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"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 (though as many as ten songwriters are credited) through additional studio sessions after Carey had initially completed the album. It was released in 2005 as the second single from her ninth studio album The Emancipation of Mimi (2005). The song is one of Carey's most critically and commercially successful songs, and it became her comeback and signature single following the failure of the releases from Glitter (2001) and Charmbracelet (2002).

The popularity of "We Belong Together" is often attributed to its retro-soul appeal, and the understated, rap-inspired music and singing approach. The song became the biggest success of 2005 once it reached number one on thirteen U.S. Billboard charts, broke numerous Mediabase and BDS airplay records, and won two Grammy Awards in 2006. It was also a worldwide success, where it peaked at number-one in many countries and it received the World Music Award title for "Most-Played Single of the Year".

Writing and recording

Carey had finished recording The Emancipation of Mimi by as early as November 2004, and had planned to release "Say Somethin'" as the leadoff single. However, at that point, "It's Like That", "We Belong Together" and "Shake It Off" (which would eventually become the album's most successful records) were yet to be conceived. Antonio "L. A." Reid, chairman of The Island Def Jam Music Group, encouraged Carey to complete one last studio session, but this time with friend and creative-partner Jermaine Dupri. Carey recalled:

"L.A. was like, 'You and Jermaine Dupri make magic together, why aren't you in the studio with him?' I said, 'I love Jermaine, is he free? I know he's doing a million things, Usher and this and that.' But Jermaine said, 'Come on down.' "

Carey traveled to Dupri's studio in Atlanta, where in just two days, they composed the upbeat "Get Your Number" and the ballad "Shake It Off", which became one of her favorite songs on The Emancipation of Mimi. She decided that "Shake It Off" would be released as the first single (instead of "Say Somethin'"), and she returned to New York confident that the album was complete. However, "It's Like That" and "We Belong Together" were still not composed.

Both Carey and Reid were impressed with the album's progress, so Carey contacted Dupri to plan a second studio session: "We said, OK, we love 'Shake It Off'. We don't know how we're going to top that, but let's just try." After trying for two days, Carey and Dupri, who had also teamed up with Austin and Seal, produced the club-inspired "It's Like That" (which would eventually replace "Shake it Off" as the album's leadoff single), and finally, the "universal love anthem", "We Belong Together".

The composers had a prolonged discussion while attempting to write the melody for "We Belong Together": "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. Then, limited by time constraints, Carey performed a trial version of the song, which would eventually serve as the final take.

Music and structure

Template:Sound sample box align right Template:Multi-listen start Template:Multi-listen item Template:Multi-listen end Template:Sample box end "We Belong Together" is grounded in several genres. Though uncommon for a pop ballad, the song is strongly influenced by hip hop music, where a drum programmed rhythm with a definitive 808-styled kick and hi-hat produce a heavy, but subtle and relaxed beat. The hip hop influence is further exhibited in Carey's vocal delivery, where instead of her signature melismatic style, she assumes a "less is more" approach, and often mimics the facile, verbose approach of "phrase-spitting" artists such as Usher and R. Kelly. The song is also influenced by 1980s retro-soul music: the second-verse lyrics 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 then 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".

"I only think of you" is the first line of the "Two Occasions" chorus. Carey continues singing the chorus on the Jadakiss–Styles remix of "We Belong Together". Due to the inclusion of the lyrics from the two songs, their writers were given co-writing credits on "We Belong Together".

"We Belong Together" opens with a piano, which establishes its melody and harmonic structure. As Carey vocalises, rhythm and bass are introduced into the background, which creates an understated, relaxed tempo composed in C major. The song follows the verse-chorus form, and is structured into three distinct sections, and each presents the protagonist in different emotional phases. In the first section, she laments her former mistakes ("I didn't mean it when I said/ I didn't love you so"), and she sings "as if she actually were resigned to not having what she wants". The song then evolves into the chorus with its thumping bassline, and presents the protagonist pleading for her lover to come back as she "sighs the titular phrase". During the second section, the protagonist begins to feel "all out of her element" when she attempts to distract herself by listening to the radio, but fails. As tension raises, the hip hop prominence on Carey's vocal delivery increases, and occasionally, she uses "just a few notes to deliver a nimble burst of words". The song has no bridge and after the second chorus, the singer transitions into the third section by rising an octave, which is meant to emphasize the protagonist's sheer frustration. Contrary to the understated approach, the high chorus assumes a higher level of vocal dynamics. The music, however, remains consistent throughout the entire piece.

Critical response

"We Belong Together" was warmly received by critics, and it has become one of Carey's more critically-successful singles. It has won a number of industry awards, which include "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". Most reviews hail Carey's vocals as a "return to form", following reviews of Charmbracelet that suggested that the singer had lost her signature range and power. A critic for Slant magazine wrote: "the wobbly diva 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, which was directed by Brett Ratner and filmed in Beverly Hills, United States, serves as the conclusion to the video for "It's Like That" (the two videos were filmed together). Beginning with the "It's Like That" video, Carey's character was seen at a party the night before her wedding, when a former lover (played by Wentworth Miller) reveals himself. In the video for "We Belong Together" (which begins the following morning) Carey's character reminisces about her former boyfriend as she prepares for her wedding, and the video is intercut with scenes of Carey dealing with her frustration throughout different settings. Even when the ceremony begins and she walks down the aisle, she debates whether her heart 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 triggered minor controversy as the Vera Wang wedding dress featured was the one that Carey 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 the media 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.

Remixes and other versions

Carey recorded two remixes for "We Belong Together": the DJ Clue remix, which was produced by DJ Clue, and features rapper Jadakiss and Styles P, and the Peter Rauhofer Reconstruction Mix/Atlantic Soul Vocal Mix. Both songs are radical to the album version, where a synthetic bass line, 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 rap-approach, reminiscent of the 1990s thug-love duet.

The remixes were warmly-received by 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 sales and airplay.

Chart performance

Between 1997 and 2004, Carey's popularity on the radio had substantially declined. However, following solicitation to North American radio on March 26 2005, "We Belong Together" became Carey's sixteenth U.S. number-one single due to strong airplay, and it proved to be the biggest 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 chart 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). Its length at the top has tied with No Doubt's "Don't Speak" (1996).

"We Belong Together" proved successful in several major non-U.S. markets. It debuted at the top of the Australian ARIA chart on June 27 2005 where it remained for two weeks. On the UK Singles Chart, where promotion was strong, the song debuted at number two behind Tupac Shakur and Elton John's "Ghetto Gospel" by 392 physical and digital sales. It also reached number two for three weeks on the Canadian BDS Airplay Chart and New Zealand's RIANZ Singles Chart. The song became her sixth number-one single in Brazil, where it remained for three weeks. It was a moderate success across Continental Europe and reached the top twenty in France and Germany.

Free downloads controversy

During the week when "We Belong Together" ascended to number one in the U.S., iTunes had exclusively offered the DJ Clue remix of the song as a free digital download through Carey's official site. 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".

• Australian/Canadian/European CD single

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

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

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

Notes and references

• Notes

1. ^ "VH1". Road To The Grammys: The Story Behind Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together". Retrieved January 30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
2. "PlanetOut". Mariah Carey: Free at last. Retrieved May 27. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
3. "Mariahnetwork". Retrieved February 14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
4. "MC Archives". Mariah Carey's interview on Québec TV. Retrieved January 31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
5. ^ "The New York Times". The Summer Buzz: Cicadas and Mariah Carey. Retrieved November 5. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help) Cite error: The named reference "nytimes" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
6. "Music Notes". "We Belong Together". Retrieved February 4. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
7. ^ "Metrotimes". Radio fever- Sussing out a summer jam for ’05. Retrieved November 5. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
8. Anderman, Joan. "For Carey, the Glory's Gone but the Glitter Lives On". Boston Globe. pg. D.4, September 10 2003 .
9. Walters, Barry. "Charmbracelet". Rolling Stone. New York: pg. 93, December 12 2002, iss. 911.
10. "Slant Magazine". 2005: Year in Rewind. Retrieved January 30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
11. "Billboard.com". Billboard Singles Review — "We Belong Together". Retrieved January 30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
12. "UKmusic". Reviews: Hip Hop and RnB- Mariah Carey We Belong Together. Retrieved November 10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
13. "Virgin.net". Mariah Carey — We Belong Together. Retrieved November 10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
14. "Foxnews.com". Mariah Carey Dresses for Her Ex. Retrieved January 30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
15. "Latina.com". Mariah Carey still having fun with ex-hubby?. Retrieved January 30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
16. Yahoo! Music. "Mariah Carey will 'Shake It Off', exclusively for Yahoo! Music; North American Online Premiere kicks off 8pm (PDT), July 27th". Top40-charts.com. July 27 2005. Retrieved February 12 2005.
17. "Explodingplastic". Mariah Carey - We Belong Together" (Atlantic Soul Mix - Craig C.). Retrieved May 11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
18. Gardner, Elysa. Mariah Carey, 'standing again'. USA Today. November 28, 2002. Retrieved August 19, 2005.
19. "About.com". New York Girl Makes Good With The Emancipation of Mimi. Retrieved February 17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
20. "MC Archives". We Belong Together sets another record at Billboard. Retrieved February 12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
21. "Mariah Daily news archives". Carey "shakes" her way to the top. Retrieved May 28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
22. "USA Today". Carey sets a record. Retrieved February 14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
23. "MC Archives". The Mariah aftermath. Retrieved February 1. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

• References

• "ARC Weekly Top 40". Rock on the Net. Retrieved February 4. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "ARIA.com". Australian airplay and sales charts. Retrieved March 5. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Billboard.com". Billboard Hot 100 chart. Retrieved January 31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Chart Singles.net". Week 28 Chart Ronudup. Retrieved March 5. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "IFop.com". French sales chart. Retrieved March 5. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Jam Canoe.ca". Canadian airplay and sales charts. Retrieved March 5. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Mariahdaily". Chartlogs. Retrieved January 31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Mariahdaily". Retrieved February 14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "MC Archives". Jermaine Dupri: How he turned Mariah into a hit Machine. Retrieved February 1. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Mediatraffic". United World charts. Retrieved January 31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Oricon.co.jp". Japanese sales chart. Retrieved March 16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Recording Industry Association of New Zealand". New Zealand sales chart. Retrieved March 8. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

External links

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

• 2005 singles
• Australian number one singles
• Ballads
• Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles
• Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play number-one singles
• Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks number-one singles
• Billboard Pop 100 number-one singles
• Mariah Carey singles