We Belong Together

Vorlage:Infobox Single "We Belong Together" is a pop–R&B song performed by singer Mariah Carey. The song was primarily composed and written by Carey, Jermaine Dupri, Manuel Seal and Johnta Austin through additional studio sessions after Carey had initially completed her ninth studio album The Emancipation of Mimi (2005). The popularity of "We Belong Together" is often attributed to its retro-soul appeal, and the understated, rap-inspired music and vocal approach, which received critical praise following the reviews of Glitter (2001) and Charmbracelet (2002).

The song was released in 2005 as the album's second single and it proved to be one of Carey's most critically-acclaimed and commercially-successful songs. It became one of the greatest successes of 2005 when it reached number one on thirteen U.S. Billboard charts, broke numerous Mediabase airplay records, and obtained two Grammy Awards in 2006. In addition, the song became a global success, and peaked at number-one in several countries, receiving the World Music Award for "Most-Played Single of the Year".

Writing and recording

"We Belong Together" was somewhat of an afterthought to The Emancipation of Mimi. Carey considered the album to be complete in November 2004, however, Antonio "L. A." Reid, the chairman of Island Def Jam Records, encouraged her to try an additional studio session with her friend and creative partner Jermaine Dupri. Their two days at Dupri's Atlanta studio were productive enough that Reid, impressed with the album's new material, requested Carey to return and compose some additional songs. In this studio session, Carey and Dupri collaborated with Johnta Austin and Manuel Seal, and the group produced the club-inspired dance song "It's Like That" (which would eventually replace "Shake It Off" as the album's leadoff single), and "We Belong Together", which Carey referred to as a "universal love theme" that everybody could relate and apply to their own lives.

The composers discussed the melody for "We Belong Together" at length. "We just went back and forth with concepts for the beat and melodic ideas," recalled Carey. Subsequently, they simplified the arrangement in order to accentuate Carey's vocals; Dupri had insisted that he wanted people to "feel the old essence" for which Carey had been known. Limited by time constraints, Carey performed a trial version of the song which would eventually become the final recording for The Emancipation of Mimi.

Music and structure

Vorlage:Sound sample box align right Vorlage:Multi-listen start Vorlage:Multi-listen item Vorlage:Multi-listen end Vorlage:Sample box end "We Belong Together" is a pop ballad that exhibits influences from and hip hop, R&B and soul. The song features a hip hop-style beat in a drum programmed rhythm made by a Roland TR-808-styled kick and hi-hat, which produces a heavy, yet relaxed tone. Rather than Carey's typical melismatic style, in which her vocal pitch changes mid-syllable to produce a dramatic and emotional feel, the song features a laidback, low-key feel which mimics R&B artists such as R. Kelly and Usher. Besides hip hop, it also presents the influence of 1980s retro-soul through the second-verse lyrics, which make reference to Bobby Womack's "If You Think You're Lonely Now" (1981) and The Deele's "Two Occasions" (1987, with Babyface).

"Bobby Womack's on the radio

Singing to me, 'If you think you're lonely now'".

Following the reference of Womack's song, she sings:

"So I turn the dial, tryin’ to catch a break

And then I hear Babyface

'I only think of you' and it's breaking my heart".

Datei:WBT2.jpg

Carey's octave shift towards the end of the song emphasizes the protagonist's sheer desperation for her former lover to return. Audio sample^ⓘ

The lyric "I only think of you" is from the "Two Occasions" chorus; due to its inclusion in "We Belong Together", the writers of "Two Occasions" were given co-writing credits in this song.

"We Belong Together" is composed in C major and opens with a piano, which establishes its harmonic strcuture. Rhythm and bass are introduced into the background as Carey begins to vocalise, which creates a relaxed tempo. The song follows the common verse-chorus form and is structured into three sections, each presenting the protagonist in different emotional phases. During the first section, she laments her mistakes and sings as if she has accepted that she cannot have what she wants. The song then evolves into the chorus with its thumping bassline, and depicts the protagonist pleading for her lover to return. During the second fragment, the protagonist begins to feel "all out of her element" when she attempts to distract herself by listening to the radio, but fails, and the hip hop prominence in Carey's vocal delivery begins to increase. "We Belong Together" does not have a bridge and following the second chorus, Carey transitions into the third section by rising her pitch an octave, which is meant to emphasize the protagonist's sheer frustration. The music, however, remains consistent throughout the entire piece.

Remixes and other versions

Carey recorded two remixes of "We Belong Together": the DJ Clue remix, which was produced by DJ Clue and features rappers Jadakiss and Styles P, and the Peter Rauhofer Reconstruction Mix/Atlantic Soul Vocal Mix. The remixes are fundamental to the album version, where a synthetic bassline, a piano and guitar line, and distinctive hi-hats produce a more up-tempo, hard-hitting beat. The singer continues where she left off on the original song, and once again employs the vocal rap-approach, reminiscent of the 1990s thug-love duet.

The remixes proved successful with fans; the Atlantic Soul Mix reached number one on the U.S. Hot Dance Music and Club Play chart, while the DJ Clue version climbed to a peak position of number five on the Hot Digital Songs chart. First offered through downloads in May 2005, both helped the album version amass airplay and sales.

Critical response

"We Belong Together" was well-received by critics, which few of Carey's previous singles had been. The song's critical success lead to it receiving a number of industry awards, including "Best Female R&B Vocal Performance" and "Best R&B Song" at the 2006 Grammy Awards, "Song of the Year" at the 2006 ASCAP Awards (tied with Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"), and the Vibe Award and Soul Train Award for "Best R&B Song". Carey's vocals were hailed as a "return to form", following reviews of Charmbracelet that suggested that the singer had lost her signature range and power.

In a review for Slant magazine, a critic wrote: "the wobbly diva [keeps] cool with breathy, rapid-fire verses until the final full-voiced climax that... proves that 'The Voice' has indeed returned". Both Billboard magazine and Johnny Loftus of Metrotimes shared similar opinions and lavished the song with plaudits such as "classy", "stellar" and "sublime".

The song spent the majority of its chart run at the top of the U.S. Singles Chart, and Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times proclaimed "We Belong Together" 2005's "song of the summer", one of the most melancholy songs to earn this title:

"Unlike 'Lean Back', it hasn't spawned a catchphrase; unlike 'Crazy in Love', this song doesn't beg listeners to scream along; unlike 'Hollaback Girl' and 'Pon de Replay', this song doesn't even command listeners to dance... however, Carey's tricky vocal lines give the song more propulsion than you'd expect, with tightly coiled counter-rhythms that tug against the beat."

While "We Belong Together" has proved to be popular with fans and critics alike, it also received unfavorable reviews. Helen Duong of UKMusic felt that it was simply "bearable", while another critic from Virgin.net wrote that the song was boring, clichéd and uninspired.

Music video

The music video was directed by Brett Ratner and was filmed in Beverly Hills, United States. It serves as a continuation to the video for "It's Like That". Beginning with the "It's Like That" video, Carey's character is seen at a masquerade the evening before her wedding, when one of the guests reveals himself as a former lover (played by Wentworth Miller). The video for "We Belong Together" begins the following morning, where Carey's character reminisces about her former boyfriend. She walks around a house while attempting to deal with her frustration of the past. Even when the ceremony begins and she walks down the aisle, she debates whether she belongs with her former boyfriend or her fiancé (played by Eric Roberts). Once Carey's character reaches the altar, she catches sight of her former lover who is watching the wedding from a distance, and she runs from the ceremony and into his arms.

The video attracted some controversy from the media: the Vera Wang wedding dress that Carey wore in the video was the one that she wore at her 1993 wedding to Tommy Mottola. The media also compared the Eric Roberts character to Mottola and the Wentworth Miller character to Derek Jeter. Although it was speculated that the use of the dress was a publicity stunt, Carey denied it.

The video reached number-one on several video-chart countdowns, including BET's 106 & Park, MTV's TRL (where it retired after it remained on the countdown for fifty days), MuchMusic's Countdown, and VH1's Top 20 Video Countdown. It was also LAUNCHcast's most-watched video of 2005, with 7.5 million streamed performances.

Chart performance

Between 1997 and 2004, Carey's popularity on the radio had substantially declined. However, "We Belong Together" was touted to radio in North America on March 26 2005 and it became Carey's sixteenth U.S. number-one single as a result of strong airplay, and it proved to be the greatest success of Carey's career and for her label, Island Def Jam Records. The song spent fourteen non-consecutive weeks at number one on both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks charts, and it became the first song to simultaneously occupy the number-one position on nine of the Billboard charts. "We Belong Together" also made Carey the first artist to have five singles reach the top of the Top 40 Mainstream format.

According to Mediabase and Nielsen BDS, the song also broke many airplay records in the United States. It assumed the number-one position on the Hot 100 Airplay for sixteen weeks and reached a total of 223 million audience impressions, breaking the record previously held by Mario's "Let Me Love You" (2004). It has tied with No Doubt's "Don't Speak" (1996) for the second-longest stay at number one.

"We Belong Together" proved successful in several major non-U.S. markets. It debuted at the top of the Australian ARIA chart, where it remained for two weeks. It reached a peak position of number two for three weeks on the Canadian BDS Airplay chart and in New Zealand. In the UK, where promotion was strong, the song debuted at number two behind Tupac Shakur's "Ghetto Gospel" by 392 physical and digital sales. Across Continental Europe the song was a moderate success and reached the top twenty in France and Germany. "We Belong Together" became Carey's sixth Brazilian number-one single, a position it maintained for three weeks.

Free downloads controversy

During the week that "We Belong Together" ascended to number one in the United States, iTunes had exclusively offered the DJ Clue remix of the song as a free digital download through Carey's official website. In response to letters of complaint, Billboard columnist Fred Bronson admitted in his Chart Beat Chat column that the free downloads had indeed helped the song reach number one. Although it was against Billboard's policy, the magazine's director of charts, Geoff Mayfield, said that the means of calculating chart positions did not reflect that policy at the time. If the calculations had correctly filtered out the statistics resulting from free downloads, it is likely that "We Belong Together" would have not reached number one until the following week.

Formats and track listings

These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "We Belong Together". Vorlage:Col-begin Vorlage:Col-2

• 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)

• Australian/Canadian/European CD single

1. "We Belong Together" (album version)
2. "We Belong Together" (DJ Clue remix)

Credits and personnel

• Lead and backing vocals — Mariah Carey
• Keyboards — Loris Holland
• Drums — Charles Drayton
• Engineers — Brian Garten, John Horesco IV
• Assistant engineer — Tadd Mingo
• Audio mixing — Phil Tan
• Mastered by Herb Powers

Charts

International chart positions of the first thirty weeks (click image to view data in tabular form). "We Belong Together" proved successful in several major music markets.

Chart (2005)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	1 (14 weeks)
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Airplay	1 (16 weeks)
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks	1 (14 weeks)
U.S. Billboard Rhythmic Top 40	1 (10 weeks)
U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream	1 (10 weeks)
U.S. Billboard Hot Ringtones	1 (3 weeks)
U.S. Billboard Pop 100	1 (3 weeks)
U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play 1	1 (1 week)
U.S. Billboard Hot Digital Songs	2
U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary	3
U.S. Billboard Hot Digital Songs 2	5
U.S. Billboard Adult Top 40	16
U.S. ARC Weekly Top 40	1 (10 weeks)
United World Singles Chart	1 (5 weeks)
Brazilian Singles Chart	1 (3 weeks)
Australian ARIA Singles Chart	1 (2 weeks)
Canadian BDS Airplay Chart	2
Dutch Singles Chart	2
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart	2
Singapore Airplay Chart	2
UK Singles Chart	2
Spanish Singles Chart	3
Swiss Singles Chart	4
German Singles Chart	11
French Singles Chart	12
Japanese Singles Chart	34

• (¹ Atlantic Soul/P. Rauhofer remixes)
• (² DJ Clue remix)

Notes and references

• Notes

• References

• ARC Weekly Top 40. In: Rock on the Net. Abgerufen im 1. Januar 1 
• ARIA.com. In: Australian airplay and sales charts. Abgerufen im 1. Januar 1 
• Billboard.com. In: Billboard Hot 100 chart. Abgerufen . 
• Chart Singles.net. In: Week 28 Chart Ronudup. Abgerufen im 1. Januar 1 
• IFop.com. In: French sales chart. Abgerufen im 1. Januar 1 
• Jam Canoe.ca. In: Canadian airplay and sales charts. Abgerufen im 1. Januar 1 
• Mariahdaily. In: Chartlogs. Abgerufen . 
• Mariahdaily. Abgerufen . 
• MC Archives. In: Jermaine Dupri: How he turned Mariah into a hit Machine. Abgerufen im 1. Januar 1 
• Mediatraffic. In: United World charts. Abgerufen . 
• Oricon.co.jp. In: Japanese sales chart. Abgerufen . 
• Recording Industry Association of New Zealand. In: New Zealand sales chart. Abgerufen im 1. Januar 1 

External links

• "We Belong Together" lyrics — lyrics from the album version of "We Belong Together".