happened to possess one.[16]

The music video was successful on several music-video countdowns such as VH1's Top 20 Video Countdown, BET's 106 & Park, MuchMusic's Countdown (where it spent two weeks at number one) and MTV's TRL, where it retired at number one. The video was also Launch's most watched video of 2005, with 7.5 million streamed performances.

Carey's performance of "We Belong Together" on The View helped expose the song to a daytime audience. It was after the broadcast that the song began being played on daytime-oriented Adult Contemporary radio station formats, leading to its subsequent record-breaking impressions statistics. After performing the song at Live 8 in the UK, Carey was criticized for touting "We Belong Together" as her new song to the audience in attendance; many thought this was inappropriate for such a concert. Carey also preformed a remix of the song at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards.

Chart performance

"We Belong Together" was released to radio on March 26 2005. Before 2005 and following 1999, Carey was said to have lost her "radio magic" as her positions on the airplay charts slowly declined.[17] However, "We Belong Together" became Carey's sixteenth number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 due to strong airplay, and it has proved to be the biggest hit for both Carey and her record label Island Def Jam.

The song had major cross-over success, charting on a record thirteen different Billboard charts. It also became the first song to occupy the number-one position on the Hot 100 Airplay, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, the Pop 100, Pop 100 Airplay, Top 40 Mainstream, Rhythmic Top 40, and the Adult R&B Billboard Radio Monitor chart.

On the Hot 100 chart, it debuted at number eighty-one and ascended to number one in its eighth week. It spent a total of fourteen non-consecutive weeks at the top, tying the record with Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" (1992), Boyz II Men's "I'll Make Love to You" (1994), Los del Río's "Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)" (1996), and Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997" / "Something About the Way You Look Tonight" (1997) for the song with the most weeks spent at number one for a solo artist. The song's run at number one was briefly interrupted by Carrie Underwood's "Inside Your Heaven" when it debuted at number-one due to strong sales, but "We Belong Together" returned to number one the following week. When "Shake It Off", the albums' third single, reached number two when "We Belong Together" was at number one, it marked the first time a female lead artist had occupied the top two positions on the Hot 100. The song's run at number one was ended by Kanye West's "Gold Digger". On the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks singles chart, the song remained at number one for fourteen weeks, tying the record of Deborah Cox's "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here" as the longest running number-one on the chart.

The single has broken numerous airplay records according to both Mediabase and Nielsen BDS. On the Hot 100 Airplay chart, the song remained at number one for sixteen weeks, tying the record with No Doubt's "Don't Speak" (1995) for second place (only behind the Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris" (1998), eighteen weeks). "We Belong Together" reached 192.3 million audience impressions as counted by Nielsen BDS, breaking the previous airplay record held by Mario's "Let Me Love You". On the week it broke the BDS record, it also broke the record for the largest gap between a number-one song and a number-two song on the Hot 100 Airplay chart, having over sixty million impressions more than its nearest competitor, Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl". Over the following weeks, "We Belong Together" continually broke its own record (reaching 223 million impressions four weeks later), becoming the first song to break the 200 million one-week BDS audience barrier. The song also repeatedly broke its own record for the largest gap between a number-one song and a number-two song on the Hot 100 Airplay, its highest gap being a difference of nearly 119 million impressions. The song was the most played single of the year, appearing at number-one on the year-end Hot 100 Airplay charts.

The song was a success in several major non-U.S. markets. It debuted at number one on Australia's ARIA Singles Chart on June 27, becoming Carey's second single after "Fantasy" (1995) to top the chart. It spent two weeks at number one. In the UK the song debuted at number two behind Tupac Shakur and Elton John's "Ghetto Gospel". It also reached number two for four weeks on the Canadian BDS Airplay Charts, and the United World Charts for a total of five consecutive weeks.

Free downloads controversy

During the last week of May 2005, the DJ Clue remix of the song, being sold exclusively through iTunes, was offered as a free download through Carey's official website. Apparently, these free downloads affected the Hot 100 chart placings the week that "We Belong Together" ascended to number one. The situation prompted letters to be written to Billboard columnist Fred Bronson, asking if it was possible that free downloads were accidentally counted while compiling that week's Hot 100 chart. Originally, Bronson stated that the downloads did not help the song reach its position, but subsequently replied in his "Chart Beat Chat" column on June 3 2005 that Billboard had indeed made a mistake. According to Billboard's director of charts, Geoff Mayfield, their filters were not in place at the time to enforce their policy about free downloads not counting towards the charts. Had the correct filters been in place, "We Belong Together" would probably not have climbed to number one until the following week.[18]

With the situation explained, Carey was accused of using manipulative chart tricks that people believed she had employed when Virgin sold Carey's "Loverboy" (2001) single for an extremely low price. In regard to this, Bronson also stated that all Carey's previous singles had reached number one legitimately and fairly. Though other songs such as Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl", Will Smith's "Switch", and Gorillaz' "Feel Good Inc." had also featured free downloads to succeed on the charts, "We Belong Together" is the single that enforced the new digital filters in Billboard's charts: free downloads no longer count.

Awards

For further information, see List of Mariah Carey Awards for 2005.

To date, the digital download of "We Belong Together" (counting sales of the original version and the remix) has sold over 698,000 copies. As the song has sold more than 600,000 downloads, it has been certified triple platinum by the RIAA.

"We Belong Together" proved to be a success in the adolescent market, performing well on Total Request Live (the video was her second to be retired on the show following "Heartbreaker") and winning the "Choice Music Love Song" at the 2005 Teen Choice Awards. It also earned two nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards: one for Best Female Video and one for Best R&B Video. However, it failed to win either, losing Best Female Video to Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" and Best R&B Video to Alicia Keys' "Karma". At the 2005 World Music Awards, "We Belong Together" won the "World's most-played single" award, representing its airplay. It was eventually named the Hot 100 Song of the Year at the 2005 Billboard Music Awards, the first time Carey achieved this feat. A few weeks later, the song won the Song of the Year awards on both Pop and Urban/Rhythmic formats at the 2005 Radio Music Awards. It has been nominated for four Grammy Awards, in the categories of "Song of the Year", "Record of the Year", "Best Female R&B Vocal Performance", and "Best R&B Song".

Charts

Chart (2005) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 1 (14 weeks)
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Airplay 1 (16 weeks)
U.S. Billboard Pop 100 1 (3 weeks)
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks 1 (14 weeks)
U.S. Billboard Hot Digital Songs 2
U.S. Billboard Hot Digital Tracks 2
U.S. Billboard Hot Digital Tracks1 5
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play2 1 (1 week)
U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream 1 (10 weeks)
U.S. Billboard Rhythmic Top 40 1 (10 weeks)
U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary 3
U.S. Billboard Adult Top 40 16
U.S. Billboard Adult R&B 1 (8 weeks)
U.S. ARC Weekly Top 40 1 (10 weeks)
Australian ARIA Singles Chart 1 (2 weeks)
Brazilian Singles Chart 1 (1 week)
French Singles Chart 1 (1 week)
Canadian Airplay Chart 2
Dutch Singles Chart 2
UK Singles Chart 2
Spanish Singles Chart 3
Irish Singles Chart 4
Polish Singles Chart 4
Swiss Singles Chart 4
German Singles Chart 11
Tokio Hot 100 34
  • 1 ("Remix feat. DJ Clue, Jadakiss, & Styles P")
  • 2 ("P. Rauhofer/Atlantic Soul mixes")

Formats and track listings

These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "We Belong Together".

  • UK CD single/European CD single
  1. "We Belong Together" (album version)
  2. "We Belong Together" (remix) featuring Jadakiss And Styles P.
  • UK CD maxi single
  1. "We Belong Together" (album version)
  2. "We Belong Together" (Reconstruction radio mix)
  3. "We Belong Together" (Reconstruction club mix)
  4. "We Belong Together" (Atlantic Soul vocal)
  5. "We Belong Together" (Atlantic Soul instrumental)
  • European CD maxi single
  1. "We Belong Together" (album version)
  2. "We Belong Together" (Reconstruction radio mix)
  3. "It's Like That" (remix) featuring Fat Joe
  4. "We Belong Together" (music video — enhanced CD)

Credits and personnel

  • Lead vocals – Mariah Carey
  • Background vocals – Mariah Carey
  • Engineers – Brian Garten, John Horesco IV
  • Assistant engineer – Tadd Mingo
  • Mixed by Phil Tan
  • Mastered by Herb Powers

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "411hype". Mariah Carey - Emancipation of MiMi. February 3. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  2. ^ "MC Archives". The Emincipation of Mariah. February 1. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  3. ^ "Music Notes". "We Belong Together". February 4. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  4. ^ "Metrotimes". Radio fever- Sussing out a summer jam for ’05. November 5. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  5. ^ "Music Notes". "We Belong Together". February 4. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  6. ^ "Yahoomusic". "We Belong Together". February 3. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  7. ^ "VH1". Road To The Grammys: The Story Behind Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together". January 30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  8. ^ "MC Archive". Jermaine Dupri: How he turned Mariah into a hit Machine. February 1. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  9. ^ "Slant Magazine". 2005: Year in Rewind. January 30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  10. ^ "Billboard.com". Billboard Singles Review - "We Belong Together". January 30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  11. ^ "New York Times". The Summer Buzz: Cicadas and Mariah Carey. November 5. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  12. ^ OP Cit, Metrotimes, Sussing out a summer jam for ’05. Retrieved, November 5, 2005
  13. ^ "UKmusic". Reviews: Hip Hop and RnB- Mariah Carey We Belong Together. November 10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  14. ^ "Virgin.net". Mariah Carey - We Belong Together. November 10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  15. ^ "foxnews.com". Mariah Carey Dresses for Her Ex. January 30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  16. ^ "Latina.com". mariah carey still having fun with ex-hubby?. January 30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  17. ^ Gardner, Elysa. Mariah Carey, 'standing again'. USA Today. November 28, 2002. Retrieved August 19, 2005.
  18. ^ "MC archives". The Mariah aftermath. February 1. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)

References

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